Microsoft Teams officially supports end-to-end encryption function
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a communication system in which only participating users can read information to enhance the security and confidentiality of information.
Theoretically speaking, the communication that initiates end-to-end encryption cannot be decrypted and read by network operators, Internet service providers, and other non-specific participants.
As early as this spring, Microsoft has notified that Microsoft Teams will support end-to-end encrypted communication, and this feature has now begun to be pushed to all users.
Microsoft said that this feature has been tested in the preview version and will soon be pushed to all Microsoft Teams users, but some features are limited after being enabled.
If these features are needed for a call, the user can go into their settings and turn end-to-end encryption off the same way it was turned on.
- 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
Based on the operating principle and purpose of end-to-end encrypted communication, some existing functions will not be able to be used normally when the end-to-end encryption is enabled in Microsoft Teams.
For example, chat history will not be saved after activation, real-time subtitles and transcription functions cannot be used, and similar functions such as call transfer/pause/merge cannot be used.
In addition, after enabling end-to-end encryption, private conversations cannot be directly converted into group conversations, that is, existing private conversations cannot be converted into new groups by adding other users.
To support corporate security and compliance requirements, corporate IT administrators can fully control which corporate members can use end-to-end encryption, which is similar to a whitelist model.
Of course, enterprises can also enable end-to-end encryption for the entire corporate communication environment to ensure data security, or enable encryption only for specific departments and specific employees.
Currently, this feature already supports Microsoft Teams for Windows/macOS version, mobile versions such as Android and iOS versions do not support end-to-end encryption for the time being.
