Microsoft Teams Lobby Settings for the Revial Bot

The Issue

When the Revial transcription bot joins a Microsoft Teams meeting, it may bypass the lobby and enter the meeting automatically — depending on your organization's Teams settings. Some organizations prefer the bot to wait in the lobby so that the meeting organizer can admit it manually.

This behavior is not controlled by Revial — it is determined by your Microsoft Teams meeting policies.

Solution A: Organization-Wide Setting (IT Admin)

If you want the lobby setting to apply to all meetings across your organization, an IT administrator needs to make the change once in the Teams Admin Center.

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Teams Admin Center
2. Navigate to Meetings → Meeting policies
3. Select the active policy (e.g. "Global (Org-wide default)")
4. Find the Lobby section
5. Set "Who can bypass the lobby" → "Only organizers and co-organizers"
6. Save the changes

Once saved, this applies to all meetings in the organization. Individual users do not need to change anything.

Note: Changes to meeting policies may take some time to propagate across your organization.

Solution B: Per-Meeting Setting (Meeting Organizer)

If you don't have admin access, or if you only want to change the setting for a specific meeting, the meeting organizer can adjust it individually:

1. Open the Teams calendar and select the meeting
2. Click Meeting options (or "Kokousasetukset" in Finnish)
3. Find "Who can bypass the lobby"
4. Select "Only me and co-organizers" or "People I invite"
5. Save

This only affects the selected meeting.

What Happens After Enabling the Lobby

When the lobby is enabled, the Revial transcription bot will wait in the lobby like any other external participant. The meeting organizer (or co-organizer) will need to manually admit the bot from the lobby.

The bot will appear in the lobby with the name configured in your organization's settings (by default "Revial Assistant").

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the organizer need to admit the bot every time? Yes. If the lobby policy requires it, the bot must be admitted manually for each meeting.

Can this be changed so the bot always joins automatically? Yes — set "Who can bypass the lobby" to "Everyone" in your Teams meeting policy or per-meeting options. However, this also allows other external participants to bypass the lobby.

Is this a Revial setting? No. The lobby behavior is entirely controlled by Microsoft Teams. Revial's bot behaves like any external participant joining the meeting.