Teams meetings now send unknown bots to the lobby by default
Reviewed by Helen Jones
Microsoft rolled out automatic bot detection across Teams meetings. External bots that the system cannot recognise are placed in the lobby until the organiser admits them. The change removes CAPTCHA checks and applies without any admin setup. It covers all tenants starting late June 2026. Existing CAPTCHA policies stay active until August, after which the new lobby rule becomes the only control.
Until now organisers had no reliable way to spot third-party note-taking or recording bots once they joined a meeting. The only barrier was a CAPTCHA that many external participants could bypass or ignore. The lobby now forces a human decision on every unrecognised external bot. Internal and pre-approved bots remain invisible, so the protection only works if organisers actively watch the lobby and understand what they are admitting.
Analysis
Treat the lobby as the final checkpoint rather than relying on Microsoft to catch every bot. Open the meeting options for your next three recurring meetings and set external participants to lobby only.
Pulse published by Collab365 Spaces, reviewed by Helen Jones on . Cite as "Teams meetings now send unknown bots to the lobby by default", Collab365 Spaces. 2 sources referenced.