Teams limits transcript access via Graph

Introduction

Microsoft introduced a control that limits Microsoft Graph applications’ and agents’ access to Teams meeting transcripts, with the announcement MC1393806. This control is now active in tenants, disabled (false) by default : without administrator action, no application or agent connected through Graph can access transcripts.

Why this restriction

A Teams meeting transcript can contain extremely sensitive information : a meeting about a reorganization project, a discussion of compensation changes. Microsoft doesn’t want agents to have free access to this content without explicit tenant approval, including to prevent transcripts from being processed by third-party connectors such as ChatGPT or Claude without authorization.

How to configure the control

The setting is configured from the Meeting settings section of the Microsoft Teams Admin Center, or via PowerShell with the Set-CsTeamsMeetingConfiguration cmdlet :

Set-CsTeamsMeetingConfiguration -EnableAttributedTranscripts $true -EnableGraphTranscriptAccess $true

The EnableGraphTranscriptAccess parameter enables Graph access to transcripts. EnableAttributedTranscripts separately enables exporting speaker attribution (who said what during the call) ; this second parameter isn’t required to enable Graph access and is currently only available through PowerShell, not from the Microsoft Teams Admin Center.

The other prerequisites

Enabling the setting isn’t enough on its own to grant access to transcripts. A Graph application must also meet two additional conditions :

• Permissions : Hold the OnlineMeetings.Read.All and OnlineMeetings.Transcripts.Read.All permissions.
• Authentication and access policy : Use app-only authentication with a registered application, itself authorized on the targeted user accounts through a Teams application access policy. The same requirement applies to any access to online meeting artifacts.

The JoinURL format trap

Retrieving a transcript depends on the JoinURL property to locate the corresponding online meeting. Teams has used two successive meeting URL formats :

• Old format : https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ followed by a long value.
• New format : https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/382314615403093?p=MhwpbLNlCVE8IvrANn

Graph APIs only resolve the online meeting with the new format ; an attempt with the old format fails, even though the Teams client can still locate and open the meeting. Online meetings created after a tenant’s rollout of the new join experience generally already use the new format.

Conclusion

The Graph access control for transcripts closes a real blind spot : without it, any application otherwise correctly authorized could ingest the full content of a meeting. Three elements must now be aligned for an application to retrieve a transcript : the setting enabled on the tenant, the correct permissions and application access policy, and a JoinURL in the recent format.

Sources

Microsoft Learn - Set-CsTeamsMeetingConfiguration

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