Historically with Skype for Business and Lync there have been a number of devices from a range of manufacturers that went through a Microsoft certification process, often referred to as Third Party Interoperability Program (3PIP). These devices ran their manufacturers own operating system/firmware but could allow Skype/Lync accounts to log in and communicate using standard Microsoft protocols, resulting in different experiences for users depending on the device manufacturer.
Now with the introduction of Microsoft Teams, Microsoft has introduced a new class of device that uses an Android based Operating System, either in addition or on top of the manufacturers OS/firmware. This then enables the device to run a Teams client very similar to the Android client found in the Google Play Store, providing a similar experience across different devices but one that is familiar to mobile users. There are some minor menu changes in the client to allow manufacturers to offer custom menus to allow access to limited device settings.
Configuring a Teams phone/device is very similar to signing into the Android client, except as part of the sign in process it will Intune register the device. During the setup you can choose whether the device is a personal device (ie an account belonging to a normal user) or a shared device (ie a meeting room with a generic account)
The following animation shows the process on a Poly Trio 8800 but will be the same across different manufacturers although the orientation may be different:
After the device has been logged into, it is then possible to see it Azure Active Directory:
It will also be displayed in the Teams admin centre, from here you can remotely collect logs for troubleshooting and restart the device.
In a similar fashion to the VVX series of phones, Office 365 can offer updates for the Trio in Teams mode, although in this case it’s actually a version older than that on the device and available directly from Poly.
Once in the Teams admin centre it is possible to create and assign a configuration profile to it, this policy allows a limited number of settings to be set centrally, this is a great addition as although in Skype there were settings that could be applied to devices these were only available via PowerShell.
