What do Teams Emergency Call Notifications Look Like?

                      
                           

Teams has the capability to send a notification when an emergency call is placed. When I was setting up this feature in my company's tenant, I tried finding a picture of what the notification looks like from the Teams desktop and mobile clients. I was frustrated when I couldn't find anything, so I hope to share this info with others that were in my place.

In the United States, it's typical for a police officer to be dispatched when someone calls 911. One way to avoid having an officer sent is to call the Police Department Non-Emergency number and organize a test call. Some police departments will give you a specified date and time to make your test call, while others will simply notify their operators beforehand. Regardless, my advice is to make sure you contact the Non-Emergency number prior to testing.

To set up Emergency Call Notifications with the Teams Admin Center, do the following:

1. Select 'Emergency Policies' listed under the 'Voice' menu

2. There is a 'Global' Policy already available. For the purposes of this article, I'm going to use that policy. However, if you want to create your own Emergency Policy then follow this guide on MS Docs.

3. Edit the policy to include a Description, Notification Mode, and Users and/or Groups who you want to receive the notification. I created an M365 Group called 'Emergency Call Notifications' using dynamic rules to automatically add members of our Facilities team.

NOTE: 'Send Notification,' will send a notification in Teams to the notification group and/or users you select. The MS Docs link above outlines other options for Notification Mode that allow your notification users/group to be conferenced into the emergency call.

4. Once you save your settings, you're ready to test.

I had a Security Officer at our Corporate Office place a call from a Poly CCX Phone at their desk. When the call was placed, a Teams chat started immediately and I received the notification below. The chat included all the members of the Notification Group I set up in the Emergency Policy along with the caller who placed the call.

In addition, the alert was sent to the Teams client on my mobile phone. NOTE: I have an Android 11 phone.