Invite People to a Call in Slack and Teams: Huddle Invites vs Meeting Requests

The quick version

In a Slack huddle, click the Invite people icon at the bottom of the huddle window, select or search for people, and click Send Invite, or share the huddle's link so people can join from anywhere. In Teams, add attendees to the event from the calendar, or mid-meeting open People, find the person, and choose Request to join or Consult and merge; you can also dial a phone number into the meeting or forward the invite.

Slack: invite from inside a huddle

Once you are in a huddle, you can invite anyone to participate, even people who are not part of the channel or DM where the huddle is happening. On desktop, click the Invite people icon at the bottom of the huddle window, click Invite people, select or search for names, and click Send Invite. On mobile, tap the three dots icon, select Invite, choose people, and tap the close icon when done. One privacy note from Slack: people you invite who are not members of the channel or DM will not be able to see the messages in the conversation or the huddle thread.

Slack: huddle links

Every huddle has a link people can use to join from anywhere, like a calendar invitation or a Slack message. To copy one before a huddle starts, click the arrow next to the headphones icon at the top of the channel or DM and select Copy huddle link; on mobile, long press the channel or DM from the Home tab, tap Copy, then Copy Huddle Link. The huddle starts when someone clicks the link to join. In an active huddle, click the three dots icon at the bottom of the huddle window and select Copy huddle link instead.

Slack: the plan limits behind invites

Invites inherit the huddle's caps. On the free plan a huddle can have a maximum of two participants, so an invite only works if a seat is open. On paid plans huddles allow up to 50 participants, with up to 25 able to enable video at a time. If an invite seems to go nowhere on a free workspace, the two-person cap is the first thing to check.

Teams: add people to the event

You can add people directly to a meeting before and after you schedule it. Select Calendar in Teams, open the event (or schedule one), select More options, then Edit, and enter names in the Invite required attendees field; Response options, then Add optional attendees, covers optional guests. Select Send, and they automatically receive an invite and the meeting appears in their Teams calendar. Microsoft notes that how you invite someone, and their relationship to your org, can affect their access to features like meeting chat.

Teams: Request to join and phone merge

Mid-meeting, select People in the meeting controls, search for the person, hover their name, select More options, then Request to join to notify them to join immediately, or Consult and merge to call them first before merging them in; Microsoft notes they also get access to the meeting chat, whether they join or not. On mobile, tap More, then People, then Add people. You can even pull in a phone call: in People, type a number into the Invite someone or dial a number field, then choose Add phone to dial them straight in, or Consult and merge with a dial pad for IVR menus, merging when ready. Dialing out requires a phone number assigned to your Teams account and external dialing enabled, per Microsoft.

Teams: forward a meeting you did not organize

To invite someone to a meeting organized by someone else, forward it: Calendar, select the meeting, View event, then Forward, then Forward this event (or View series, then Forward, then All events in the series for a recurring meeting). Enter recipients, add an optional message, and Send. The forwarded request appears to come from the meeting organizer, and the organizer is notified that you forwarded it. If the organizer turned off Allow forwarding in Response options, forwarding is blocked.

Teams: scale

Teams meetings are built for larger rooms: Microsoft says up to 1,000 invitees can join and participate, and up to 10,000 more can join as view-only attendees once a meeting already has 1,000 participants. That is a different league from Slack's 50-person paid huddle cap, and it shapes which tool you schedule the big call in.

Which one for what?

Our read: for pulling a teammate into a quick chat, Slack's model is the lightest: one icon, or paste a link anywhere, and inviting beyond the channel is built in with a sensible privacy boundary. For anything scheduled, large or external, Teams' machinery earns its complexity: attendees on the calendar, Request to join with chat access, Consult and merge for warm handoffs, and phone dial-in for the person who cannot use the app. The two-person free-plan huddle cap is the quiet dealbreaker to remember on Slack.

What to be careful about

• Free Slack huddles cap at two people. An invite cannot beat a full huddle.
• Slack invites can outrun channel membership. Non-members join the huddle but cannot see the conversation or huddle thread.
• Teams join requests grant chat access. Microsoft says the requested person gets meeting chat whether they join or not.
• Phone merge needs calling enabled. A phone number on your Teams account plus external dialing, per Microsoft.
• Forwarding notifies the organizer. And organizers can disable forwarding entirely in Response options.
• Chat access varies by invite type. How someone is invited, and their relationship to your org, can change their meeting chat access.

Sources

Checked October 25, 2026. Features, steps and limits follow each product's own help articles. The guidance on when each shines is ours.

• Slack: Use huddles in Slack
• Microsoft Support: Invite people to a meeting in Microsoft Teams