Microsoft has rolled out end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on its Teams messaging platform for one-to-one communications.
Teams started publicly testing E2EE in October; now the feature is rolling out to all users in a software update. Microsoft says that “multiple enterprise customers in the US and Europe across industries such as aerospace, manufacturing, telecommunications, and professional services are in the process of rolling out E2EE for Teams calls” following the feature’s official debut.
But it’s worth noting that adding support for E2EE doesn’t make Teams a private communications platform akin to Signal, Wickr, and other services of that ilk. Microsoft is careful to note in its announcement that it’s up to system administrators to decide who can use E2EE within their companies—and that the feature can be taken away just as quickly as it’s granted.
“As a reminder, by default end-to-end encryption will not be available to all users within the tenant,” the company says. “Once IT has configured the policy and enabled it for selected users, those selected users will still need to turn on end-to-end encryption in their Teams settings. IT retains the ability to disable E2EE for one-to-one Teams calls as necessary.”
Microsoft also says these features will be unavailable when E2EE is enabled on a call:
- Recording
- Live caption and transcription
- Call transfer (blind, safe, and consult)
- Call Park
- Call Merge
- Cal Companion and transfer to another device
- Add participant to make the one-to-one call a group call
Still, businesses using Teams will likely appreciate the ability to enable more thorough security for truly sensitive, calls even if the feature has its drawbacks. Companies might want to use E2EE when their R&D teams are discussing upcoming products, for example, but not for less critical communications.
E2EE is generally available via the Teams apps for Windows and Mac devices. (No word on bringing the feature to smartphones or tablets, even though Microsoft offers clients for those products as well.) Microsoft offers more information about the feature in its October blog post.
