Since the pandemic hit, the popularity of Microsoft Teams calls and online classes has skyrocketed, yet few, if any, meetings happen without distractions from unmuted participants.
On the other side, chat notifications and in-app notifications can quickly turn your productive day into a disaster.
In this practical guide, I’ll show you how to mute Microsoft Teams quickly and effectively so that you can say goodbye to background noise, disturbing participants, and annoying notifications.
In this guide
- How to mute all participants during a Microsoft Teams meeting
- How to mute individual participants during a Microsoft Teams meeting
- How to mute yourself during a Microsoft Teams meeting
- How to mute Microsoft Teams on a mobile device
- Keyboard shortcuts to mute Microsoft Teams quickly
- Best Microsoft Teams audio settings and tips for effective meetings
- How to mute Microsoft Teams: FAQ
Why you want to mute Microsoft Teams
There’re a couple of use cases when you may want to mute yourself, a specific user, or all participants in a Teams meeting:
- Mute meeting participants: it’s good practice to mute others before the meeting starts so they don’t break the flow of the meeting. This is equally important when new participants show up late and make some noise in the background during an important call.
- Mute yourself as a participant: it’s useful to keep your microphone muted until you speak up to avoid unwanted noise and audio echo.
- Mute yourself as the meeting organizer: there’re times when the host may mute herself to avoid distractions, e.g. before the meeting starts or during long panel discussions.
- Mute notifications: the best thing you can do right now to increase your productivity is to turn down all notifications, except the critical ones.
Let’s get started.
How to mute all participants during a Microsoft Teams meeting
You can mute and unmute Microsoft Teams users only if you’re the host of the Teams call.
Mute all participants before the meeting
- Schedule your meeting in MS Teams.
- Navigate to the Calendar and find Meeting options.
- Toggle Allow mic for attendees and Allow cam for attendees.
Muted participants can later unmute their mics and speak up unless the organizer prevents them by disabling their mics either before or during the meeting.
Mute all participants during the meeting
Are your participants driving you crazy? Not anymore. You can mute all attendees during a meeting with a single click:
- Go to the People tab on the meeting screen.
- Click Mute all above the name of the participants.
You can disable participants’ mics, although this option may not be available in all plans and platforms. You’ll find this option right below the Mute all option discussed above.
Quick tip
Add a co-organizer (co-host) to your meetings who can help you manage participants. To add a co-organizer, find the Meeting options and hit Choose co-organizers.
What if you want to mute individual participants only?
How to mute individual participants during a Microsoft Teams meeting
You can mute and unmute individual participants only if you’re the host of the Teams call.
- Navigate to the People tab to bring up the list of participants.
- Find your target attendee.
- Navigate to the microphone symbol, click the three dots, and hit Mute participant.
Muted participants can later unmute their mics unless the meeting organizer disables their mics.
How to mute yourself during a Microsoft Teams meeting
Whether you’re a host or not, you can mute and unmute yourself. Be aware, however, that the meeting organizer can withdraw your access to mute or unmute yourself either before or during the meeting.
Here’s how to mute yourself in Microsoft Teams:
- Navigate to the toolbar and click the microphone button, next to the camera icon.
Quick tip
If you want to stay silent when a meeting starts, set yourself on mute when joining the meeting. Switch off your mic on the toggle when the pop-up window appears. On this screen, you can customize your audio settings as well before you enter the meeting.
How to mute Microsoft Teams on a mobile device
If you’re joining a Microsoft Teams call from your mobile app, you still have access to mute Microsoft Teams quickly:
- Mute yourself: click the Mute button at the bottom of the screen.
- Mute a chat: click your name to access Chat details and toggle Mute chat.
Keyboard shortcuts to mute Microsoft Teams quickly
Use these hotkeys to mute and unmute your Teams meeting like a pro. Shortcuts work a bit differently between operating systems.
You can temporarily unmute your mic during a Teams meeting. This becomes handy when you’re in the middle of a Teams meeting and you want to rapidly respond to someone.
First, you need to enable this feature on the desktop app:
- Go to Settings > Privacy.
- In the privacy setting, Toggle Keyboard shortcut to unmute.
- Now, you can use the shortcuts below to temporarily unmute yourself.
| Function | Keyboard shortcut (Mac) | Keyboard shortcut (Windows) |
|---|---|---|
| Temporarily unmute yourself | Option + Space | Ctrl + Space |
| Mute yourself | Cmd + Shift + M | Ctrl + Shift + M |
| Toggle video | Cmd + Shift + O | Ctrl + Shift + O |
You can find more shortcuts on Microsoft’s website.
Quick tip
Bring up the full list of keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Teams: click the three-dot icon and find Keyboard Shortcuts.
But wait, there’s a shortcut to the Settings, too: Ctrl + ,
And there’s a shortcut to the shortcuts, too: Ctrl + .
Best Microsoft Teams audio settings and tips for effective meetings
There’re a few settings to make your video conferencing experience more enjoyable and to the point. Take a few minutes to customize your Teams account, which will save you a ton of time (and headaches) downstream.
Customize notifications
Carefully choose your Microsoft Teams notifications and stick with them to avoid distractions:
- Open the Microsoft Teams application and go to Settings > Notifications.
- On the next screen, turn off notifications for new messages: toggle off Play sound for incoming calls and notifications.
- Navigate to Chat > Edit and set up your preferred notifications.
- Navigate to Meetings and Calls > Edit and customize your notifications.
Disable mics for participants before the meeting
Disabling participants’ mics is useful to avoid distractions if you regularly host large meetings or webinars.
- Schedule your meeting in MS Teams.
- Navigate to the Calendar and find Meeting options.
- Toggle Allow mic for attendees and Allow cam for attendees.
Quick tip
You can disable mics during a Teams meeting as well. Go to the Participants tab, click the three-dot icon, and select Disable mic for attendees.
Customize who can share their screens during a Teams meeting
You can fully customize who can present at your meeting:
- Schedule your meeting.
- In meeting controls, select More > Settings.
- Navigate to Meeting options.
- Select who can present at the meeting.
How to mute Microsoft Teams: FAQ
What’s the most effective way to mute my microphone in MS Teams?
Using the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Shift + M on Mac or Ctrl + Shift + M on Windows is a great way to quickly mute and unmute your mic.
Why can’t I mute and unmute myself as a participant?
The meeting organizer can prevent attendees from unmuting themselves. When this happens, you can’t unmute audio.
Why can’t I mute participants?
You only can unmute others if you’re the host of the meeting. Also, the meeting organizer can disable participants’ mics either before or during an MS Teams meeting.
How can I adjust the volume in Microsoft Teams?
In meeting controls, choose More > Settings > Device settings. Here, you can customize your audio and video settings.
How can I mute Microsoft Teams chat?
MS Teams chat application can be a bit annoying if you don’t set things up properly. Here’s how to mute Teams chat: Settings > Notifications > Chat. You can disable chat notifications on your phone, too.
Cover photo by Ocean Biggshott on Unsplash
