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

Hosting large virtual town halls, corporate all-hands meetings, technical webinars, or training sessions in Microsoft Teams frequently breaks down when relying solely on the standard in-meeting chat stream. In massive meetings, important participant questions quickly get buried under greetings, animated reactions, and informal comments. Speakers struggle to track which queries have been answered, leading to duplicated questions and disorganised Q&A sessions. Microsoft solves this operational challenge with the dedicated Q&A app in Microsoft Teams. Designed specifically for structured question-and-answer moderation, Q&A provides threading, upvoting, pre-moderation approval, and verified staff responses.

Core Architectural Features of the Teams Q&A App

Unlike unstructured meeting chat, the Q&A app introduces robust event moderation workflows:

• Pre-Moderation and Triage: Organisers and designated co-organisers can review questions privately before publishing them to the general audience, filtering out inappropriate or redundant queries.
• Community Upvoting: Attendees can upvote questions submitted by peers, allowing speakers to identify the most burning topics at a glance.
• Threaded Conversations & Verified Answers: Answers stay grouped directly beneath the original question, with options to mark official, authoritative replies.
• Anonymous Submissions: Organisers can permit participants to submit questions anonymously, encouraging honest feedback during sensitive all-hands or executive reviews.
• Filtered Question Views: Sort questions by “Unanswered”, “Unreviewed”, “Answered”, or “Dismissed” to ensure zero attendee inquiries slip through the cracks.

Prerequisites and Account Licensing

To deploy the Q&A application within your Teams meetings:

• Supported Account Tiers: Microsoft 365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium, Enterprise (E3/E5), or Education (A3/A5) subscriptions.
• Client Support: Fully supported across Microsoft Teams desktop clients (Windows and Mac), Teams on the web, and mobile apps (iOS and Android).
• Meeting Types: Can be integrated into standard scheduled Teams meetings, Teams Webinars, and Teams Town Halls.

Step-by-Step: Adding Q&A Before a Scheduled Meeting

For the best attendee experience, configure Q&A prior to the session start:

1. Open the Calendar in Microsoft Teams.
2. Double-click your scheduled meeting event to open the meeting details.
3. At the top of the meeting window, click the plus icon (+ Add a tab).
4. In the search box, type Q&A and select the official Q&A app (published by Microsoft).
5. Click Save to add the Q&A tab to the meeting framework.

Configuring Moderation and Participant Permissions

Once added, fine-tune the administrative settings in the Q&A configuration console:

1. In the Q&A settings pane, locate the primary control toggles:
   • Moderate attendee questions: Toggle to On if you want questions to remain in a private “In review” queue until an organiser or moderator explicitly approves them. (Keep toggled Off for casual meetings where questions can post instantly).
   • Allow attendees to ask questions: Enables or disables attendee question posting.
   • Allow attendees to respond to questions: When toggled off, only organisers, co-organisers, and designated presenters can post official answers.
   • Allow anonymous questions: Permit attendees to submit inquiries without attaching their name or corporate email.
2. Click Save.

Managing and Moderating Questions During the Live Meeting

During the live session, the Q&A icon appears prominently on the top meeting toolbar (represented by two speech bubbles with a question mark):

1. Click the Q&A icon to expand the dedicated right-hand side panel.
2. If moderation is enabled, navigate to the In review tab. You will see submitted questions visible only to meeting staff.
3. For each question, choose an action:
   • Publish: Moves the question to the public Published feed where all attendees can read, upvote, and comment on it.
   • Dismiss: Moves the question to the private Dismissed tab without alerting the audience.
4. To answer a question: Click Respond, type your detailed answer, and click Post. You can pin critical answers to keep them fixed at the top of the feed.

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

When the webinar concludes, organisers can export the entire log to follow up on unresolved inquiries:

1. Open the meeting from your Teams Calendar after the event has ended.
2. Click the Q&A tab.
3. Click the three dots (…) menu in the Q&A header and select Download CSV.
4. Teams generates a comprehensive spreadsheet containing all submitted questions, author names, timestamps, upvote tallies, and written responses ready for post-event analysis.