Bypassing Microsoft Teams Captcha for Recall.ai Bots

Your customers’ Teams organizations may have various settings that impact whether a bot can join a meeting. This guide explains the key settings, participant states, potential blockers, and solutions to ensure seamless bot access.

Participant States

These states determine how Teams classifies a bot attempting to join a meeting:

• anonymous: User is not signed in.

• unverified: User is signed in, but their email domain is neither from the Teams org nor a trusted organization.

• verified: User is signed in, and their email domain is from the Teams org or a trusted organization.

Key Settings to Monitor

The following settings in the Microsoft Teams admin dashboard (https://admin.teams.microsoft.com) control bot access:

1. Meetings → Meeting Settings → Participants

   • Anonymous users can join a meeting (toggle): Controls whether unsigned-in users (e.g., bots) can join.

2. Meetings → Meeting Policies → Meetings → Meeting Join & Lobby

   • Anonymous users can join a meeting unverified (toggle): Determines if anonymous users need verification.

   • Require a verification check from (dropdown):

     • Not Required: No verification needed.

     • Anonymous users and people from untrusted organizations: Verification (i.e. captcha) required unless the domain is trusted.

3. Users → External Access

   • Teams and Skype for Business users in external organizations (toggle + input): Defines which external domains are trusted (e.g., Allow all external domains or Allow only specific external domains).

Common Cases and Solutions

Below are four common configurations (blockers for bots to join the meeting), and how to allow bot access. Adjust settings as needed based on your organization’s security requirements.

Case 1: Strict Access (No Anonymous, Verification Required)

• Settings:

  • Meetings → Meeting Settings → Participants

    • Anonymous users can join a meeting → false

  • Meetings → Meeting Policies → Global → Meeting & Join Lobby

    • Anonymous users can join a meeting unverified → false

    • Require a verification check from Anonymous users and people from untrusted organizations

• Blocker: Bots fail unless their domain is trusted.

• Solution:

  • Set Teams and Skype for Business users in external organizations to:

    • Allow only specific external domains + add the bot’s email domain.

Case 2: Anonymous Allowed, Verification Required

• Settings:

  • Meetings → Meeting Settings → Participants

    • Anonymous users can join a meeting → true

  • Meetings → Meeting Policies → Global → Meeting & Join Lobby

    • Anonymous users can join a meeting unverified → false

    • Require a verification check from Anonymous users and people from untrusted organizations

• Blocker: Bots fail with microsoft_teams_bot_not_invited if their domain isn’t trusted.

• Solution:

  • Set Teams and Skype for Business users in external organizations to:

    • Allow only specific external domains + add the bot’s email domain.

Case 3: No Anonymous, Unverified Allowed

• Settings:

  • Meetings → Meeting Settings → Participants

    • Anonymous users can join a meeting → false

  • Meetings → Meeting Policies → Global → Meeting & Join Lobby

    • Anonymous users can join a meeting unverified → true

    • Require a verification check from Anonymous users and people from untrusted organizations

• Blocker: Bots fail with microsoft_teams_bot_not_invited if their domain isn’t trusted.

• Solution:

  • Set Teams and Skype for Business users in external organizations to:

    • Allow only specific external domains + add the bot’s email domain.

Case 4: Fully Permissive (Anonymous and Unverified Allowed)

• Settings:

  • Meetings → Meeting Settings → Participants

    • Anonymous users can join a meeting → true

  • Meetings → Meeting Policies → Global → Meeting & Join Lobby

    • Anonymous users can join a meeting unverified → true

    • Require a verification check from Anonymous users and people from untrusted organizations

• Blocker: Bots fail with microsoft_teams_captcha_detected if their domain isn’t trusted.

• Solution:

  • Set Teams and Skype for Business users in external organizations to:

    • Allow only specific external domains + add the bot’s email domain.

How to add your bot as a trusted organization to bypass captcha

To do this, head to the Teams Admin dashboard > Users > External Access:
https://admin.teams.microsoft.com/company-wide-settings/external-communications

Once there, update the Teams and Skype for Business users in external organizations setting to be "Allow only specific external domains". Finally, add your bot's email domain (used to sign into your bot's teams account) to the external domains list.

Troubleshooting Tips

• Check Bot’s Domain: Ensure the bot’s email domain (e.g., bot@yourdomain.com) matches the trusted domain entry (yourdomain.com)

• Test with Admin Access: Use the Teams admin dashboard (https://admin.teams.microsoft.com) to verify settings.

• Error Codes:

  • microsoft_teams_bot_not_invited: Bot’s domain isn’t trusted or settings block unverified users.

  • microsoft_teams_captcha_detected: Anonymous and unverified access is allowed, but the bot’s domain isn’t trusted.

Conclusion

To ensure bots can join meetings, configure the External Access setting to trust the bot’s domain. Adjust anonymous and verification settings based on your security needs, referencing the cases above. For further assistance, consult the Recall.ai documentation or your Teams admin.