How to Raise Your Hand in Teams (2026)
Raising your hand in Microsoft Teams is the polite way to jump into a busy meeting — it signals you want to speak without talking over anyone. Here’s how to raise and lower your hand on every platform, the keyboard shortcut, and how presenters track who’s waiting.
Raise Your Hand on Desktop
- On the meeting toolbar, click Reactions (the emoji/hand icon).
- Click Raise hand.
- A hand icon appears on your tile and beside your name in Participants.
The organizer and presenters see a count and the order hands went up, so questions get taken fairly.
Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + K (Windows) or ⌘ + Shift + K (Mac).
Lower Your Hand
- Click Reactions > Lower hand, or
- Open Participants, hover your name, and click Lower.
A presenter can also lower your hand (or everyone’s) after questions are answered.
See Who Has Their Hand Up
Open People / Participants in the meeting. Raised hands are listed at the top in the order they were raised, each with a number. This is how organizers run an orderly Q&A — call on people top to bottom.
Raise Your Hand on Mobile (iOS/Android)
- Tap the screen to show controls, then tap More (the …) — or tap the Reactions icon.
- Tap Raise hand.
- Tap Lower hand when you’re done.
Troubleshooting
I can’t find the raise-hand button
Tap or click the meeting once to reveal the toolbar. On small windows the control hides under Reactions or More (…).
The shortcut isn’t working
Make sure the Teams meeting window is focused (clicked into) — the shortcut only fires when Teams is the active window, not your browser or another app.
My hand won’t lower
Click Reactions > Lower hand again, or have a presenter lower it from the participants list. If Teams is laggy, give it a second to sync.
Presenter didn’t see my hand
In very large meetings or webinars, presenters watch the participants list rather than tiles. Your hand still registers there in order — they may just be taking questions in turn.
Hands reset when someone joins
Raised hands persist per person, but the order can shift as people raise and lower. If you still need to speak, raise again.
Quick Reference
| Goal | What to do |
|---|---|
| Raise your hand | Reactions > Raise hand |
| Shortcut (Windows) | Ctrl + Shift + K |
| Shortcut (Mac) | ⌘ + Shift + K |
| Lower your hand | Reactions > Lower hand |
| See all raised hands | Open Participants (sorted by order) |
Related Teams guides: How to mute on Teams · How to create a poll in Teams · How to pin someone in Teams · How to record a Teams meeting · The best AI note takers for Zoom, Teams & Meet
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
