Comparing meeting access: internal and external participants

Employees and external guests may sign in differently, enter directly, request to join or wait for admission. Teams, Google Meet and Zoom apply different account, invitation and host-control rules.

Define the entry rule

Name the organiser, internal employees, invited external participants and anyone who might receive a forwarded invitation. Decide who can enter directly, who must wait or request entry, and who can admit people; assign someone to monitor a Teams lobby while the organiser presents.

In Teams, 'People who were invited' lets recipients of forwarded invitations enter directly, but people without a Teams account do not bypass the lobby. Turn off 'Allow Forwarding' in the invitation if you do not want recipients to forward it, and check the lobby bypass choice before sending.

Compare the joining routes

Microsoft Teams: A person without a Teams account can open the invitation link in Edge or Chrome on a desktop and join in the browser without installing the app. Admin settings may require email verification: the person enters an email address, then uses a one-time passcode or signs in with a Microsoft account.

Organisers can change lobby settings before or during a meeting, unless a template or sensitivity label prevents some changes. The choices are 'Only organisers and co-organisers', 'People who were invited', 'People in my org', 'People in my org and guests', 'People in my org, trusted orgs, and guests', and 'Everyone'.

'People in my org' lets people within the organisation enter directly; everyone else waits in the lobby. 'People in my org and guests' also lets people with guest access enter directly, while other external participants wait.

'People in my org, trusted orgs, and guests' lets people in the organisation, connected organisations and guests bypass the lobby; others wait. 'People who were invited' includes forwarded invitations, but people without a Teams account still wait.

'Everyone' lets anyone with the meeting link enter directly. Teams guest access means a person has guest access; it is distinct from joining without a Teams account.

Organisers, co-organisers and presenters are notified when people enter the lobby and can admit or deny them. People joining with a Microsoft account are labelled 'External'; those joining with an email passcode are labelled 'Email verified', and those joining without email verification are labelled 'Unverified'.

Google Meet: In open-link meetings, an external participant without a Google Account is identified only by the display name they enter; Meet does not enforce email verification unless they join with a Google Account. Hosts can require sign-in for all participants by choosing 'Only people invited' or 'Only users in your organisation' in Meet host controls or the Google Admin Console.

Hosts can set 'Meeting access type' to 'Trusted' or 'Restricted'. In Calendar, this is under 'Video call options' > 'Host controls' > 'Meeting access type'; during a meeting, open 'Host controls' and select 'Meeting access type'.

For either access type, the host can uncheck 'Anyone with the meeting link can ask to join'. This controls whether people with the link can request to join.

Where 'Quick access' is available, turning it on lets people in the host’s domain and participants joining by phone enter without requesting. When it is off, all users, including the organiser and phone participants, must request entry unless they are on the calendar invitation list.

With 'Quick access' off, participants cannot join until the organiser has joined; they see 'The meeting will start as soon as the host has joined.' A participant invited from within the meeting by someone other than the organiser must also request entry.

The organiser can change 'Quick access' in Google Meet on the web after the meeting starts. The setting controls whether participants must request entry; it does not change the display-name identification rule for external participants without a Google Account.

Zoom: Participants generally do not need a Zoom account, but a host’s authentication profile can require all participants to sign in to one. To allow guests, the host must disable authentication profiles or set authentication exceptions for guests.

Zoom’s access controls include a Waiting Room. For guests joining through the web client, the host must disable 'Only authenticated users can join meetings from Web client'.

To let participants join from a desktop or mobile browser without downloading Zoom, the host must enable 'Show a “Join from your browser” link'. A guest joining through the web enters a display name.

An invitee can join from the host’s link or enter the meeting ID and passcode in Zoom. Browser joining gives access to basic meeting features, and mobile web browsers have more limited functionality than desktop browsers.

For an internal employee already signed in, a Zoom authentication requirement is met. An external guest without an account depends on the host’s authentication and browser settings.

Check the boundary with the intended accounts

Use a sample meeting with the intended settings and have an employee and an external participant follow the invitation on their usual devices. Check whether each must sign in, request entry or wait in a lobby, and include any needed account, contact, meeting ID or passcode instructions in the invitation.