Microsoft Teams Calling Features | What's Possible with Teams 365

Nathan Hill-Haimes, Technical Director 8 min read · Mar 2026 · Updated Jun 2026

What can Microsoft Teams calling actually do?

Microsoft Teams calling — properly called Teams Phone once external PSTN calling is switched on — is a complete business telephone system built into Microsoft 365. It handles inbound routing, queueing, transfer, recording, and reporting, and competes directly with standalone hosted VoIP platforms. The difference is that it lives inside the tools your team already uses every day.

For UK businesses already on Microsoft 365, that integration is the whole point. There is no second app, no separate directory, and no extra vendor relationship. If you are weighing it against a standalone business VoIP platform, the decision usually comes down to how committed you already are to the Microsoft stack. Microsoft documents the full calling capability set in its Teams Phone technical guidance.

What are the core Teams Phone calling features?

The base Teams Phone licence delivers the call-handling features most SMEs need: automated answering, queueing, voicemail, transfer, and parking. These are configured centrally in the Teams Admin Centre and apply across every device a user signs into.

• Auto-attendant: Answers inbound calls with a custom greeting and routes callers by key press or speech recognition. You can run several attendants at once — a main number, a sales line, and an after-hours menu — each with its own greeting, routing rules, and holiday schedule. Attendants are free to configure and can hold their own direct number.
• Call queues: Distribute inbound calls across a group of agents. When everyone is busy, callers wait with hold music, position announcements, and overflow or timeout rules. This is the backbone of any customer-facing team.
• Voicemail with transcription: Messages arrive as readable text inside the Teams thread. Users read, play, or forward voicemail without leaving the app, on any device.
• Call transfer: Both attended (consult first) and blind (direct) transfers are supported, including transfer to external numbers like a mobile.
• Call park and retrieve: Park a call in a shared holding area and pick it up from any device — ideal for reception hand-offs.

If you want this handled end to end, AMVIA's Microsoft Teams calling deployment covers attendant design, queue logic, and number porting as a managed service.

What are the advanced Teams Phone features?

Beyond core call handling, Teams Phone adds recording, analytics, and flexible PSTN connectivity. Some of these sit in the base licence; others — notably call recording — need an add-on. Knowing which is which avoids a nasty surprise at go-live.

• Call recording: Convenience (user-initiated) recording needs Teams Premium. Compliance recording — automatic, tamper-evident, mandatory — requires a Microsoft-certified compliance recording partner. Recording is not in the base licence, which is a genuine difference from hosted VoIP platforms that bundle it.
• Call analytics and reporting: The Teams Admin Centre gives call-quality dashboards, per-user history, and Real Time Analytics for active calls. Power BI integration enables custom reporting; full contact-centre analytics need a certified CCaaS add-on.
• Direct Routing: Connects Teams Phone to the PSTN through a third-party SBC and SIP trunk, giving you carrier choice, call-cost control, and the ability to keep existing numbers and contracts. See AMVIA's Teams Direct Routing service for managed SBC delivery.
• Operator Connect: A managed PSTN option where Microsoft-certified carriers (including BT and Gamma) plug their network straight into Teams Phone via Microsoft's cloud — simpler than Direct Routing while keeping carrier choice.

How do you connect Teams Phone to the phone network?

Teams Phone needs a PSTN connection to make and receive external calls. There are three routes — Microsoft Calling Plans, Operator Connect, and Direct Routing — and the right one depends on call volumes, existing carrier contracts, and how much control you want over routing.

For most 10–500-staff UK businesses, Operator Connect hits the sweet spot. If you are migrating from on-premise ISDN ahead of the PSTN switch-off, a SIP trunk via Direct Routing keeps your existing numbers in play.

What does Teams Phone integration with Microsoft 365 add?

The feature that genuinely sets Teams Phone apart is its place inside the wider Microsoft 365 collaboration platform. Calls are not a bolt-on; they share the same identity, presence, and directory as chat, meetings, and email — which is exactly why running voice and VoIP with Microsoft 365 together is so efficient.

• Presence awareness: Call status (on a call, away, do not disturb) is visible to everyone across Teams.
• Calling from chat: One click escalates a chat into a voice or video call.
• Meeting to call: Move between a Teams meeting and a private call without breaking stride.
• Contact integration: Teams directory, Outlook contacts, and CRM records are all reachable mid-call.
• Teams Rooms integration: Meeting rooms can be kitted out to make and take Teams Phone calls.

Which devices work with Teams Phone?

Teams Phone runs on the desktop client (Windows and Mac), the mobile app (iOS and Android), and Teams-certified IP phones from Yealink, Poly, and others. Certified handsets run Teams-mode firmware, so answering, holding, and transferring work natively on the phone display without touching a PC.

Standard SIP handsets can also be used through Direct Routing, but native Teams integration — presence, the Teams interface, one-touch transfer — is only available on certified devices. If desk phones matter to your team, specify certified hardware from the start. A managed hosted phone system rollout from AMVIA includes device selection and provisioning so handsets arrive configured.

How much does Teams Phone cost?

Teams Phone is licensed as an add-on to a Microsoft 365 base plan, plus a PSTN connectivity option. Source figures put Teams Phone licences from £6–£12 per user per month and Calling Plans from £5–£9, on top of the underlying Microsoft 365 subscription.

The base Microsoft 365 plans themselves are list-priced by Microsoft at Business Standard £9.60 and Business Premium £16.90 per user per month (ex VAT, annual commitment), per Microsoft's UK pricing. Adding it up:

• Teams Phone licence: from £6–£12/user/month
• Calling Plan (domestic minutes + number): from £5–£9/user/month
• Teams Premium (convenience recording, advanced meetings): around £6.50–7/user/month (2026 UK market rate)

A typical Teams Phone user with a calling plan lands at roughly £11–£21/user/month (typical UK 2026 range) depending on configuration, before the underlying M365 licence. AMVIA assesses your exact licence mix so you are not paying for capability you will not use.

How does Teams Phone compare on adoption?

Teams Phone is now one of the largest cloud PBX platforms in the world, which matters for roadmap confidence and integration support. Around 80 million Teams users have some calling capability, though only about 6.25% have external PSTN calling enabled *(UC Today, 2025 data)*, which shows how much headroom remains. Competitor Zoom Phone reached around 7 million paid seats *(Grand View Research, 2024)* — growing, but a different scale.

How do you keep Teams Phone secure?

Because Teams Phone lives inside Microsoft 365, securing it is the same job as securing the rest of your tenant: identity, conditional access, and monitoring. Voice traffic inherits your Microsoft 365 identity controls, so weak MFA or loose conditional access exposes calling alongside email.

AMVIA treats voice as part of the security perimeter, not a separate silo — that is the security-first half of "one provider, security-first, Microsoft-certified". Hardening Teams Phone runs through the same Microsoft 365 security controls — MFA, Entra ID conditional access, and Defender monitoring — that protect mail and files. The UK's NCSC sets out the identity-first principles this approach follows.