Microsoft Teams Meeting Control Shortcuts
Teams' in-meeting shortcuts share the same Ctrl+Shift modifier convention across nearly every binding in this category, a deliberately consistent pattern distinct from Zoom's plain-Alt scheme on Windows — muting, video, screen sharing, hand-raising, and background blur are all reached through the same two-key modifier combined with a single letter, which makes the whole set considerably easier to hold in memory as one coherent family rather than a set of unrelated bindings.
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mute/unmute microphone | Ctrl+Shift+M | Cmd+Shift+M | Toggles your microphone during a call, working as a global shortcut even when Teams isn't the focused window, provided the option is enabled in settings. |
| Start/stop camera | Ctrl+Shift+O | Cmd+Shift+O | Toggles your camera feed during a call, the video counterpart to the microphone mute shortcut, both sharing the same Ctrl+Shift modifier convention. |
| Accept incoming call with audio | Ctrl+Shift+A | Cmd+Shift+A | Answers an incoming call or meeting invitation with audio enabled, the fastest way to join when a notification appears without clicking through the popup with the mouse. |
| Decline incoming call | Ctrl+Shift+D | Cmd+Shift+D | Declines an incoming call notification, dismissing it without joining and routing the caller to voicemail or a missed-call notification depending on the call type. |
| Leave current call/meeting | Ctrl+Shift+H | Cmd+Shift+H | Leaves the active meeting immediately, equivalent to clicking the red Leave button, without ending the meeting for anyone else still in it. |
| Toggle screen sharing | Ctrl+Shift+E | Cmd+Shift+E | Starts or stops sharing your screen during an active call, opening the screen/window selection picker if starting. |
| Raise/lower hand | Ctrl+Shift+K | Cmd+Shift+K | Toggles a raised-hand indicator visible to everyone in the meeting, Teams' non-verbal way to signal a wish to speak, functionally equivalent to Zoom's raise-hand feature though bound to a completely different key combination. |
| Toggle background blur | Ctrl+Shift+P | Cmd+Shift+P | Blurs your physical background behind your video feed without changing anything else about the call, a quick privacy option distinct from selecting a full custom background image. |
Muting (Ctrl+Shift+M / Cmd+Shift+M) and toggling video (Ctrl+Shift+O / Cmd+Shift+O) are the two most fundamental controls, both configurable as global shortcuts under Settings > Privacy so they respond regardless of whichever application currently sits in front — a real convenience for silencing yourself the moment something goes wrong while attention is split toward a document or slide deck elsewhere on screen, mirroring the same global-shortcut concept Zoom offers, just through Teams' own distinct settings location and its own distinct key combination.
Accepting an incoming call with audio (Ctrl+Shift+A / Cmd+Shift+A) and declining one (Ctrl+Shift+D / Cmd+Shift+D) both respond directly to an incoming call notification, letting you join or dismiss it without needing to precisely click a small popup with the mouse — genuinely useful for a call that arrives while your hands are already on the keyboard mid-task.
Leaving a call (Ctrl+Shift+H / Cmd+Shift+H) exits the meeting for yourself immediately, equivalent to clicking the red Leave button, and is worth clearly distinguishing from ending a meeting for everyone — leaving simply removes you from an ongoing meeting that keeps running for whoever else remains in it, a genuinely different action from a host-level end-for-all action.
Screen sharing (Ctrl+Shift+E / Cmd+Shift+E) opens the screen or window selection picker when nothing's being shared yet, and closes out whatever's actively being shared when pressed again — one binding covering both directions, the same design choice Zoom's equivalent shortcut makes, just reached through Teams' own distinct key combination.
Raising a hand (Ctrl+Shift+K / Cmd+Shift+K) toggles a persistent visual indicator visible to everyone in the meeting, functionally equivalent in purpose to Zoom's raise-hand feature but bound to a genuinely different key combination — worth being deliberate about which specific combination applies in whichever tool is currently active, since Zoom's Alt+Y and Teams' Ctrl+Shift+K accomplish the identical underlying goal but share no common keys at all.
Toggling background blur (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) softens your physical background behind your video feed with a single keypress, distinct from selecting a specific custom background image, which requires opening the fuller background-effects panel rather than a single dedicated shortcut — blur is the quick, no-configuration privacy option, while a custom image background is a more deliberate choice requiring browsing or uploading an image first.
Worth internalizing as a genuine distinguishing fact between Teams and Zoom, since the two are so frequently compared directly: Teams' consistent Ctrl+Shift-plus-letter pattern across this entire category means learning the modifier once and then just the specific letter for each action, while Zoom's scheme mixes plain Alt-plus-letter on Windows with Cmd+Shift-plus-letter on Mac — Teams' cross-platform consistency (Ctrl on Windows, Cmd on Mac, but otherwise identical) is arguably the cleaner of the two schemes to memorize, even though neither transfers any muscle memory to the other tool.
Accepting and declining calls specifically are worth a closer look, since they respond to an incoming-call state rather than an already-active meeting the way most of the other shortcuts here do. When a Teams call notification appears — whether a direct one-on-one call or someone joining a scheduled meeting you haven't yet entered — Ctrl+Shift+A answers with audio immediately enabled, while Ctrl+Shift+D declines and dismisses the notification without joining. These two only apply during that specific incoming-notification window; once already inside a meeting, they have no further role, and the rest of this category's shortcuts take over for managing the ongoing call itself.
Worth noting too that several of these shortcuts remain accessible even while screen sharing is actively underway — muting, toggling video, and raising a hand all continue to function normally during an active share, letting a presenter manage their own audio and video state without needing to first stop sharing their screen just to adjust something like their own mute status mid-presentation.