💡 Our Technical Review in summary
The “Manage what attendees see” feature in Microsoft Teams is receiving a significant update, introducing a “preview” capability specifically for Town Hall events. This enhancement transitions the feature from a simple toggle to a three-option radio button configuration: Off, On, and On with Preview. The “On with preview” mode allows event organizers and presenters to stage content and participants in a private preview window before pushing the changes live to the audience, ensuring a more polished and professional production. This update is associated with Roadmap ID 487431 and does not require a Teams Premium license.
#### Impact
- Feature Availability: The “On with preview” option is exclusive to Town Halls. Standard Meetings and Webinars will only have access to the “Off” and “On” options.
- User Experience: Organizers can now verify layouts and shared content privately. Changes are only reflected for attendees once the “Send live” button is clicked.
- Default Settings: Town Halls will default to the “On” setting. Standard meetings and webinars will remain “Off” by default. The “On with preview” option must be manually selected in Meeting Options before the event begins.
- Platform Restrictions: The ability to manage layouts and preview changes is limited to users on Teams for Windows desktop and Teams for the web. Users joining via Mobile or Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) will not be able to manage on-screen content.
- Compatibility: Users on older versions of Microsoft Teams will not see the preview options and will experience the legacy immediate-apply behavior.
- Rollout Timeline: General Availability is expected to begin in late July 2025 and reach full completion by late September 2025.
#### Action Required
- Internal Training: Update internal documentation and training materials to reflect the new “On with preview” workflow and the “Send live” mechanism.
- User Notification: Inform frequent event organizers, executive assistants, and presenters about the change to the Meeting Options interface (transition from toggle to radio buttons).
- Testing: Encourage event production teams to conduct a test Town Hall session prior to late July 2025 to familiarize themselves with the staging environment.
- Version Management: Ensure that all presenters and organizers are using the latest version of the Teams desktop client to support the preview functionality.
- Policy Review: No admin configuration via PowerShell or the Teams Admin Center is required for this rollout as it will be enabled by default.
Microsoft Official Update
Service: N/A
Category: stayInformed
Severity: normal
Updated September 3, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.
Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: A new Manage what attendees see feature will help organizers and presenters deliver polished town hall events by simplifying the attendee view and keeping the focus on participants brought on screen. The new feature allows assigned organizers and presenters to preview changes before applying them all at once.
This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Teams for Mac desktop, and Teams for the web.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 487431.
[When this will happen:]
Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-July 2025 and expect to complete by late July 2025.
General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late July 2025 and expect to complete by late September 2025.
[How this will affect your organization:]
Before this rollout, when an organizer or presenter brings a participant or shared content on or off screen, the change is immediately reflected in the attendees’ view.
After this rollout, organizers and presenters will have the option to preview their changes before applying them. This allows for smoother, more polished transitions in the attendee’s view, without showing every adjustment made by the organizer or presenter managing the screen. Organizers can go to the town hall Meeting options to locate the Manage what attendees see feature.
We will change the Manage what attendees see option from a toggle to radio buttons. Manage what attendees see will have three options:
- Off: All participants will appear onscreen.
- On: Organizers and presenters can share content and bring attendees on screen to view the content.
- On with preview: Organizers and presenters can share content, preview the content, and then bring attendees on screen to view the content.
To use the new On with preview option, the organizer must select it before the event begins. By default, Manage what attendees see is set to Off when scheduling a meeting or webinar, and On when scheduling a town hall. The On with preview option is only available for town halls and does not require a Teams Premium license.
Limitations
- The On with preview option is not available in meetings or webinars. For these events, the organizer will only have the option to select Off or On for Manage what attendees see.
- Only assigned users joining through Teams for Windows desktop or Teams for the web will have the option to preview and apply changes. Any assigned users joining through mobile or Microsoft Teams Room will not have the ability to bring participants or shared content on or off screen.
- Users joining through older Teams versions will continue to see the existing behavior, where users don’t have the option to preview changes in Manage what attendees see.
Any new meetings or events created after mid-June 2025 will receive the new updates by default to the Manage what attendees see feature.
This feature will be available by default for meeting organizers to configure.
Select the presenter or content you’d like to preview before sending live to your event:
Select Send live to seamlessly send the content from the Preview window to the attendee view:
[What you need to do to prepare:]
This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.
We recommend you review Manage what attendees see in Teams meetings (will be updated before rollout) for a comprehensive overview of the feature and conduct a test session with the feature turned on to get acquainted with the new controls.
