How to Add and Use the Q&A App in Microsoft Teams Meetings and Webinars

Hosting large virtual meetings, company town halls, or public webinars often becomes chaotic when attendees rely on the standard chat panel to submit questions. In high-attendance sessions, important inquiries quickly get buried under conversational banter, emojis, and troubleshooting comments. To bring order, accountability, and professional moderation to meeting interactions, Microsoft provides the dedicated Q&A app within Microsoft Teams.

Why Use the Q&A App Instead of Standard Teams Chat?

Unlike the unstructured flow of normal meeting chat, the Teams Q&A app establishes a dedicated, structured inquiry workflow engineered for event organisers and moderators:

• Pre-Publishing Moderation: Organisers can inspect, filter, and approve attendee questions in a private review staging area before they become visible to the broader audience.
• Threaded Answers and Status Tracking: Replies are neatly nested directly beneath individual questions, with the ability to mark inquiries as officially answered.
• Audience Upvoting: Attendees can upvote questions they share interest in, allowing presenters to prioritise the most relevant topics naturally.
• Organiser Pinning: Prominent announcements, links, or critical questions can be pinned permanently to the top of the panel.
• Anonymous Submissions: Organisations can permit attendees to ask sensitive questions anonymously while maintaining administrative oversight.

Adding the Q&A App to a Scheduled Teams Meeting

To ensure the Q&A interface is available during your call, you must attach the app prior to the session from the Teams calendar.

1. Access Meeting Settings in Teams Calendar

1. Launch the Microsoft Teams desktop application.
2. Navigate to the Calendar tab in the left-hand rail.
3. Double-click your scheduled meeting or webinar to open the details view (you must be the meeting organiser).

2. Install the Q&A Application

1. Along the top navigation tabs (Chat, Files, Details), click the + (Add a tab) icon.
2. Search for Q&A in the app gallery and click the Q&A tile.
3. Click Save to attach the tab to your meeting.

3. Alternatively: Enable Q&A in Meeting Options

On modern Teams builds, organisers can also turn on the feature directly inside Meeting Options:

1. In the meeting details window, click Meeting options.
2. Scroll down to the Q&A setting.
3. Toggle Enable Q&A to Yes, then click Save.

Configuring Moderation Settings Before Going Live

Once attached, click the Q&A tab in the meeting configuration screen to adjust event governance:

• Moderate attendee questions: Switch this toggle to Yes if you want questions to pass through a moderator queue before appearing publicly. If disabled, attendee submissions publish instantly.
• Allow attendees to ask questions anonymously: Choose whether participants can submit questions without their corporate display name attached.
• Allow attendees to post comments: Determines whether the general audience can post threaded replies or if responses are restricted exclusively to designated presenters.

Managing the Live Q&A Workflow During Meetings

When the meeting begins, a distinct Q&A icon (two chat bubbles with a question mark) appears on the top toolbar for all participants:

1. Moderating Incoming Submissions

If moderation is enabled, moderators see three primary tabs in their Q&A panel:

• In Review: Displays incoming questions visible only to organisers and presenters. Review the question, then click Publish to share it with all attendees or Dismiss to reject it.
• Published: Displays all active, approved questions visible to the entire audience.
• Dismissed: Houses rejected inquiries, ensuring auditability without cluttering the primary feed.

2. Responding and Pinning Questions

1. Click Reply under any published question to type an official response on behalf of the presentation team.
2. Click the three dots (…) on any prominent question and select Pin to fix it to the top of the feed for continuous visibility.
3. Once addressed verbally or in text, mark the item as resolved to help attendees track session progress.

Exporting Q&A Data for Post-Meeting Follow-Up

After your meeting or webinar concludes, organisers can export full discussion records:

1. Open the meeting entry from your Teams calendar.
2. Select the Q&A tab.
3. Click the Download CSV icon in the top-right corner.
4. Teams exports a structured spreadsheet containing author names, timestamps, questions, threaded answers, upvote tallies, and moderation statuses, ensuring no follow-up items are missed.