Co-organizers support coming soon to Microsoft Teams meetings

Microsoft has announced that support Microsoft Teams will soon support the co-organizer role during meetings, allowing different members of a group to manage a meeting while the original organizer is otherwise occupied or not even present.

Organizers will soon be able to assign the co-organizer meeting role to up to 10 specific people they invite to their meeting. Co-organizers will be granted most of the capabilities of the organizer in the meeting, including being able to access & modify the meeting options for the meeting.

Once this feature has been enabled, a “Choose co-organizers” meeting option will be available. The default value for this option is “None.” The option operates similarly to when “Specific people” are selected as presenters for the meeting. The meeting organizer can click on the selector box to open a dropdown menu where they can choose from the list of qualified people who have been invited to the meeting.

To qualify for the co-organizer role, an invitee must be using an account that is on the same tenant as the organizer’s account. Organizers will be able to assign the co-organizer role to up to 10 people.

Co-organizers will be displayed as additional organizers on the meeting roster, and they will have most of the capabilities of an organizer in the meeting. Co-organizers can do the following:

• Access and change meeting options
• Bypass the lobby
• Admit people from the lobby during a meeting
• Lock the meeting
• Present content
• Change another participant’s meeting role
• End the meeting for all

Co-organizers cannot do the following:

• Create & manage breakout rooms
• View & download attendance reports
• Manage the meeting recording
• Edit the meeting invitation
• Remove or change the Organizer role

In line with this the “Only me” selection for the “Who can present?” meeting option will  be updated to reflect that this will apply to “Only me and co-organizers.”

The “Only me” selection for the “Who can bypass the lobby?” meeting option has also been updated to reflect that this will apply to “Only me and co-organizers.”

Usage of the co-organizer role for a meeting is optional. If users choose not to use the co-organizer feature, there will be no change.

This feature is expected to begin rolling out in late November and to be complete by early December. The “Choose co-organizers” meeting option will appear automatically on the meeting options page when the feature has rolled out.