Configuring multi-tenant chat access for a guest user (Aug 2022 release)

Fu · ‎08-08-2022

To initiate a chat from guest users outside your Microsoft Teams instance. Adding external users to chat, allowing external users to start a chat, and import messages, allows organizations to connect to a tenant to one ServiceNow instance and yet leverage having users(Agents) from different domains.

Note: This guide is for request-based multi-tenant chat and not single-tenant. For single-tenant, there are two additional steps:

Before you begin

Ensure you have successfully integrated ServiceNow on Microsoft Teams. If you already have, you'll need to reauthorize the "Request-based chat" and "SSO and Activity Notification" on ServiceNow for Microsoft Teams->Install Azure Apps. This will permit ServiceNow to make API calls to Microsoft Azure.

Procedure:

Go to ServiceNow for Microsoft Teams->Teams Guest User Chat Configuration
Click on "Enable Guest access"
Add the name of the guest tenant.

Note: Since integration is multi-tenant, the "Tenant ID", "Tenant full name", and "Source" are pre-populated.

FAQ:

1. Why is a user called Guest in Microsoft teams?

A user can be external (part of a different tenant) and still be able to participate in the current tenant.

2. Can an external user be a Guest?

Yes, external users are guests only when they are added to the current domain via invite.

3. Does the Guest user get a token of the external tenant?

Yes when /token endpoint is fired with tenant-id and if a user is a guest (par of Azure AD) on the same tenant the API will return a token. Otherwise, the API will throw an error (user not found)

4. Will ServiceNow allow External users to start a chat?

Yes, provided the user is part of the current tenant Azure AD (invited as a guest)

5. Should the Guest user use the email of his own domain to log in to the tenant he is added as a guest?

Yes, the email of his host tenant should be used for login, not the UPN of the current tenant.