By default the Teams bot will join meetings as an anonymous guest participant. You can configure your Teams bots to sign into a Microsoft account before joining a meeting to allow a bot to join sign-in required meetings.

Implementation

Step 1: Set up a new Microsoft 365 Business account

1.1: Head to the Microsoft 365 Business page to buy the Microsoft 365 Business Basic license

1.2: After clicking "Buy Now", proceed to login with your admin account

1.3: Microsoft will then ask you to set up your account and pay for the license

1.4: Once done, you will need to sign into the M365 admin dashboard

Note: Microsoft may request you to set up MFA for this admin account

Step 2: Create the bot's account

Step 2.1: Create a new user for the bot

Navigate to: Users > Active users

Note: you should see your admin in the active users

Click "Add a user" (see image below)

Next, fill out these fields for the bot (make sure to write them down in a separate place):

• Email
• Display name
• Password

  • Note: If you automatically create a password, make sure to "reveal" the password in the final step and write it down

• You can auto-assign a user license in this step OR you can transfer the license in Step 2.2 below, it makes no difference. You do not need to buy an additional license for the bot.
• You do not need to apply roles/permissions or fill out any additional details

Again, you will need to save the bot's email and password for later, make sure to write this info in a separate note

Step 2.2: Reassign the Teams license to the bot user

Head to Billing > Licenses > Microsoft 365 Business Basic and select your admin account.

Click "Unassign licenses" and then click "Unassign" on the confirm dialog pop up:

After, reload the page and then you can reassign the license to the bot user.

If you are prompted to buy another license after unassigning, wait a few minutes before refreshing the page. Microsoft may need some time to free up the license before you can reassign it

Step 3: Add the bot's sign-in credentials in the Recall dashboard

Head to the Meeting Bot Setup > Microsoft Teams setup dashboard page

Add the bot's email & password

Step 4: Update the Microsoft tenant's security settings

Step 4.1: Create a pay-as-you-go azure account

Sign into the Azure admin portal using the admin account

Step 4.2: Disabling Security Defaults

All tabs and fields for Step 4.2 can be seen in the image below

Search for the "Microsoft Entra ID" product in the top search bar inside the Azure admin portal

Inside the Microsoft Entra Id product, disable the security defaults found in:

• Overview > Properties > Manage Security Defaults
• Set Security Defaults to "Disabled (not recommended)" inside the right sidebar
  • If asked to fill out the Reason for disabling field, simply select "Other" and write "Preference" in the text box
• Click Save at the bottom

Step 4.3: Disable "Show keep user signed in"

All tabs and fields for Step 4.3 can be seen in the image below

Search for the "Users" product in the top search bar

Once in the Users product:

• Click on User Settings in the sidebar and disable the "Show keep users signed in" toggle

Step 4.4: Disable "Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) policy"

All tabs and fields for Step 4.4 can be seen in the image below

Search for the "Password reset" product

Once in the Password reset product:

• Click on Properties in the sidebar
• Set the "Self service password reset enabled" option to "None" (this is generally the default)

[Optional] Step 4.5: Set the bot's profile picture

All tabs and fields for Step 4.5 can be seen in the image below

Search for the "Users" product in the top search bar (same as step 4.3 above)

Once in the Users product:

• Click on your bot's name in the Display Name column

  • If you don't see the bot's profile, wait a couple minutes and reload the page

  • This navigates to the bot's profile
• Click on Overview > [Camera Icon] to set the bot's profile picture

Step 5: Test the bot

Now that your new bot account is set up, you can try sending your bot to a new Microsoft Teams meeting

You can quickly test this by sending a bot to the meeting using the interactive Create Bot api docs. Make sure you use a new Teams Meeting URL and the API key from the Recall account with your Microsoft Teams Business Account login credentials

When testing, enable the "Login Mandatory" option in the Recall dashboard's Meeting Bot Setup > Teams > Signed-in Microsoft Teams credentials. Then you can send a bot to a Teams meeting to see it sign-in.

Don't forget to disable "Login Mandatory" again after your test

Note that the bot will only sign in for meetings that require signed-in participants

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FAQs

Why does the bot sometimes have (Guest) and others (External) after the display name?

If you want the bot to always show (External) instead of (Guest), you can enable the "Login Mandatory" checkbox in the Teams Web Credentials. Note that logging in the bots take a significantly longer time to join calls

Why does my Teams bot’s participant label or profile picture vary between meetings?

Teams determines how your bot appears based on its sign-in status and its relationship with the meeting host’s organization. Signing in does not guarantee a particular participant label or a visible profile picture.

What do the participant labels mean?

Being signed in with a Microsoft Entra ID or personal Microsoft account does not automatically establish a trusted relationship. Microsoft’s meeting guidance explains that signed-in participants without the required trust can still be treated as anonymous. Its current trust-indicator documentation describes the additional familiar and unfamiliar external categories.

How do I configure trust and show the bot’s profile picture?

When the bot’s camera is off, displaying its Microsoft account profile picture requires a trusted relationship with the host’s organization. Uploading a profile picture to the bot’s account is not sufficient on its own.

Teams administrators should check Users → External access in the Teams admin center for both organizations:

1. Ensure the host’s organization allows the bot’s account domain.
2. Ensure the bot’s organization allows the host’s domain.
3. Ensure the applicable user policies enable External Access for the bot and the meeting organizer.

If an organization uses an allowlist, add the other organization’s domain. Allowing all external domains can permit communication, but Microsoft’s newer indicators may still classify a participant as unfamiliar. See Microsoft’s External Access configuration guide and trust-indicator definitions.

Check External Access settings in both organizations. If either uses an allowlist, include the other organization’s domain.

Would Microsoft Teams Essentials plan also work for setting this up or does this requires a Microsoft 365 Business Basic?

We haven't tested the Microsoft Teams Essentials plan ourselves so we can't say for certain but we recommend our devs use the Microsoft 365 Business Basic plan as this is what we used for setup and it contains all the required security settings and configurations needed for the bot to join calls

Is there a way to detect beforehand when a Signed-in Teams bot will be required for a user meeting

There is not a way for you to detect what kind of bot will be required for a meeting beforehand because the bot will need to attempt to sign in and encounter the "you need to sign in" page for us to know

That being said, we also have an option in the dashboard to make the bot sign in for every meeting (called "Login Mandatory", referenced in Step 3 above). If you leave this bot unchecked, it will only sign in for meetings that require participant sign-in

We generally recommend developers leave this box unchecked (do not sign in for every meeting, only when required) to keep the bot's join time as low as possible

Can we use our own Teams organization or do we need a new Teams organization for every customer?

We recommend creating a new organization for the bot, then all of your customers can invite this bot to their org (so you only need one new org for all your customers). We recommend creating a new organization for your bot because you need to update the org's security settings which you typically don't want to apply to your whole org

We also recommend having your customers tenants add the bots domain as a "trusted organization" in their security settings

Will Signed-in Teams bots work for Calendar V1, V2, scheduled bots, or ad-hoc bots?

This will work for all meetings (Calendar V1 / V2 meetings, scheduled meetings, or ad hoc meetings). Once you configure signed-in Teams bots in the Recall dashboard, there is no additional configuration required to make them work for all meeting types.

Why doesn't my Teams account profile photo show?

Teams will only show an avatar when the bot’s account is in a trusted organization for the meeting host’s tenant (details here). To see the bot’s profile picture, the Teams admins on both sides need to configure a trusted relationship / External Access by whitelisting each other’s domains (Microsoft docs).

Why do two bots signed in with the same account show up as only one attendee in Teams?

Teams merges participants that share the same email, so multiple bots using one account appear as a single attendee. Give each bot its own account to avoid this if you are testing with multiple signed-in teams bots

How can users disable the sign-in required setting on Teams?

Users will need to modify their "Anonymous users can join a meeting" setting in their MS Teams settings.

Will the bot always sign into teams calls?

This behavior is configurable according to your use case.

When settings up the credentials in the Recall dashboard, you can toggle this behavior using the Login mandatory checkbox: