Guest Access for Microsoft Teams has been one of the most requested features since launch, and it will apparently take more time than excepted for Microsoft to fully deliver it. Back in September, Microsoft enabled Guest Access in Teams for users with Azure AD accounts, but for the feature to be really useful the company also needs to implement it for free Microsoft accounts that any freelancers can use.
Microsoft didn’t give a clear ETA for Guest Access MSA at the time, but Program Manager Suphatra Rufo tweeted yesterday that the feature should be available “in a few months.”
https://twitter.com/skprufo/status/935945999012335616
Since then, a company spokesperson told ZDNet reporter Mary-Jo Foley today that “Microsoft is working on guest access for MSA, but doesn’t have details to share on timing.” In a separate tweet, Rufo explained that Guest Access MSA was “our top priority,” adding that “it is just a very difficult feature for us to implement as it requires work from multiple engineering groups across the company.”
Full Guest Access for Microsoft Teams will be key to achieve feature parity with other team collaboration apps such as Slack. Back in September, Microsoft explained that it was making sure that the experience was seamless for users. “If the guest doesn’t have an existing MSA, they will be directed to create a free account using their current corporate or consumer email address, such as Outlook.com or Gmail.com,” the blog post explained. We’ll let you know as soon as we get more details about the implementation, but in the meantime we invite you to keep an eye on the Microsoft Teams UserVoice website.
