Inviting External Users to a Team
In Microsoft Teams, once a Team has been created, you can invite external users (users outside of Auburn University) to join the Team.
Using Teams via Desktop app:
1. Open your Team: Navigate to the Team where you want to add an external user.
2. Add a Member: Click on "More options" (the three dots) next to the Team name, and select "Add member."
3. Enter the Email Address: Type in the email address of the external user. Anyone with a business or consumer email account, such as Outlook, Gmail, or others, can join your team as a guest. If they are outside of your organization, Teams will automatically recognize them as a guest. Select their email again to confirm.
On this step, a Microsoft support article is linked if you click "Learn about adding guests."
If you receive a "We didn't find any matches" error while trying to add a guest, your organization doesn't allow guests.
4. Send the Invite: Click "Add" to send the invitation. The external user will receive an email with a link to join your team.
5. Once the external user accepts the invitation (example email invitation shown below), they become a guest in your team and can start collaborating.
For more information on what the guest experiences when invited to join a team, visit this Microsoft Guest Experience in Teams Support Article.
Using Teams via Mobile app:
1. To invite an external user to a Team from the Teams Mobile app, go to the Team in your Team list.
2. Tap More options > Manage members.
3. Tap Add members and enter the guest's email address.
4. Tap Invite as a guest, then tap the checkmark. The guest user will then receive the welcome email invitation that includes information about joining Teams. For more information on what the guest experiences when invited to join a team, visit this Microsoft Guest Experience in Teams Support Article.
Sharing Files with External Users in a Team
Within a Team, files and folders can easily be shared with external users who may not be an existing member of a Team.
1. Navigate to the Files Tab in the Team: Open the channel where you want to share the file and click on the "Files" tab.
2. Upload or Select a File: You can either upload a new file or select an existing file from your list.
3. Share the File: Find the file you wish to share. Click the three dots, then "Share" (you can also click the Share icon).
4. Enter the email address of the external user outside of your organization. To the right of the email address, select the drop-down options to choose your file sharing permissions (can edit, can view, or can't download).
5. You can either copy a link to directly share the file through Teams, or click "Send".
6. If you clicked "Send," the external user will receive an email (example email shown below). Once the external user opens the file, they can access the file and can start collaborating.
7. You can also go back to the file in your Team and edit sharing permissions or select "Stop sharing" to remove sharing access for the external user.
Additional details on file sharing within Teams can be found in this Microsoft Support Teams Sharing Article.