Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility: Everything You Need to Know

For years now, Microsoft (MS) Teams has ranked as one of the top platforms for communication, collaboration, and productivity – unifying teams worldwide. For companies keen to extend the capabilities of this solution with business calling features, Microsoft has long worked with vendors like ComputerTalk to deliver direct routing opportunities and options like Operator Connect. 

Now, there’s a brand-new way for organizations to extend their telephony investments with Teams Phone: Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility. 

Announced during Enterprise Connect 2025, this exciting new capability gives businesses a great way to take advantage of Teams Phone as a single, integrated solution that powers calling across both unified communications, and contact center as a service (CCaaS) systems. 

It’s the simple, straightforward way for businesses to officially make the leap from on-premises contact centers to a modern, AI-driven solution in the cloud.  

Here’s everything you need to know about Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility, how it works, what it offers, and why it’s going to make a major difference to your technology stack.  

What Is Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility? 

Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility (also known as Unify model) is the new feature announced by Microsoft at Enterprise Connect 2025, that allows companies to take the capabilities of Teams Phone and extend them into a contact center environment. It’s the next stage of Microsoft’s ongoing strategy to ensure companies can unlock comprehensive communication solutions within MS Teams.  

While Direct Routing and Operator Connect have historically allowed companies to leverage their PSTN connectivity or chosen telecom services with Microsoft Teams, they have a different focus.  

Direct Routing allows organizations to connect their existing Session Border Controllers (SBCs) and PSTN circuits to Microsoft Teams. It gives organizations the flexibility to work with various telecommunications carriers and maintain on-premises or hybrid voice setups. 

Operator Connect, the more streamlined, straightforward model for direct connection with Microsoft Teams, reduces administrative overhead by letting participating carriers manage connectivity on behalf of customers through an approved partnership with Microsoft. 

Powered by Azure Communication Services Call Automation and Microsoft’s Calling SDK, Phone Extensibility allows CCaaS developers to embed Teams Phone features directly into their applications, consolidating telephony for both UCaaS and CCaaS.  

Organizations can integrate UCaaS features their your CCaaS workflows, access generative AI solutions with customer service agents powered by Azure AI, and even streamline agent notification handling, all in the same bundled environment.  

You can also access a range of other Independent Software Vendor (ISV) solutions harnessing Azure Communication Services (like ComputerTalk ice Contact Center). All the while you get to maintain Teams Phone as your primary telephony platform.  

What You Can Do With Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility 

The full experience you get from Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility will obviously vary depending on the ISV you decide to work with. But on a broad scale, the solution already comes with a bunch of great features built-in to help streamline your communication stack.  

You’ll have access to: 

Provisioning for Seamless Integration

Thanks to provisioning capabilities built into Azure Communication Services, contact center solution providers (CCaaS ISVs) can integrate their platforms with Microsoft Teams tenants. This allows organizations to use Teams Phone as the foundation for contact center calling, ensuring a cohesive communication experience without toggling between different platforms or PSTN providers. 

Emergency Calling Support

Ensuring agents can quickly dial out to emergency numbers and connect with the right public safety answering points (PSAPs) correctly is crucial. With Azure Communication Services Calling SDK, Teams Phone Extensibility supports emergency calling scenarios, allowing agents to send location details when dialing 911 (or other emergency services).  

Advanced Call Automation 

Automation doesn’t just save contact center teams money – it saves time and improves customer experiences. With the Azure Communication Services Call Automation APIs, CCaaS providers can build intelligent call flows with automation. This includes adding IVR menus, automating call routing based on customer data, or even incorporating AI-driven features like automated language detection.  

The idea is to optimize each step of the call journey without requiring on-premises hardware or complex third-party integrations. 

Mid-Call Controls and Call Routing 

Agents often need the flexibility to transfer calls, add participants, or escalate issues mid-conversation. Teams Phone Extensibility supports advanced call routing capabilities, letting agents or supervisors handle mid-call operations seamlessly. Whether it’s a warm transfer to another team or bringing in a subject-matter expert, you can manage everything with minimal friction.  

Convenience Recording 

For quality assurance or regulatory compliance, call recording is a must-have in many industries. By integrating with Azure Communication Services, developers can implement custom call recording processes within Microsoft Teams. CCaaS administrators set up how these recordings are stored, accessed, and managed, ensuring the solution matches the organization’s unique requirements. 

Conversational AI Integration 

One of the major draws of merging your contact center platform with Teams Phone is the ability to tap into Azure’s AI and machine learning resources. From natural language processing to sentiment analysis and real-time call transcription, these features can transform a standard call into a treasure trove of analytics and insights.  

Whether you’re playing welcome messages or analyzing caller emotion mid-conversation, Teams Phone Extensibility provides the backbone to make AI a valuable part of your contact center workflows. 

Together, these features form a comprehensive toolset, allowing organizations to offload complex telephony configurations onto the Teams environment while injecting advanced, AI-based functionality into every call. In doing so, the contact center experience becomes more robust, more future-proof, and simpler to administer. 

Why Businesses are Choosing Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility 

So, why is all of this so beneficial? Basically, Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility empowers companies to more effectively transition into the cloud contact center landscape, without having to deal with a bunch of different deployment and management tools.  

Microsoft is striving to meet customers where they are, ensuring companies can manage easy interactions across channels, building their telephony solution into an omnichannel, AI-enabled contact center environment. 

In fact, according to a Total Economic Impact study commissioned by Microsoft, Teams Phone Extensibility can reduce integration fees, lower telephony consumption costs, and minimize time spent on infrastructure management by 10%.  

The main benefits include: 

Consolidated Telephony for UCaaS and CCaaS 

By creating a single, integrated telephony solution for both unified communications and the contact center, Microsoft lowers the overhead cost and complexity of managing separate phone systems. No more dealing with multiple carriers, PBX hardware, or disjointed admin portals. Everything from provisioning phone numbers to setting dial-plan policies can happen directly in the Teams Admin Center. 

This doesn’t just reduce costs and complexity for business leaders, it can also lead to better collaboration and communication between your various teams.  

Gen AI Integration 

Today’s contact centers increasingly lean on AI for tasks like predictive call routing, and advanced analytics. Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility opens the door to powerful Azure AI services, enabling deeper automation and insights.  

From powering virtual copilots to tools for analyzing call sentiment, these AI innovations help agents respond faster and more effectively. Microsoft is even experimenting with unique AI agents for the platform, responsible for monitoring common contact reasons, creating knowledge articles, and autonomously interacting with customers.  

Extended UCaaS Capabilities into CCaaS 

Many contact center teams have historically operated in silos, using specialized tools or third-party platforms for essential CCaaS features - like advanced call queues or automatic call distribution (ACD). Then they needed to switch to a different platform for Teams Phone enterprise features, like dial plan policies, emergency calling, and so on.  

With Teams Phone Extensibility, you can bridge the gaps, bringing UCaaS features from Teams Phone into your existing contact center environment.  

Improved Agent Notifications and Persona Management 

As employees navigate daily calls, meetings, and contact center interactions, data segregation matters. With Teams Phone Extensibility, organizations can choose whether calls ring in the standard Teams client or within a dedicated CCaaS application. This gives agents better clarity and ensures that contact center notifications don’t get lost in the shuffle of everyday communication. 

Cost Efficiency 

By repurposing existing Teams Phone licenses and telephony plans, businesses avoid duplicating costs on separate voice infrastructures. Plus, the synergy between UCaaS and CCaaS can reduce the need for third-party integrations and cut telephony consumption fees. You save money on your communication infrastructure without compromising on functionality.  

Broad Geographic Availability 

For organizations with a global footprint, obtaining and managing phone numbers can be a massive challenge. Teams Phone provides coverage in multiple countries, so branching out into new markets or scaling operations becomes more seamless. With a single phone system to administer and consistent enterprise features regardless of locale, both agents and supervisors benefit from uniform workflows. 

Vendors Supporting Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility 

Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility is still in its early stages – but Microsoft has already partnered with various reputable ISV solutions. That means you don’t just have to rely on Microsoft Dynamics 365 contact center; you can choose the contact center solution that best meets your needs.  

For now, a handful of great vendors are already in the family, such as: