Using Zoom Interop for Microsoft Teams in Zoom Rooms

Zoom Interop for Microsoft Teams allows Zoom Rooms to join Microsoft Teams meetings without the need for additional infrastructure or licensing. Connecting to Microsoft Teams meetings previously required the Teams meeting host to be entitled to Microsoft Cloud Video Interop third-party services.

This article covers:

• How to enable or disable Microsoft Teams Interoperability for Zoom Rooms
  • How to enable Microsoft Teams web client interoperability
  • How to enable SIP-based interoperability
  • How to enable SIP-based interoperability using your own Pexip services
• How to join a Microsoft Teams meeting from a Zoom Room
  • Joining a scheduled meeting
  • Joining a meeting ad-hoc
  • Meeting experience when using the Microsoft Teams web client
  • Meeting experience when SIP-based interoperability (including your own Pexip services)
• Microsoft Teams web client user interface changelog
  • December, 2023
  • July, 2024 (anticipated)
• Troubleshooting Zoom Interop for Microsoft Teams in Zoom Rooms
  • If you see Join by Audio or no Join button at all on the Zoom Rooms controller meeting list
  • If you see the Join button on the Zoom Rooms Controller
  • If you have joined the Microsoft Teams meeting
• Zoom Rooms device support
  • Microsoft Teams web client interoperability
  • Microsoft Teams SIP-based interoperability

Prerequisites for using Zoom Interop for Microsoft Teams

Zoom Rooms

• Account owner, admin, or role with edit access to Zoom Rooms
• Zoom Rooms using Microsoft Teams web client or SIP-based interoperability:
  • macOS global minimum version or higher, 
    • macOS version 10.15.x or higher
  • Windows global minimum version or higher
  • Appliances global minimum version or higher, but also consult the list of Supported Zoom Rooms appliance devices
• Zoom Rooms using SIP-based interoperability with your own Pexip CVI services, or Pexip Connect for Zoom Rooms services:
  • macOS version 6.0.6 or higher
  • Windows version 6.0.6 or higher
  • Appliances version 6.0.6 or higher
• Zoom Rooms controller:
  • iOS controller global minimum version or higher
  • Android controller global minimum version or higher
• Calendar integration with Google, Exchange 2010, Exchange 2013 or later, or Office 365

Microsoft Teams

• Anonymous participants must be allowed to join the Teams meeting.
• In addition to Zoom’s firewall requirements, ensure that the associated Teams firewall settings are configured. Include the Office 365 URLs and IP address ranges, particularly the ranges for Skype for Business Online and Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft 365 Common and Office Online.
• To start a Teams meeting from a Zoom Room, the Anonymous users and dial-in callers can start a meeting setting must be enabled.
• To use SIP-based interoperability, the Microsoft Teams meeting host (which may be a 3rd party) must have a Microsoft Cloud Video Interop (CVI) subscription from a third-party Microsoft CVI provider, and the Microsoft Teams meeting invite must include the "Join with a video conferencing device" information section, including SIP URI.
• To use SIP-based interoperability with your own Pexip CVI services, or Pexip Connect for Zoom Rooms services, you must get your Pexip Customer ID from Pexip support.

Notes: 

• Free Teams meetings are not supported. These can be distinguished by the Teams meeting URL, which will not use the teams.microsoft.com domain.
• Teams meetings hosted by Microsoft tenants on Microsoft 365 operated by 21Vianet (China) and Office 365 DoD clouds are not supported. These can be distinguished by the Teams meeting URL, which will not use the teams.microsoft.com or gov.teams.microsoft.us domains.

How to enable or disable Microsoft Teams Interoperability for Zoom Rooms

When you enable Microsoft Teams interoperability for Zoom Rooms, you may choose between using the Microsoft Teams web client or SIP-based interoperability.

When the Microsoft Teams web client is used, a Zoom Room may attempt to join any Microsoft Teams meeting hosted by a user that is a member of a Microsoft commercial/global service tenant, a Microsoft Government Community Cloud (GCC) tenant, or a Microsoft Government Community Cloud High (GCC-H) tenant, as outlined in the Prerequisites section.

When SIP-based interoperability is used, the Microsoft Teams meeting host must have a Microsoft Cloud Video Interop (CVI) subscription. Only scheduled meetings are supported - ad-hoc calling to Microsoft Teams meetings is not supported. However, if you wish to use SIP-based interoperability with your own Pexip CVI services, or Pexip Connect for Zoom Rooms services, both scheduled meetings and ad-hoc calling is supported.

How to enable Microsoft Teams web client interoperability

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an admin with the privilege to edit Zoom Rooms settings.
2. In the navigation menu, click Room Management then Zoom Rooms.
3. Use the Zoom Rooms location hierarchy to enable third-party conferencing dial-in for Zoom Rooms from the account, location, or room settings. For this example, click Account Settings.
4. Click the Meeting tab.
5. Under Zoom Rooms, click the Support Interoperability for Zoom Rooms toggle to enable or disable it.
6. If a verification dialog displays, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.
7. (Optional) If you want to make this setting mandatory for all Zoom Rooms you are editing, click the lock icon , and then click Lock to confirm.
8. Click the Support Microsoft Teams web client meeting on Zoom Rooms checkbox to enable Microsoft Teams Direct Guest Join.
9. (Optional) at the individual Zoom Room level, you may set the Guest Name and Email that will represent the Zoom Room in the Microsoft Teams meeting participant list.
10. (Optional) Click the Show on home screen checkbox to display a Microsoft Teams join button on the room controller or touch display. 
11.  (Optional) Under Connection method prioritization, click the up or down arrows next to the option you want to change.
    Note: If you prioritize the Dial SIP option, but no Microsoft Teams Cloud Video Interop (CVI) information is present for the meeting, Direct Guest Join will be used as a backup. 

How to enable SIP-based interoperability

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an admin with the privilege to edit Zoom Rooms settings.
2. In the navigation menu, click Room Management then Zoom Rooms.
3. Use the Zoom Rooms location hierarchy to enable third-party conferencing dial-in for Zoom Rooms from the account, location, or room settings. For this example, click Account Settings.
4. Click the Meeting tab.
5. Under Zoom Rooms, click the Support Interoperability for Zoom Rooms toggle to enable or disable it.
6. If a verification dialog displays, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.
7. (Optional) If you want to make this setting mandatory for all Zoom Rooms you are editing, click the lock icon , and then click Lock to confirm.

How to enable SIP-based interoperability using your own Pexip services

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an admin with the privilege to edit Zoom Rooms settings.
2. In the navigation menu, click Room Management then Zoom Rooms.
3. Use the Zoom Rooms location hierarchy to enable third-party conferencing dial-in for Zoom Rooms from the account, location, or room settings. For this example, click Account Settings.
4. Click the Meeting tab.
5. Under Zoom Rooms, click the Support Interoperability for Zoom Rooms toggle to enable or disable it.
6. If a verification dialog displays, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.
7. (Optional) If you want to make this setting mandatory for all Zoom Rooms you are editing, click the lock icon , and then click Lock to confirm.
8. Click the Support Microsoft Teams web client meeting on Zoom Rooms checkbox . This step is necessary to allow ad-hoc join to MS Teams meetings. A later step will prioritize SIP-based dialing using Pexip CVI, and the Microsoft Teams web client will not be used.
9. Click the Show on home screen checkbox to display a Microsoft Teams join button on the room controller or touch display.
10. Under Connection method prioritization, click the the up or down arrows to make Use SIP or Pexip CVI to connect (if available) the first priority in the list.
11. Click the Use Pexip "SIP Guest Join" for Microsoft Teams meetings checkbox  .
12. Click the pencil icon next to Pexip customer ID and enter the Pexip customer ID provided by Pexip support. The Pexip customer ID must be entered exactly as provided.
13. Click Save.

You may also wish to review Pexip Connect for Zoom Rooms documentation for additional information.

How to join a Microsoft Teams meeting from a Zoom Room

Joining a scheduled meeting

1. Invite a Zoom Room to a Microsoft Teams meeting by directly adding the calendar resource associated with the Zoom Room to the Teams invite or forwarding a Teams calendar invitation received from a third party to the calendar resource associated with the Zoom Room. Alternatively, a user may cut and paste the entire body of a meeting invitation received from an external third party to a new meeting invite that includes the Zoom Room’s calendar resource.
   Once the calendar resource receives the meeting invite, the Zoom Room will display the meeting on its upcoming meeting list with a Join option on the Zoom Rooms controller. If you see Join by Audio instead, double-check the steps above or see the Troubleshooting section.
   Note: Forwarding the invite may require modification of settings in Microsoft Office 365 or Exchange.  In Google Calendar, forwarding is not possible, but a user with appropriate permissions may add the appropriate room or duplicate the meeting to a room calendar.
2. Click Join on the controller. The Zoom Room will connect to the Teams meeting.
   Note: The join process will take longer than joining a Zoom meeting.

Joining a meeting ad-hoc

If you have enabled the MS Teams web client, or are using your own Pexip services, you may join Microsoft Teams meetings ad-hoc:

1. Press the Microsoft Teams button on the controller or Zoom Rooms for Touch display.
2. Enter the Microsoft Teams meeting ID and press Join.
3. Enter the Microsoft Teams meeting passcode and press OK.
   Note: The join process will take longer than joining a Zoom meeting.

Meeting experience when using the Microsoft Teams web client

After joining, the following in-meeting controls are available: 

• • Mute Microphone
  • Start/Stop Video
  • Volume
  • Leave meeting  
  • Send problem report
  • Rejoin meeting
  • Share content
  • Rooms controls (if configured)
  • Camera controls (if only one camera is connected to the system; camera controls are not available if multiple cameras are present)

Use of the Microsoft Teams web client is only supported in Zoom Rooms with a single camera, single microphone and single speaker. If the Zoom Room has multiple cameras, microphones and/or speakers Microsoft Teams may select the wrong camera, microphone or speaker to use, respectively, and this cannot be changed during the call due to Zoom Interop limitations. The Microsoft Teams meeting will only appear on the first display of the Zoom Room. A second or third display will not show additional Microsoft Teams meeting participants or shared content.

Note: Screen sharing to a Microsoft Teams meeting requires access to the Microsoft Teams client. No wireless or wired HDMI screen sharing is available through the Zoom Room while joined to a Microsoft Teams call using the Microsoft Teams web client. Do not connect devices (e.g. a laptop) to the wired HDMI input of a Zoom Room before or during a Microsoft Teams call using the Microsoft Teams web client - it may lead to unpredictable results.

Meeting experience when SIP-based interoperability (including your own Pexip services)

When using SIP-based interoperability with Microsoft Teams for scheduled or ad-hoc meetings, the Zoom Room will start a Zoom meeting and out-dial to Microsoft Teams using SIP. The Zoom meeting has just two participants: the Zoom Room and the participant representing the connection to Microsoft Teams.

The normal features of a Zoom meeting are available, including:

• Mute Microphone
• Start/Stop Video
• Volume
• Leave meeting  
• Share content, including both Direct Share and wired HDMI screen sharing
• Camera controls, including camera switching
• Dual displays
• Send problem report
• Rooms controls (if configured)
• In Zoom Rooms with multiple cameras/speakers/microphones, the correct default peripherals will be selected.

However, SIP-based interop is limited to audio, video and content sharing, so, most Zoom meeting features will not function with SIP-based interop, including:

• View (this feature only changes the Zoom meeting layout, not the layout transmitted by the MS Teams meeting)
• Chat (this feature does not interoperate with MS Teams meeting chat)
• Participants list (the Zoom Room will see just one other participant, representing the MS Teams meeting, and cannot see the actual MS Teams meeting roster)
• Record (recording is only available in the Zoom meeting itself, and does not control MS Teams recording)
• Reactions (reactions, including raised hand, are only available in the Zoom meeting itself, and do not trigger reactions in the MS Teams meeting, including raised hand notification)
• Closed captions (closed captions are only available in the Zoom meeting itself, and does not control MS Teams caption settings)
• AI Companion (AI Companion is only available in the Zoom meeting itself)
• Break out rooms
• Lock meeting and other Security menu controls (these features only affect the Zoom meeting itself, and does not control MS Teams meeting settings)

The exact MS Teams meeting features that will be available when using SIP-based interoperability vary based on the Microsoft Teams Cloud Video Interop (CVI) used by the MS Teams meeting host. Consult the Microsoft CVI vendor documentation for more details, or contact the vendor for support:

• Cisco Webex Video Interop for Microsoft Teams
• HP/Poly RealConnect 
• Pexip CVI
• Pexip Connect for Zoom Rooms 

Microsoft Teams web client user interface changelog

December, 2023

As part of new Microsoft Teams app updates, Microsoft began to release a new user interface (UI) for Direct Guest Join on December 5, 2023, and plans to complete this update for all meeting attendees by December 15th, 2023. Zoom Rooms using Direct Guest Join to attend Microsoft Teams meetings will see this new UI as it is rolled out over this period. The user interface changes are primarily cosmetic in nature, such as changes to the color palette (e.g. the background color) and in-meeting video layout, along with a faster overall meeting join experience. In-meeting capabilities have changed: Microsoft has reduced the touch interface controls to those appropriate to a conference room device. Also, Microsoft Whiteboards shared by other Teams meeting participants will not be seen by Zoom Room participants.

Note: Zoom Rooms attending a Microsoft Teams meeting open a Microsoft-provided browser-based meeting experience, similar to attending a MS Teams meeting from a desktop browser. The Teams meeting experience is developed and maintained by Microsoft.

July, 2024 (anticipated)

New features:

• Support for active speaker indication
• Improved video quality and reliability
• Other minor bug fixes

Troubleshooting Zoom Interop for Microsoft Teams in Zoom Rooms

If you see Join by Audio or no Join button at all on the Zoom Rooms controller meeting list

• Ensure that Support Interoperability for Zoom Rooms and (depending on your desired configuration) Support Microsoft Teams web client meeting on Zoom Rooms are enabled for the Zoom Room.
• If you are using Office 365 or Microsoft Exchange for your Zoom Rooms calendar integration, ensure that the "deletecomments" automated calendar processing option is set to "False" so the Zoom Room may read the MS Teams meeting information from calendar invites. For example: Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity calendaremail@yourdomain.com -AddOrganizerToSubject $false -OrganizerInfo $true -DeleteComments $false -DeleteSubject $false -RemovePrivateProperty $false
• Users leveraging link filtering or “safe links” services that rewrite the original Microsoft Teams meeting URL will not be able to use Microsoft Teams web client interoperability.  The original link must be preserved in order for a Join button to appear in Zoom Rooms. Customers using Proofpoint URL Defense can safelist the teams.microsoft.com URL following the instructions here.  Customers using similar URL “safe links” services must safelist the teams.microsoft.com and gov.teams.microsoft.us URLs
• Make sure the Teams URL contains teams.microsoft.com or gov.teams.microsoft.us, not teams.live.com or other domains. The Microsoft Teams web client interoperability feature only supports meetings hosted on teams.microsoft.com or gov.teams.microsoft.us.
• If the Teams meeting was initially received from an external third party and forwarded to the Zoom Room, and you are using Office 365 or Microsoft Exchange for your Zoom Rooms calendar integration, default O365/Exchange configuration will cause the calendar resource to silently decline the forwarded meeting. You can allow these messages to be forwarded to the calendar resource by modifying O365/Exchange automated calendar processing settings, but you should carefully consider the implications of allowing external invitations to be directly sent or forwarded to a calendar resource. If the automated calendar processing option "ProcessExternalMeetingMessages" is set to "True" in your Office 365 settings, both directly sent and forwarded invitations will be accepted by the calendar resource. Alternately, users may copy and paste the entire Teams meeting invite into the body of a new meeting invite that includes the calendar resource associated with the Zoom Room. Example configuration in PowerShell to allow direct invitation and forwarding of external third party calendar invitations: Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity calendaremail@yourdomain.com -AddOrganizerToSubject $false -OrganizerInfo $true -DeleteComments $false -DeleteSubject $false -RemovePrivateProperty $false -ProcessExternalMeetingMessages $True

If you see the Join button on the Zoom Rooms Controller

• If it appears as though the Zoom Room attempts to join the Teams meeting but fails, and you have configured the Zoom Room to use Microsoft Teams web client interoperability, there may be firewall or other network security issues interfering with the connection to Microsoft Teams web client services. Please check that your firewall implements the Microsoft Teams firewall requirements. Include the Office 365 URLs and IP address ranges, particularly the ranges for Skype for Business Online and Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft 365 Common and Office Online.
• The Microsoft Teams meeting host must permit guest access for Meetings. This setting may be checked and, if necessary, changed by an administrator of the meeting host’s Microsoft Teams services. Please check here for more information on Microsoft Teams guest access.
• The Microsoft Teams meeting host may have configured the meeting to require that guests, such as a Zoom Room using Zoom Interop, be admitted from the Microsoft Teams meeting lobby. If this is the case, the host or possibly another authenticated user must admit the Zoom Room to the Microsoft Teams meeting. Please check here for more information on Microsoft Teams and automatic admission to meetings.

If you have joined the Microsoft Teams meeting

• If you are using a Zoom Room with Zoom Rooms for Touch capability to join the Microsoft Teams meeting using Microsoft Teams web client interoperability, Zoom recommends controlling the meeting experience (e.g. volume, mute, etc) from a Zoom Rooms Controller.  Though the touch UI will allow manipulation of the Microsoft Teams meeting controls on the Zoom Rooms display, only limited controls are available.
• Microsoft Teams, including the Microsoft Teams web client, uses "simulcast" to send multiple video resolutions to other Teams meeting clients. Depending on network bandwidth and the resolution requests of other Teams meeting clients in the same meeting, the resolution sent and received by a Zoom Room using Microsoft Teams web client interoperability may vary. If all Teams meeting clients can support high resolution streams, a Zoom Room using Microsoft Teams web client interoperability will receive a high resolution video stream from Microsoft Teams, whilst the presence of other Teams clients requesting low resolutions will force a Zoom Room using the Microsoft Teams web client to potentially send or receive at a lower resolution. The maximum possible resolution is 720p.
• Zoom Rooms using Microsoft Teams web client interoperability will receive gallery view with a maximum layout of 2x3, even if >6 participants are in the Teams meeting.
• In the event a Zoom Room using Microsoft Teams web client interoperability is experiencing other issues with a Microsoft Teams meeting, you can send a problem report to Microsoft:
  
  1. Join a Teams meeting from the Zoom Room.
  2. Tap the ellipses icon icon at the top right, then tap Send Problem Report.
  3. Fill in the information, ensure that the Send Information to Microsoft box icon is checked, then tap Send.

Zoom Rooms device support

Microsoft Teams web client interoperability

Microsoft Teams web client interoperability is supported by all Windows-based and Mac-based Zoom Rooms. Zoom Rooms Appliance support is detailed in the table below.

Microsoft Teams SIP-based interoperability

Microsoft Teams SIP-based interoperability is supported by all Windows- and Mac-based Zoom Rooms, and all Zoom Rooms Appliances.

Consult the Zoom Rooms application version requirements listed in the prerequisites for SIP-based interoperability with your own Pexip CVI services, or Pexip Connect for Zoom Rooms services.