Managing Calls in Teams: Hold, Transfer and Mute

How to put a Mute, Transfer or put a call on Hold in Teams

Calling in Teams has much of the same functionality as calling from a traditional campus phone. Below are the instructions for how to put a call on Mute, Transfer a call and put a call on Hold.

Step-by-step Guides

How to Mute a Teams call

Teams app on a computer

1. In the upper right corner of the Teams window to the left of the Leave button is a microphone icon, click on it to Mute the call.

Teams physical phone

1. There is a small microphone icon on the bottom right corner of the Teams physical phone. Tap it to mute the call. It will light up red while the call is muted.

Teams app on a smart phone

1. While on a Teams call there will be a small microphone icon at the bottom of the screen, tap it to mute the call.

How to Transfer a Teams call

Teams app on a computer

Direct Transfer

1. While on a Teams call, click on the three horizontal dots to the left of the Leave button.
2. Click on Transfer
3. Look up the person you want to transfer the call to.
4. Click on Transfer to transfer the call directly to them, or click on the drop down arrow to get the option to transfer the call directly to their voicemail.

Transfer with Consult first option

1. While on a Teams call, click on the three horizontal dots to the left of the Leave button.
2. Click on "Consult then transfer"
3. Search of for the person you wish to transfer to or enter their number directly. Please note that if the person you want to consult with is using Teams, your default consult choice will be chat. Click on the drop down arrow to get the other, audio options.
4. When you are done talking to the person you want to consult with, click on the Transfer button at the top right of the screen to complete the transfer.

Teams Desktop phone

1. While in the call, touch the "Transfer" icon on the phone's screen (in older versions of the phone app, touch the "..." menu at the bottom of the screen, first)
2. Choose "Transfer now" to immediately send the call to someone; or touch "Consult first" to allow you to talk to the person you are transferring to before you actually transfer the call. After talking with the consult person, click on the small icon of a phone with an arrow exiting it (toward right edge of screen) then click "Ok" to confirm that you want to complete the transfer after consulting with the recipient.

Teams app on a smart phone

Direct Transfer

1. While in the call, tap on the three horizontal dots at the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap on Transfer.
3. Tap on Transfer now.
4. Search for the person you want to transfer the call to. Tap on their name transfer the call.

Transfer with Consult first option

1. While in the call, tap on the three horizontal dots at the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap on Transfer.
3. Tap on Consult first.
4. Search for the person you wish to consult.
5. Tap their name.
6. A Teams chat will open with some default language asking the person if they are available for a call. You can delete that and add any message you want.
7. When you are ready to transfer the call, tap on the transfer icon (looks like two arrows going in opposite directions).

How to put a Teams Call on Hold

Teams app on a Computer

1. While in the call, click on the three horizontal dots to the left of the Leave button.
2. Click on Hold.
   1. Click on Resume to take the call off of hold.

Teams physical phone

1. While in the call, tap on the three Horizontal dots located at the bottom of the screen next to the End call button.
2. Tap on, Put call on hold.
   1. Tap on Resume to take the call off of hold.

Teams app on a smart phone

1. While in the call tap on the three horizontal dots next to the End call button.
2. Tap on, Put call on hold.
   1. Tap the Resume button to take the call off of hold.

If the person you consulted with can't take the call press the hold button (two vertical lines next to each other, the button will be beside the transfer button) to resume your conversation with them.

For more information please refer to the following Microsoft web resource: Managing Active Calls

If you need further assistance, please contact the Bowdoin College Service Desk