113 softphone apps. Each page lists every compatible headset, with the connection, accessory and call control for each. The Teams and Zoom pages also show which headsets Microsoft and Zoom have tested and certified.
It means the headset is absent from that publisher's list — nothing more. Certification costs the manufacturer time and money, so plenty of excellent headsets are simply never submitted, and older models are quietly dropped from lists they once appeared on. A certification is a positive signal when it is there. Its absence is not a negative one.
Microsoft tests the device jointly with its manufacturer. A certified headset works plug-and-play — no configuration, no driver hunt — and Teams selects it automatically when it is plugged in, even if other audio devices are present. Microsoft states that certified audio devices give you basic call control from the headset on both Windows and Mac: answer and hang up, mute and unmute, and volume.
Newer certifications add a dedicated Teams button with an indicator light — it lights when a meeting is starting and joins it with one press. That is the practical difference between a headset that is merely certified and one built for Teams: whether the hardware can reach into the app, or only carry audio.
This is Microsoft's older programme, and it is a genuinely weaker claim. These headsets were certified against Skype for Business and are listed as upgradeable to Teams — they work, and Microsoft still lists them, but they predate the Teams-button generation and most are 2020-era models or earlier.
We keep the two tiers apart rather than flattening them into “certified”, because the difference is exactly what a buyer is trying to find out. If a Teams button matters to you, filter for the first tier.
Zoom does not run one programme, it runs several, and a headset can hold one, some or all of them:
A headset certified for Workspace is not automatically certified for Contact Center, so we show each one you actually hold rather than collapsing them into a tick.