In large virtual presentations, team all-hands calls, webinars, and training sessions in Microsoft Teams, the “Raise Hand” feature is essential for maintaining order during open discussions. Attendees raise their virtual hand when they have a question or wish to speak. However, once questions are answered, participants frequently forget to lower their hands, leaving the attendee panel cluttered with yellow hand icons throughout the rest of the meeting.
When dozens of hands remain raised, presenters and facilitators cannot distinguish between participants who have active follow-up questions and those who simply forgot to click the button. Rather than asking individual attendees over the microphone to lower their hands one by one, Microsoft Teams allows meeting organisers and presenters to lower all raised hands simultaneously with a single action. This guide explains how to use this feature on desktop, web, and mobile, and who has permission to trigger it.
Who Has Permission to Lower All Raised Hands?
To prevent disruption, Microsoft Teams restricts mass participant management actions based on assigned meeting roles:
- Meeting Organisers and Co-organisers: Have full permission to lower all hands at any point during the call.
- Designated Presenters: Can lower all hands alongside sharing content and muting participants.
- Attendees: Can only raise or lower their own individual hand. The option to lower all hands is hidden for standard attendees.
If you do not see the option to lower all hands during a meeting, ask the organiser to change your role from Attendee to Presenter in the meeting options.
How to Lower All Raised Hands in Microsoft Teams Desktop and Web
The desktop application (on Windows and macOS) and the Teams web client provide the fastest access to the bulk lowering tool:
- During an active meeting, click the People icon in the top toolbar to display the participants panel on the right side of your screen.
- At the top of the People panel, attendees with raised hands appear grouped together under a dedicated Raised hands heading, listed in the exact chronological order in which they raised them.
- Next to the Raised hands heading, locate the Lower all button (or click the three horizontal dots icon at the top of the People pane).
- Click Lower all.
- Microsoft Teams immediately clears every raised hand icon across the call. A discreet notification banner confirms: “All hands were lowered”.
This action affects all participants in the meeting instantly without muting microphones or interrupting active screen shares.
How to Lower All Raised Hands in Teams Mobile (iOS and Android)
If you are moderating a meeting from an iPad, iPhone, or Android tablet, you can execute the same action from the mobile participants interface:
- Tap anywhere on the meeting screen to reveal the in-call controls.
- Tap the People icon (or tap the participant avatar count at the top of the display).
- In the participants list, look at the top section displaying users with active raised hands.
- Tap the More options (three dots) icon at the top right of the pane.
- Select Lower all hands.
Best Practices for Managing Q&A Sessions in Teams
- Clear hands between agenda topics: When concluding a specific topic or slide section, announce to the group: “I am lowering all hands now; please raise your hand again if you have a question about the next topic.” Then click Lower all to reset the queue.
- Reference the chronological order: Teams automatically numbers raised hands based on who clicked first. Answer questions in numerical sequence before clearing the list to ensure fair moderation.
- Use the Q&A module for written queries: For structured events with hundreds of attendees, consider enabling the native Q&A app from meeting settings. This separates chat chatter from formal questions and lets moderators mark queries as answered individually.
Using the bulk “Lower all” tool keeps meeting rosters clean, reduces facilitator cognitive load, and ensures meaningful questions are addressed promptly.