Placing a Call Using the Calls Tab

  1. You can use the Number Pad to dial by clicking the numbers or typing them directly into the call bar and clicking the Call Icon. 
  2. You can also call a contact by navigating to your Contact List (Contacts > A-Z) and selecting the Phone Icon next to your desired contact. 
  3. If you don’t see the person you want to call here, click the Add Contact Button to search for them by name, email, or phone number. Click on the contact when they appear and click Add to add them to your contact list. 

Placing a Call from the Command Bar

  1. Type a forward slash, which tells Teams you’re giving it a command.
  2. Type call, then hit enter to input the command.
  3. You will be prompted to type the name, email, or phone number of the person you’d like to call. As soon as you click on the person you want, the call will start going through. 
Make a call from the command bar by entering /call.

Placing a Call from the Chat Tab

If you have more than one person in your conversation, this will start a conference call with all of the participants. Of course, all the participants will need to accept the call on their side before you can conference with them. 

    1. In any conversation, you’ll have the Call Icon in the top right corner. Click on it to place your call. 
Place a call from a chat in Teams by clicking the call icon in the top right corner.

Placing a Call from Anywhere in Teams

You can place a call anywhere you interact with your contacts by using their contact card. This is one of the ways Microsoft aims to make communication easier than ever. 

  1. Anywhere you see a contact’s picture, such as in the Teams tab, where they may have just uploaded a document or comment that reminds you to call them, hover over their picture to see their contact card. 
  2. Click the Call Icon to place your call. 
  3. You can use these contact cards anywhere in teams to start any type of conversation: an audio call, a video call, an email, or an IM. 
You can place a call from anywhere in Teams that you interact with someone's contact card.

What if I Don’t See These Teams Call options? 

Microsoft Teams comes in many different configurations, which means you may not have access to all of the call options we’ve covered in this article. Your access to these features ultimately depends on the type of account you have.  

If you have a free Microsoft Teams account, or an education or business account that does not include Microsoft Phone System and Calling Plan licensing, you won’t be able to dial a phone number from your Teams account. This is a paid-for feature that requires this specific licensing from Microsoft on top of your Office 365 account. 

Without this additional licensing, your calls tab may look a little different. Most notably, you won’t have a numbered dial pad. 

Depending on your type of Microsoft Teams account, your Call tab may not have a dial pad.

This doesn’t mean you can’t make calls with Microsoft Teams, but it does mean you’re limited to calling other Microsoft Teams users. Search for contacts by name or email address using the instructions on this page to call them from your Teams account.

What if I Can’t Find Other Users?

Your business or education account is controlled by your organization’s IT administrators. They have the option to turn on or off the ability for you to search for users outside your school or business—and for external users to search for and communicate with you.

If you can’t find external users when trying to make a call, you should check with your IT administrators to verify if external federation has been turned on.

Download Your Free Microsoft Teams Training Guide

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6 Comments

  • Rich Anderson says:

    Has anyone figured out how to associate website phone numbers to make them clickable and dial-able using Teams? We are using Teams as our VOIP solution – but can’t click on phone numbers within a browser/website to dial the number.

    • Adam Lee says:

      Click to Dial is not available yet for Microsoft Teams. It will be eventually as they complete tasks within their product road map but no confirmed date that I can see. Thanks! Adam @ PEI

  • Mary says:

    Can you call someone that does NOT have teams? What happens when you do on that person’s end? Do they get a popup window and a way to click to join the call?

    • Stephanie Hamrick says:

      Hi Mary, this depends on the Office 365 licensing that you have. With a PSTN calling (Microsoft Calling Plan) license, you can call any phone number and it will ring to their device (whether they’re using Teams as their phone system or not) as is normal for them. They will be able to pick up the call as they would a regular phone call. Without the Calling Plan license, you can only call Teams users.

      However, one way to get around this is using meetings. You can invite anyone to a Teams Meeting, whether they have Microsoft Teams or not. All they need is a valid email address (to get your meeting invitation), a browser (where they will be able to join the meeting and do nearly anything a real Teams user can do), and some sort of audio device (so they can hear what’s going on).

      Thanks for reading, and I hope that answers your question! You can always reach us at info@pei.com if you have any more questions about how to use Microsoft Teams.

  • Jana says:

    How can I know who called me to join a meeting on teams ?

    • Stephanie Hamrick says:

      Hi Jana, with more details I can’t answer your question. Are you using Teams when you get the call? Are you getting a call to your cell phone?

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