Configuring Guest Access and Sharing throughout Microsoft 365

It is important to understand the distinction between guest users and external users in Teams. Guest users are added to and managed within your organization’s directory. For example, a new employee during onboarding might be added as a guest using a personal email address before they’re given a formal company account. Guests have similar access to internal resources, allowing them to browse the directory, collaborate on files that they have access to, participate in team discussions, and utilize other organizational tools.

Conversely, external users use their own existing credentials from a different organization to access specific teams and/or chats and meetings. For instance, an external consultant working with you on a year-long project would use their own company’s email and credentials to join meetings, collaborate in chats, and access explicitly shared resources, but they will not appear in...