Updated August 2, 2023: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
Stopping normalization on number that starts with plus sign (+)
Normalization in Microsoft Teams was not designed to do normalization when the phone number starts with plus sign (+) as documented, but we’ve never enforced this in the Teams desktop or Web client. We are planning to enforce this in the future but for now we recommend avoiding this pattern.
We are making this change to align with our Calling Service, other Teams services, Azure Communication Services SDKs, and other Microsoft services. Numbers that start with a plus sign (+) will not pass through any normalization rules.
Translated numbers that do not start with a plus sign (+), will pass through normalization rules more than once. Please see Create and manage dial plans for more information.
[When this will happen:]
Standard Release: We will begin rolling out mid-October 2023 (previously mid-July) and expect to complete by late October 2023 (previously late August).
[How this will affect your organization:]
There is no immediate impact. We are letting you know, so you can prepare for this change. If you are relying on dial plan policies to translate numbers dialed starting with a +, those rules will no longer work. You will need to instruct your end users to either dial the correct E.164 number starting with a +, or dial numbers without a + to match dial plan policies.
[What you need to do to prepare:]
There is no action needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.
