Teams policies and how they are assigned

Teams behavior is controlled by policies. Most exam questions give a requirement and ask which policy type to change and who gets it.

Policy types to know

Policy	Controls
Messaging	Delete sent messages, edit messages, read receipts, priority (urgent) notifications, GIFs, chat translation
Meeting	Who can present, record, bypass the lobby, use Whiteboard, transcribe
Calling / Caller ID	Call forwarding, simultaneous ring, voicemail, caller ID display
App permission	Which apps users may install
App setup	Which apps are pinned and in what order
Update	Update channel, such as Public Preview vs Current
Teams (team policy)	Private channel creation, team-level behavior

Be careful: “permission policy” for apps is not the policy that controls messages. A messaging requirement is a messaging policy.

The global policy

Every policy type has a Global (Org-wide default) policy. Users get it unless something else is assigned. You can edit it, but you cannot delete it. The simplest design is to tune the global policy for most people and create custom policies only for exceptions.

Assigning policies

You can assign a custom policy in three ways:

• To a user in the Teams admin center (Users > Manage users > Policies), or in bulk using batch assignment.
• To a group (security group or Microsoft 365 group) using group policy assignment.
• In PowerShell, for example Grant-CsTeamsMessagingPolicy -Identity user -PolicyName HRMessaging.

Precedence is: direct assignment, then group assignment, then global. When a user is in several groups that have a policy of the same type, the group assignment rank decides, and the lowest number wins. A change can take some time, up to 24 hours, to reach the client.

Policy packages

A policy package, such as Education or Frontline worker, is a set of predefined policies you assign in one step. Assigning a package assigns each included policy to the user. Use packages for role-based setups. Use single policies for one-off exceptions.

Exam traps

• Do not edit the global policy when only some users must differ. Create a custom policy and assign it.
• Direct assignment beats group assignment. If the question includes a “why is the setting not applied?”, look for a direct assignment.
• Old names may appear, such as “Teams upgrade policy” for Skype for Business coexistence. Do not confuse it with the Teams update policy, which controls client update behavior.
• A client that does not update to the latest build points to the update policy or the app’s install location, not the messaging or meeting policy.

Practice questions

Choose an answer, then review the explanation to check your understanding.

1. Only managers may send messages marked Urgent. Everyone else must not. What do you do?

1. A.Create a messaging policy that allows priority notifications and assign it to managers, and turn it off in the global policy
2. B.Edit the meeting policy for managers
3. C.Create an app setup policy for managers
4. D.Use an update policy for managers

Show answer

Answer: A.Priority (urgent) notifications and deleting sent messages are messaging policy settings. Disable the feature in the global policy and give managers a custom one.

2. A user has a custom messaging policy assigned directly and also belongs to a group with a different assigned messaging policy. Which applies?

1. A.The group policy, because groups have priority
2. B.The direct assignment
3. C.The global policy
4. D.The one with the newest creation date

Show answer

Answer: B.A policy assigned directly to a user always wins over group assignment, and group assignment wins over the global policy.

3. Two groups are assigned different calling policies and a user is in both. What decides which policy applies?

1. A.Alphabetical order of the policy name
2. B.The assignment rank within the policy type
3. C.The date the user joined
4. D.Random selection

Show answer

Answer: B.Group policy assignment uses a rank per policy type. The assignment with the lowest rank number takes precedence.

4. HR users and finance users need different settings for deleting sent messages. All other users keep the default. What is the minimum you create?

1. A.One policy for the whole tenant
2. B.Two messaging policies, one for each department, if the settings differ
3. C.Two meeting policies
4. D.Edit the global policy only

Show answer

Answer: B.Each department needs a different value, so you need a custom messaging policy for each, assigned to those users. The global policy stays for everyone else.