Ankur Agarwal introduces the general availability of Teams Phone extensibility, showing how Azure Communication Services empowers CCaaS vendors and developers to deliver AI-powered, compliant, and integrated telephony solutions inside Microsoft Teams.

General Availability of Teams Phone Extensibility with Azure Communication Services

Author: Ankur Agarwal

Overview

Teams Phone extensibility (TPE), now generally available, allows organizations and developers to enhance Microsoft Teams telephony using Azure Communication Services (ACS). This closes the gap between Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), providing a streamlined, AI-enabled, and highly customizable telephony platform.

Key Benefits

  • Unified Telephony for UCaaS and CCaaS: Leverage existing Teams Phone infrastructure for contact centers, reducing setup complexity.
  • Conversational AI Integration: Use ACS Call Automation APIs and OpenAI services to introduce AI-powered features—personalized greetings, voice recognition, and automated workflows.
  • Advanced Call Control: Integrate features such as intelligent call routing, mid-call participant management, and convenience recording, all within Teams.
  • Cost Efficiency & Geographic Reach: Build on existing Teams investments, benefit from global calling plans, and deploy without extra direct routing or service numbers unless needed.
  • Provisioning & Extensibility: Easily connect CCaaS platforms to Teams tenants, enabling rapid onboarding and integration.

Developer Capabilities

  • Call Automation APIs: Build intelligent IVRs, automate call flows, and control calls server-side. Learn more
  • Client SDK: Develop custom CCaaS clients or embed telephony into applications. See features
  • Telemetry and Diagnostics: Access advanced logging and real-time call analytics via Azure Portal for quality assurance and troubleshooting.

AI Insights Features (Public Preview)

  • Automated Meeting Summaries: AI generates concise call recaps in real time, highlighting key decisions and action items.
  • Sentiment Analysis: Detects participant emotional tone to support agents and enable proactive interventions.
  • PII Redaction: Automatically masks sensitive data during calls to maintain compliance and privacy.
  • Language Detection: Real-time identification of spoken languages, enabling seamless multilingual interactions.

For details: Tutorial: AI-powered features

Certified ISV Solutions

Certified partners include Dynamics 365 Contact Center, AudioCodes, CentrePal, ComputerTalk, Heedify, and Landis, all supporting robust integrations with Teams Phone Extensibility.

Conclusion

Teams Phone extensibility opens the door for integrated, AI-enabled, and compliant communication solutions within Microsoft Teams. By leveraging Azure Communication Services, developers and organizations can deliver advanced voice workflows, support agent/customer experiences, and meet regulatory needs—all within a unified platform.

This post appeared first on “Microsoft Tech Community”. Read the entire article here