With Audio Conferencing, people can call in to Teams meetings using a phone instead of using the Teams app on their mobile device or from their computer.

If you’re a small or medium-sized business with up to 300 users and you currently don’t have any Audio Conferencing licenses, you can get Audio Conferencing free for one year. This free offer is available starting October 1, 2020.

The Audio Conferencing add-on license can be applied to users who have Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, Enterprise E1, or Enterprise E3 licenses. To learn more, see Teams add-on licenses

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to set up Audio Conferencing. You only need to set up Audio Conferencing for people who plan to schedule or lead meetings. Meeting attendees who call in to meetings don’t need licenses or other setup. To learn more, see Audio Conferencing.

Set up Audio Conferencing

When you set up Audio Conferencing, a phone number is automatically assigned to your conferencing bridge so that it can be used in meeting invitations. The phone number that’s assigned as the default number of your conferencing bridge will be one from the country or region of your organization. This phone number is a toll number, in which long-distance charges may apply.

Step 1: Get Audio Conferencing licenses

Get one Audio Conferencing license for each person who will lead meetings. Use the Microsoft 365 admin center to do this.

1. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Billing > Purchase services, and then at the bottom of the page, select Add-ons.
2. Select Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing Adoption Promo > Details, and then select Get now.
3. Enter the number of licenses you need for your meeting organizers, and then complete your order.

    Note

   Clear or select the Automatically assign to all of your users with no licenses, depending on whether you want to automatically assign an Audio Conferencing license to all users who don’t have this license.

Step 2: Assign an Audio Conferencing license to users who lead meetings

Assign a license to each person who will lead meetings. Use the Microsoft 365 admin center to do this.

Assign a license to one user

1. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Users > Active users.
2. Select the row of the user you want to assign the license to, and then in the pane, select Licenses and Apps.
3. Select the Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing check box, and then select Save changes.

Assign a license to multiple users

1. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Users > Active users.
2. Select the circles next to the users you want to assign the license to, and then select Manage product licenses.
3. In the Manage product licenses pane, select Assign more.
4. Select the Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing check box, and then select Save changes.

Schedule Teams meetings in Outlook

Your meeting organizers can now schedule meetings in Outlook. In Outlook, go to Calendar, and then select the New Teams meeting button. The meeting dial-in numbers and the conference ID are automatically added to the meeting invitation that’s sent to meeting attendees. To learn more, see Schedule a Teams meeting in Outlook.

Audio Conferencing phone numbers

There are two types of numbers that you can use for your conferencing bridge. You can use either shared numbers (as in the Set up Audio Conferencing section earlier in this article) or dedicated numbers. Here’s more information about each.

Shared numbers

A shared number is a number that’s shared across all organizations. Shared numbers are toll numbers and are automatically assigned when you set up Audio Conferencing.

To see the default number that’s assigned to your conferencing bridge, in the left navigation of the Microsoft Teams admin center, go to Meetings > Conference bridges, and then find the number for the location that’s nearest to you.

Dedicated numbers

A dedicated number is a number that’s available only to your users. A dedicated number can be a toll number or a toll-free number. To use a dedicated number, you’ll have to first get the number, assign it to your conferencing bridge, and then assign the number to each person who will lead meetings.

There are a couple ways to get a dedicated number. You can get a number from Microsoft or transfer (port) an existing number from your current service provider to Microsoft. To learn more about how to do this, see Getting service numbers.

Keep in mind that if you use a toll-free number, you have to first assign a Communications Credits license to each person who will lead meetings. To learn more, see Set up Communications Credits for your organization.

After you have your number, assign it to your conference bridge. Use the Microsoft Teams admin center to do this.

1. In the left navigation of the Microsoft Teams admin center, go to Meetings > Conference bridges.
2. Select Add, and then select Toll number or Toll-free number.
3. In the Add phone number pane, select the number, and then select Apply.

Then, assign the number to each person who will lead meetings. Use the Microsoft Teams admin center to do this.

1. In the left navigation of the Microsoft Teams admin center, select Users, click the display name of the user, and select Edit.
2. Select Edit next to Audio Conferencing, and then in the Audio Conferencing pane, select a number in the Toll number or Toll-free number lists, and then select Apply.

Related topics

• Audio Conferencing
• Set up Audio Conferencing for Teams
• Phone numbers for Audio Conferencing
• Audio Conferencing common questions
• Getting service numbers
• Teams add-on licenses
• Assign licenses to users