(Updated) Microsoft Teams Phones: Remotely manage contacts in Teams admin center

Message Center ID: MC942831
Microsoft Teams
Plan for Change
New feature User impact Admin impact
August 2025 September 2025 October 2025 November 2025
TeamsAndSurfaceDevices

Summary

Admins can soon remotely manage contacts for common area Teams Phones via the Teams admin center. The feature is rolling out globally through November 2025, allowing contact addition, review, and deletion with mailbox permissions required. No prior admin action is needed for the automatic rollout.

Details

Updated August 20, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to the Microsoft Teams admin center: Admins will be able to remotely manage contacts to ensure crucial contacts are available for users on their Teams Phone devices. This feature is only available for common area phones.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 81379.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): This feature is currently rolling out and will complete by late August 2025

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out this feature in late September 2025 and expect to complete by early October 2025.

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out this feature in late October 2025 and expect to complete by early November 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Find the detailed public documentation for this feature here.

IT admins can access the Manage contacts feature from Teams admin center > Teams Devices > Phones > Common area phones. Select the applicable devices and then select Manage contacts.

In the right panel, use the Search box to search for and select contacts to add to selected devices. You can upload a CSV file for contacts not found through Search. Newly added contacts will be synchronized to the Calls app and People app on the Teams phones devices under the group name Company contacts within 24 hours.

For any device, admins can review or delete the added contacts from the Manage contacts right panel.

Note: Admins must have mailbox permissions to manage contacts for Teams Devices accounts. Without these permissions, there will be an error in Teams admin center when attempting to view or add contacts. In these situations, Admins need to refer to the Mailbox Permission Script Execution Guide available in the public documentation and add the necessary permissions to the relevant accounts.

Track the progress and status of contact operations with the Activity log in the Teams phone inventory.

This new feature will be available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. If you have questions or need further assistance regarding this feature, please reach out to our support team.

Related Roadmap Items

Change History

August 20, 2025 at 4:31 PM Updated
Summary
Previous
Admins will soon be able to remotely manage contacts for common area phones via the Teams admin center. This feature will roll out globally in mid-July 2025, with specific timelines for GCC, GCC High, and DoD. No admin action is required before the rollout.
New
Admins can soon remotely manage contacts for common area Teams Phones via the Teams admin center. The feature is rolling out globally through November 2025, allowing contact addition, review, and deletion with mailbox permissions required. No prior admin action is needed for the automatic rollout.
Last Updated Date
Previous
2025-05-30T19:35:00.613Z
New
2025-08-20T14:36:20.140Z
Body Content
Previous

Updated May 30, 2025: We have updated the timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to the Microsoft Teams admin center: Admins will be able to remotely manage contacts to ensure crucial contacts are available for users on their Teams Phone devices. This feature is only available for common area phones.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 81379.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out this feature in mid-July 2025 and expect to complete by late July 2025.

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out this feature in late August 2025 and expect to complete by early September 2025.

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out this feature in late September 2025 and expect to complete by early October 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

IT admins can access the Manage contacts feature from Teams admin center > Teams Devices > Phones > Common area phones. Select the applicable devices and then select Manage contacts.

In the right panel, use the Search box to search for and select contacts to add to selected devices. You can upload a CSV file for contacts not found through Search. Newly added contacts will be synchronized to the Calls app and People app on the Teams phones devices under the group name Company contacts within 24 hours.

For any device, admins can review or delete the added contacts from the Manage contacts right panel.

Track the progress and status of contact operations with the Activity log in the Teams phone inventory.

This new feature will be available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. If you have questions or need further assistance regarding this feature, please reach out to our support team.

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

New

Updated August 20, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to the Microsoft Teams admin center: Admins will be able to remotely manage contacts to ensure crucial contacts are available for users on their Teams Phone devices. This feature is only available for common area phones.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 81379.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): This feature is currently rolling out and will complete by late August 2025

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out this feature in late September 2025 and expect to complete by early October 2025.

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out this feature in late October 2025 and expect to complete by early November 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Find the detailed public documentation for this feature here.

IT admins can access the Manage contacts feature from Teams admin center > Teams Devices > Phones > Common area phones. Select the applicable devices and then select Manage contacts.

In the right panel, use the Search box to search for and select contacts to add to selected devices. You can upload a CSV file for contacts not found through Search. Newly added contacts will be synchronized to the Calls app and People app on the Teams phones devices under the group name Company contacts within 24 hours.

For any device, admins can review or delete the added contacts from the Manage contacts right panel.

Note: Admins must have mailbox permissions to manage contacts for Teams Devices accounts. Without these permissions, there will be an error in Teams admin center when attempting to view or add contacts. In these situations, Admins need to refer to the Mailbox Permission Script Execution Guide available in the public documentation and add the necessary permissions to the relevant accounts.

Track the progress and status of contact operations with the Activity log in the Teams phone inventory.

This new feature will be available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. If you have questions or need further assistance regarding this feature, please reach out to our support team.

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