Why don't I see an account?

Hi Grant,

Microsoft Teams normally allows you to start a chat with someone outside your university by entering their complete email address in Chat > New message, even if their account does not appear in the search suggestions. (To learn more, visit this link: Add or invite people outside your org to a chat in Microsoft Teams)

If neither of you can find the other, external communication may be restricted by one or both organizations. Universities often apply stricter guest and external-access policies to protect students and institutional data. You may find further guidance here:

• IT Admins - Manage external meetings and chat with people and organizations using Microsoft identities
• Step 8: Manage access controls

In the meaning time, you can try these following steps:

1. Open Chat and select New message.
2. Enter the other person’s full email address.
3. Wait for the external result to appear, then select it and send a message.
4. Ask the other person to try the same steps using your full university email address.

If no external result appears, please contact your university’s Microsoft 365 or Teams administrator and ask whether Teams external access is enabled for your account and whether the other organization’s domain is allowed. The other person may also need to contact their administrator. Both organizations must permit the communication.

Here’s a resource that provides more insight:

• Use guest access and external access to collaborate with people outside your organization
• Guest access in Microsoft Teams

Note that external access is used for chat and calls, while guest access is used when someone needs to join a team and access its channels or shared resources.

I hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to share the results of the validation testing if you would like further assistance. 

Thank you for your understanding, and I wish you a wonderful day ahead. 

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