Guests vs. External Users in Teams

You can work in Teams with contacts outside of Stanford University who do not have a SUNet ID or a Stanford University Teams account by either:

• Inviting them to be guests in the Stanford University Microsoft tenant
• Adding them as external users

(To learn the definition of tenant and other Microsoft terminology, refer to UIT's M365 glossary.)

Guest members vs. external users: What's the difference?

Microsoft provides two options for collaborating with people outside of Stanford University. The first — guest member access— lets you invite individuals to create a guest account and join your team as guest members. The second — external access— lets you find, call, and chat with individuals not in the Stanford University tenant without inviting them to join a team. These individuals do not need a guest account. 

• Guest users - This is the best option for collaboration. You can use the directory within Teams to search for and find guests and add them as team members. Guests don’t have all the members' capabilities — but they have access to all public channels with a team. However, guests in the Stanford University tenant will need to switch to the Stanford University tenant to access those files or chat conversations. To better understand the guest experience and the capabilities of guests, refer to the Guest Member Experience.
• ​External users do not have guest accounts and cannot be added to a team (unless invited as guests). However, they can find, call, and chat with you in teams; external users cannot access channels, files, or other team resources. Unlike guests, external users might include trusted partners outside of Stanford — including collaborators from other universities.  External users outside of Stanford cannot be found in the Team’s directory and must be searched for using their full email address.  

Adding a guest member to a team

Guest members get similar access to chats, meetings, documents, and files as those with a stanford.edu account. To add a guest member, follow the instructions to add members to a Stanford University team. To invite healthcare employees to join your team in the Stanford University tenant as guests, search for their names in the Teams directory and select their hospital ID.

Review the information below to understand the actions a guest must take to join a Stanford University team for the first time. 

Stanford Affiliate colleagues only

• Guest accounts are auto-provisioned for Stanford Affiliate colleagues and automatically appear in the Stanford University Teams directory (Global Address List).
• Stanford Affiliate colleagues will receive an email invite from Microsoft the first time they are invited to join a Stanford University team. Each Stanford Affiliate colleague MUST accept this invitation before they can switch to the guest tenant view and access team resources.

External contacts outside of the Stanford Affiliates

• External contacts outside the Stanford Affiliates will receive an initial email from Microsoft inviting them to self-enroll for a guest account when you request to add them to a team.
• They receive a second email invite from Microsoft for the first time they are invited to join a Stanford University team. They MUST accept this invitation before switching to the guest tenant view and accessing team resources.

Working with external users

External users can participate in chat, calls, and meetings, but will not have access to teams, channels, and team resources in Stanford University teams.

To start a chat with an External User:

• Enter the external user’s email address or phone number. You will see an option to “search externally” for the user. (Note: You must use the full email address.)
• Once the user is found, you can chat, call and see the external user’s availability (presence) information.

Learn more about the differences between guests and external users

Think of it this way. External access users are invited to talk and chat, but guest members are invited into our environment. Refer to the table below to understand the difference between the two types of access.