Shared line appearance in Microsoft Teams
Shared line appearance lets a user choose a delegate to answer or handle calls on their behalf. This feature is helpful if a user has an administrative assistant who regularly handles the user's calls. In the context of shared line appearance, a manager is someone who authorizes a delegate to make or receive calls on their behalf. A delegate can make or receive calls on behalf of the delegator.
Important
This feature is only in Teams Only deployment mode. For more information on Teams deployment modes, see Understand Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business coexistence and interoperability
Dialing Permissions and Routing
When a delegate makes an outbound Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) call on behalf of a delegator, the delegator's settings control the checks for appropriate licensing, dial-out restrictions, and call routing.
License required
Managers and delegates must have a Teams Phone license. Managers must have a phone number assigned, PSTN connectivity, and a required license for PSTN connectivity: Calling Plan, Operator Connect, or Direct Routing. The shared line experience is part of delegation and is included with Teams Phone. For more information on licensing, see Microsoft Teams service description.
Note
A delegate without a phone number assigned must be EnterpriseVoiceEnabled using the Teams PowerShell cmdlet Set-CsPhoneNumberAssignment -Identity \<user\> -EnterpriseVoiceEnabled $true, see Set-CsPhoneNumberAssignment. If a Dial Pad shows in the Calls App of the Delegate, they're correctly configured for Enterprise Voice.
Shared line appearance feature availability
The following apps and devices currently support shared line appearance:
| Capability | Teams Desktop | Teams Mac App | Teams Web App (Edge) | Teams mobile iOS/Android App | Teams IP phone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Set up delegation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Receive calls on behalf of another | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Call a phone number on behalf of another | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Call a Teams user on behalf of another | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Join active calls | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| See the delegate view of shared lines | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| See the delegate view of manager's call activities | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| See the manager view of delegates | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| See shared call history | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Delegate or manager can hold or resume | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Limitations
Managers can add up to 25 delegates, and delegates can have up to 25 managers. There's no limit to the number of delegation relationships that can be created in a tenant.
If the delegator and delegate aren't in the same geographic location, the PSTN provider must allow caller ID to show up from a different geographic location for a delegated call.
Circular delegation configuration isn't permitted. If the delegated users also have delegations between them, they'll only be able to see their delegation and not the initial delegation.
Enable delegation and shared line appearance
You enable delegation by using the TeamsCallingPolicy AllowDelegation setting. You can use Teams admin center or Teams PowerShell. This setting is turned on by default.
When enabled, the end user can configure their delegation relationships directly in Teams.
Important
When you turn off delegation for a user, you also need to clean up delegation relationships for that user in the Teams admin center to avoid incorrect call routing.
Use Teams admin center
To configure delegation and shared line appearance:
In the navigation menu of the Microsoft Teams admin center, select Voice > Calling policies.
Choose the policy you would like to update or select Add to create a new policy.
Toggle Delegation for inbound and outbound calls on.
Select Save.
Use PowerShell
To configure delegation and shared line appearance by using Teams PowerShell, use the following cmdlets:
Examples
In the following example, [email protected] is added as a delegate of [email protected] with permissions to make and receive call on behalf of user1, and to change settings for other delegates:
New-CsUserCallingDelegate -Identity [email protected] -Delegate [email protected] -MakeCalls $true -ReceiveCalls $true -ManageSettings $true
In the next example, delegate [email protected] isn't allowed to make calls anymore on behalf of user1:
Set-CsUserCallingDelegate -Identity [email protected] -Delegate [email protected] -MakeCalls $false
In the next example, [email protected] is removed as a delegate of [email protected]:
Remove-CsUserCallingDelegate -Identity [email protected] -Delegate [email protected]
More information
Share a phone line with a delegate