Microsoft Teams on the desktop is introducing a new option that will allow the organizers to lock their ongoing meetings. The feature is currently marked as “in development” on the Microsoft 365 roadmap, with a general release scheduled for May 2021.
Currently, Microsoft Teams allows organizers to manually admit participants into the meeting once it’s started. However, there is no option to prevent subsequent unwanted join attempts within the desktop app in-meeting experience. This situation could be particularly frustrating, especially in education scenarios, making it harder for the teachers to keep track of late students.
The new “Lock the meeting” feature should help hosts by giving more control over meetings, and it will enable them to lock an ongoing meeting at any point to prevent late attendees from joining. Users who will try to join the locked meeting from the web, desktop, mobile, PSTN, and devices will be notified that the meeting is not admitting new participants.
This new meeting control is ideal for teachers, and it should definitely help them penalize students who are consistently late for their online classes. The feature will begin rolling out globally to all Teams desktop clients in mid-May, but it may be a while until it shows up for all users. In case you missed it, Microsoft Teams is also getting an update that lets meeting organizers set a time limit for Breakout rooms.
