Add ability to unmute someone you muted
Add ability to unmute someone you muted. I discretely muted someone who had a loud audio whine coming through their system during a meeting and when I asked them a question and tried to un-mute them, I discovered I could not and then had to explain he was muted.
Please make it so if a user mutes someone they can also unmute them. The only person who should be able to unmute a user that muted themselves is themself. But if a another user mutes a user, then either user should be able to unmute. There should be an indication/notification to the muted/unmuted user that they have been muted and/or unmuted so it is obvious something has changed.

54 comments
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Marc De Winter commented
Please add this for the meeting organiser
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Anonymous commented
The remote schooling needs this function as soon as possible!
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Alex S. commented
This is the most basic feature of a video conference system, how it's not available is beyond me. This needs to be added immediately.
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The Lou commented
Quite surprised it isn't on the M365 Roadmap yet. This is a must-feature and should be prioritized.
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Marcus Hopfer commented
If you mute the mircofones during an exam - it would be great to unmute a special student if you think she/he is talking to someone in the background...
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Julia commented
YES!
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Georg Opetnik commented
Hard - mute, Soft - mute
One possibility would be to split up the mute function.
Hard mute: only the participant can switch on the microphone.
Soft mute: both the participant and the team leader can switch on the microphone. The participant determines the function whether hard or soft mute -
Georg Opetnik commented
I teach 8 year old children in elementary school and it is very troublesome when the children have to talk and the microphone is switched off. It always takes a long time asking children to turn on the microphone when they want to speak. If, as a teacher, I had the opportunity to turn on the children's microphones, the lessons would be much more effective.
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Anonymous commented
When doing remote learning with a year 1 class of 5/6 year olds, we need to mute children so that there is less feedback and they can hear the teacher. However, when we ask children to contribute they often do not know how to unmute themselves. It slows down the lesson and makes it so much more disjointed and the children become less engaged. Teams really needs to give the presenter this functionality.
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Anonymous commented
Thats will be fine!! So you can pick up some pupils for a answer.
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Anonymous commented
yes please.
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Anonymous commented
Please please please will you set up muting so that we can unmute our pupil ourselves and not have to rely on then unmuting themselves.
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Anonymous commented
Primary grades teachers are missing a feature to unmute all or unmute a particular participant.
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Anonymous commented
this would be very helpful with the primary grades
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Brooke Helmlinger commented
As a kindergarten teacher, it is very difficult to constantly wait for a 5 year old to unmute. We are using this for remote learning. If we had the capability to have a setting when setting up the meeting to mute AND unmute our daily lessons would be more impactful and successful. We are trying to make the best of this terrible situation, but if we could have one thing to make our day run more smoothly, this would be it.
On a side note, it would be beneficial to have the ability to lock mute on certain participants, allowing only the presenter the ability to lock and unlock the mute button. Many times 5 year old kiddos unmute constantly which makes it hard to continue on with lessons.
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Scott Kroyer commented
While this may sound like a good idea, there are unacceptable privacy implications of unmuting somebody without their knowledge or consent. That is true even if you are the person who muted them to begin with since they may have since noticed that they were muted and be relying on that level of privacy.
The acceptable alternative would be to "Ask user to unmute themselves" with a prominently audible and visible interactive prompt.
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Anonymous commented
Please add the function for the meeting organiser to unmute a participant once they have been muted. This is particularly useful with participants who may be experiencing difficulties with the technology.
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Thomas Köbler commented
In my opinion, this would be a great feature! Teachers should have the possibility to unmute a student - especially if this pupil was muted before. Some students have difficulties to recognize the mute-/unmute-state and start talking without being heard.
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Lauren Holston commented
I work as a telehealth provider, offering services to elderly patients in nursing homes. Due to the current pandemic, these ladies and gentlemen are isolated from the world, and they need as much support as they can get. I'm proud to be a provider of that!
What I'm not proud of, however, is the quality of service that I provide while using Microsoft Teams.
As I said before, these patients are geriatric. Which means, as you can guess, that many of them have sight and hearing difficulties. Additionally, they were raised in a totally different generation. Few of them are computer/tech literate. When all of that mixes together, guess what you get? That's right-- lots and lots of technical difficulties! Call participants mute themselves on accident, but they can't navigate the system to properly unmute themselves. And because I can't unmute them myself, they're stuck there with yet another wall between themselves and the outside world. These patients should not have to live like that. As a health provider, I need software that enables me to continue doing my job, not one that stops me from doing it.
If Microsoft would like to demonstrate that they have any consideration for people with disabilities, they will improve their software to allow presenters to unmute. The current functionality is not inclusive and does not consider the functioning level and care needs of diverse populations.
I am very disappointed with what this says about Microsoft's values, and my company will gladly pursue other video-call platforms if this issue is not addressed in an appropriate manner.
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Darren commented
Zoom allows organizer of a meeting to mute and unmute. If a person is in a meeting they are suppose to be in the meeting. People have many reasons they cannot unmute themselves. This is not negotiable. Stay competitive and sensitive to customer feedback. Thank you.