Why are Teams invites added to Zoom meetings? What, you thought it was just you? It’s actually common. This irritating phenomenon is confusing for colleagues, vendors, and clients, and after reaching out to Microsoft even their solution was a bit unclear. Thankfully, we did the research and have a fix. Before understanding how to prevent Microsoft Teams meetings from being added to Zoom invites, it’s helpful to understand why it’s happening. 

Or you can jump to the fix »

MS Teams Invites On Your Zoom Meeting?

Leaders from our company recently experienced this first hand. Someone sent a Zoom invite, coordinating a call with us and another firm. Unbeknownst to the sender, a Microsoft Teams meeting link was inserted above his zoom link, so when the meeting began, two entities clicked the MS Team link, as the sender was sitting on the Zoom link. 15 minutes into the one-hour meeting, they realized the error and were able to jump on the right call.

In most cases, people lament “technology” and go about their day, but we quickly called a roundtable to discuss: why are Teams invites added to Zoom meetings? Was this a common problem?

After reaching out to our network, we discovered not only is this a common problem but many don’t know how to remedy the issue without manually deleting the inserted link every time. They didn’t know how to prevent Microsoft Teams meetings from being added to Zoom invites.

The problem with MS Teams and Zoom

Here’s the problem: Microsoft has hard-coded the Teams application to insert a link into all Office 365 invites. For someone who exclusively relies on the Microsoft ecosystem, sure, perhaps it makes sense. But companies rely on a diverse set of applications, especially within the meetings arena. 

Obviously, this should be left to the client to choose based on what is best for their organization. This auto-enabled setting causes business disruption. Although it is minor, many are unaware of how to solve this issue effectively.

How to prevent Microsoft Teams meetings from being added to Zoom invites

To prevent Microsoft Teams meetings from being added to Zoom invites, we reached out to Microsoft and it turns out they provide options for selecting your “go-to” meeting platform. Here’s what they told us: “If a customer uses both Microsoft Teams and a partner provider (or multiple partner providers), Microsoft Teams will be set as the default provider unless changed.”

You can fix this issue by selecting your preferred meeting provider is easy if you know where to look. To select your default online meeting provider in Outlook on the web and make every meeting online, follow these steps.’

1. Select File, Click on Options at the bottom
2. Select Calendar, and then choose Events and Invitations
3. Select the Add online meeting to all meetings checkbox.
4. From the Choose a meeting provider list, select your default online meeting provider. This list includes all providers relevant for your account.
5. Save