Rob Quickenden | Technology and AI Blog

You can now include system audio in Teams meetings

rquickenden avatar
rquickenden

August 2019:

Up until now (well, yesterday in my experience, it has not been possible to share your “system audio” when sharing or presenting content such as a video or PowerPoint from within a #MicrosoftTeams meeting.  A new update in in Teams which is rolling out “now” (mine “switched on” yesterday” now lets you do just that! 

This feature is easily missed but you can spot it (and enable) it from the share try tab when in a teams Meeting. When sharing content (such a application or your screen, simply tick the “include system audio” and you are good to go. 

A couple of things…

…you need to check to make sure this works though

First, you need to ensure your Windows audio device is the same as your audio device in Teams. So if you hear the audio from other participants in your headphones you have to make sure that your Windows system sound is played to that device too.

If you don’t have the same audio device selected in Teams and in Windows you will likely see the error below.

Secondly – if you have already stared a sharing session and forgot to enable the system audio, you can enable this “mid-sharing” by clicking the icon in the top control bar. To do this, simply move your mouse to the top of the screen and it should appear, select “Include system audio” by clicking on the button.

What about Live Events?

Right now, from my initial testing anyway, sharing system audio does not work with Live Events which is odd. I’ve seen nothing specifically about this in the Teams Road map but i suspect this is something that will be addressed in time. 

Thanks for Reading.

Rob

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10 responses to “You can now include system audio in Teams meetings”

  1. Jernatety avatar
    Jernatety

    Sorry, there seems to be confusion, teams works as designed for corporate use. We’re trying to use teams as a resource for coaching, teaching reps in various departments how to handle calls with customers, in our test scenario I am acting as a rep trainer and my teammate is acting as a rep trainee. We are working from home over VPN – both test participants

    Testing: I’m the “test trainer” and there’s my teammate the “test trainee”.

    We follow the instructions provided above for TEAMS. He goes on mute and I make a test call to an external party using IP Communicator. The party picks up and greets me, we have a brief discourse and I end the call over IP Communicator. The test trainee unmutes himself and advises he only hears me, he does not hear the other party. The same thing happens if the test party calls in to me on my IP Communicator. The test trainee only hears me, not the external caller.

    Reply
  2. Jernatety avatar
    Jernatety

    Hello, I’ve tried this several times with a team member at my company and we have not had success with full duplex audio. While my teammate is muted, he can hear me during my call through IPComm but he cannot hear the person on the other end of my call. We’ve followed the instruction step by step several times and are unable to manage a successful 2 way test. Could this possibly be a port blocking firewall issue? Are there specific ports which must be open at all times?

    Reply
    1. rquickenden avatar
      rquickenden

      Hi there and thanks for the message.

      This blog refers specifically to the fact that it’s now possible to share system audio (for example music and voice in a video if presenting or other system sounds.)

      I have included a link to the list of ports needed for Teams below… An initial good test would be to also.

      1. Run a system test in Teams. You can do this by going to settings and doing a test call

      2. Doing and internal call between you and another person in the same company..

      https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/prepare-network

      Firewalls and VPNs are the most common cause of issues with screen sharing..

      Look forward to hearing how you get on.
      Rob

      Reply
      1. Jernatety avatar
        Jernatety

        Thank you for the response. The testing myself and my team member were doing were external outbound and external inbound. Whereas my team member heard me fine but not the external caller. If I understand correctly, is this blog instruction for internal use only?

        Thank you for your help!

        Reply
        1. rquickenden avatar
          rquickenden

          Sharing system audio in teams is available both internally (internal organisation) and external (all meetings).

          From your comments it sound like you are having wider issues with Teams and people not being able to hear you.. This sounds like it might be an issue their side.. You could ask them to join via a Web browser rather than teams client or their mobile to rule out any local issues.

          If you beleive the issue is your side, you can log a support ticket with Microsoft. (your IT team may need to do for you).

          Hope this helps.. Ron

          Reply
        2. rquickenden avatar
          rquickenden

          Sharing system audio in teams is available both internally (internal organisation) and external (all meetings).

          From your comments it sound like you are having wider issues with Teams and people not being able to hear you.. This sounds like it might be an issue their side.. You could ask them to join via a Web browser rather than teams client or their mobile to rule out any local issues.

          If you beleive the issue is your side, you can log a support ticket with Microsoft. (your IT team may need to do for you).

          Hope this helps.. Rob

          Reply
  3. Marcia avatar
    Marcia

    It’s there for me and it works at first, then always stops and delivers an error message – Audio sharing canceled due to a system error. Can’t find anything about the error online, though.

    Reply
    1. rquickenden avatar
      rquickenden

      This usually happens if something else is using your audio… I’ll do some digging.. Next time it happens… Are you able to chrkc your system log and send the log file..

      Reply
  4. Johan Harsta avatar
    Johan Harsta

    Not there in my Teams…

    Reply
    1. rquickenden avatar
      rquickenden

      Hi Johan. It should be by now as was released a while back.. When you click on share screen it’s a little tick box once you select the source. Easily missed.

      Reply

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