Microsoft Teams will soon prevent screen captures during meetings

Microsoft is developing a new feature for its Teams platform, dubbed ‘Enhanced Meeting Protection’. As the name suggests, it is aimed at safeguarding information, to be precise it is designed to prevent sensitive information that is shared during video calls from being recorded.

Microsoft says that if a user attempts to take a screenshot while in a Teams meeting with Enhanced Meeting Protection enabled, the app window will automatically turn black. Many streaming services use a similar protection, which is commonly referred to as a DRM, to protect illegal use of the content. The black screen on Teams will ensure that sensitive content remains obscured, essentially blocking the capture of the information. It is unclear whether this feature is enabled by default.

This Enhanced Meeting Protection experience will be accessible across platforms, including desktop versions for Windows and Mac, as well as mobile apps on iOS and Android. Microsoft says that users who are participating from unsupported platforms will only have access to audio, limiting their ability to engage visually during discussions. This likely refers to the web version of Teams that is accessed via the browser. It is also worth noting that Microsoft Teams for Linux was discontinued in 2022, which means Linux users have to rely on accessing the service through their browser.

While Enhanced Meeting Protection is a welcome addition, the feature isn’t without its limitations; it cannot prevent users from capturing sensitive data through third-party screen recorder programs that run in the background. Techradar points out that users could take photos of their screens taken with their smartphones, especially during a presentation or a meeting in which other participants cannot see each other.

According to the official roadmap, Enhanced Meeting Protection is set to roll out in July 2025. Microsoft is also planning to introduce a Migration Tool for Teams in July. Microsoft shut down Skype last week, and is advising users to switch to Teams.