Deploying and configuring Zoom Chat
Learn more about the UI enhancements for the New Admin Experience if you signed up for a Zoom account after August 21, 2021.
Zoom Chat is the ideal complement to your real-time video and phone conversations. It lets administrators:
- Secure collaboration inside and outside your organization will boost productivity across all workflows.
- Using the chat interface, users can start a phone call or video meeting, share files, or even pin a message.
- Build a persistent repository of corporate messages and tribal knowledge.
- By configuring central administration and granular security settings, your policies will be enforced and your data will be protected
Deploying Zoom Chat
Zoom Chat can be deployed and account-level chat settings changed by following these steps.
Setting up advanced or auto SAML mapping
After you have configured basic SAML mapping, you can set up advanced or auto SAML mapping to define or create IM groups and channels. The advanced SAML mapping option allows you to dynamically sync groups defined in your IdP with existing channels/IM groups, while the auto SAML mapping option automatically creates and modifies channels or IM groups.
With IM groups, users can better locate their coworkers and chat with them in the desktop client and mobile app. A group of users can also be configured to use different IM settings. You can, for instance, create an IM group for the Billing department so that all Billing employees appear in the same section of the Contacts tab and have the same IM settings.
On Zoom, channels are spaces where users can chat with one another. Generally, they focus on a particular topic, project, or team. A public channel can be joined by anyone, whereas a private channel can only be accessed by invitation.
- Log in to Zoom’s web portal.
- Select Single Sign-On from the Advanced menu.
- Go to the SAML Response Mapping tab.
- SAML Advanced Information Mapping section
- Enter the SAML Attribute, SAML Value, and Resulting Value to assign specific IdP groups to existing IM groups. You can assign the Billing department to the desired IM group if your IdP has an existing attribute and value assigned to it.
- Enter the SAML Attribute, SAML Value, and Resulting Value to assign specific IdP groups to existing channels. The billing department of your company can, for example, be assigned to a channel if the IdP has an existing attribute and value for it.
- SAML Auto Mapping section:
- To automatically create IM groups, specify an attribute in your IdP. Zoom can automatically create several manager IM Groups if your IDP has a manager attribute.
- Create channels automatically by specifying an attribute within your IdP. In the case of an IdP with a manager attribute, Zoom can automatically create a channel for users with the manager attribute.
- SAML Advanced Information Mapping section
Learn more about advanced SAML mapping, IM group management, and channel management.
Assigning chat management permissions
To grant another user chat management permissions, you can create a role. The user will be able to manage chats in Zoom. Another IT admin can set up and manage IM groups, for instance, by creating a chat management role.
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal as the account owner.
- In the navigation menu, click User Management then Role Management.
- Click Add Role.
- Specify a name and description for the role, then click Add.
- Scroll down to the Chat Management section.
- Click the check box in the Edit column for these permissions:
- IM groups: View or edit IM groups for the account.
- Chat history: View archived chat messages in the account.
- IM settings: View or edit IM settings that affect all users in the account.
- Click the Role Members tab.
- Click Add Members.
- Enter the email addresses or names of users to assign the role.
- Click Add.
Learn more about using role management.
Changing account IM settings
Users can customize Zoom Chat settings at the account level. Chat features like file transfer and code snippets can be enabled or disabled. The desktop client and mobile app also let you customize how users are displayed.
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
- In the navigation menu, click Account Management then IM Management.
- Click the IM Settings tab.
- Change these settings to get started:
- Sharing: Allow users in the account to share these in chat.
- Screen capture
- File transfer
- Animated GIF images
- Code Snippet
- Audio Message
- The Contacts tab of the desktop client and mobile app can be customized in terms of how users are displayed.
However, at least one of these options must be enabled. If you attempt to disable both of these settings, Zoom will automatically enable one.- View the Company Contacts section in the Contact tab of the Zoom desktop client and mobile application. It lists all account members.
- Contacts can be organized by IM groups in Zoom desktop and mobile apps. In the Contacts section, you’ll see an HR section with the relevant employees if you have an IM group for HR.
- Security
- Provide the option for users to invite internal or external contacts. Turning off this feature prevents users from adding contacts, but they can still view the company contact directory. By selecting Only in the same organization and specified users, you can specify which external contacts your users can add as contacts.
- Chat with other users: Specify whether users can chat with internal or external users. Users who are added to channels or group chats with external users can still chat with external users if you choose In the same organization. In the Only in the same organization and specified users section, you can specify which external contacts your users can chat with.
- Storage: Set how long messages are stored. See the chat storage section to learn more about these settings.
- Cloud Storage
- Delete Local Data
- Store edited and deleted message
- Sharing: Allow users in the account to share these in chat.
Learn more about other account-level IM settings.
Managing Zoom Chat
You can create new IM groups, modify the settings for existing IM groups, and create channels for teams, projects, or topics after deploying Zoom Chat.
Creating IM groups and changing advanced settings and IM group privacy
With IM groups, users can better locate their coworkers and chat with them in the desktop client and mobile app. IM groups also allow you to customize the settings for a group of users. Creating an IM group for the Billing department, for instance, would enable all Billing employees to appear in the same section in the Contacts tab and share the same IM settings.
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
- In the navigation menu, click Account Management then IM Management.
- In the IM Groups tab, click Add IM Group and enter the required information:
- Group Name: Enter a display name to help identify the IM group.
- Group Privacy: Select an IM group type.
- Click Save.
- Click Advanced Settings below the IM group display name.
- Change these IM group privacy settings to get started:
- Allow users to search others: Specify if users can search for other users in the same account or parent account.
- Allow users to add contacts: Allow users to add Zoom contacts to their contacts directory. Click an option to set the level of access.
- Allow users to chat with others: Allow users to chat with internal or external contacts. Click an option to set the level of access.
Learn more about IM groups and other advanced settings.
Managing channels
Create private or public channels for specific projects, teams, or discussions. Channels allow members to send messages, files, and images among themselves. Instant meetings can also be started with channel members.
Note: Group chats are different from channels.
- The user starts a group chat when he or she initiates a 1-on-1 conversation with two or more users.
- There are no privacy controls for group chats as there are for channels, and there is no need to create a topic name.
- Zoom does not support managing group chats. Administrators can only manage group chats using the desktop client or mobile app.
To get started, you can create channels from your existing IM groups.
- Zoom is accessible through the web portal.
- Under Account Management click IM Management.
Admins with the new UI for managing accounts should click Chat Management and then Channels. - After that, click Create Channel.
- Click Select IM Groups to create each channel.
- Proceed to the next step.
- Choose an IM group from which to create channels. Each group you select creates a new channel.
- If the group’s name is already being used as a channel name, the web portal will require you to resolve the naming conflict by entering a new channel name. Click Once the conflict has been resolved, click Continue.y the required information in these columns:
-
- Channel Name: By default, the channel names are the same as the names of the group you previously selected.
- Type: Select the channel type.
- Public: Anyone in your organization can join your channel.
- Private: Only invited people can join your channel.
- Posting Permissions: Select which channel members are allowed to post in the channel.
- Everyone: All channel members can post in the channel.
- Admin only: Only the admin can post in the channel.
- Admin, plus specific people: Only the admin and specified members can post in the channel.
- Can Add External Users by: Specify if users not in your organization can be added to the channel.
Note: If you enable this option, make sure to review the channel privileges of external users.- No one: Don’t allow anyone to add external users to the channel.
- All channel members: Members internal and external to your organization can add external members.
- Members in your organization: Only members internal to your organization can add external members.
- New Member Can See History: If checked, new members can see messages and files sent before they were members.
- Channel Admin: Specify the channel admin. The channel admin will be able to change the channel’s name, description, and settings.
- Click Done.
You can also create channels by syncing your IdP Groups via SAML Mapping.
Learn more about managing channels and channel settings.
Changing chat storage settings
Chat messages can be stored in the Zoom cloud and on local devices for an extended period of time. After the designated period of time, all messages will be deleted.
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
- In the navigation menu, click Account Management then IM Management.
- Click the IM Settings tab.
- In the Storage section, change these settings to get started:
- When this setting is enabled, Zoom will automatically store all persistent chat messages in the cloud. Select the period of time that messages will be stored, and click Save. Zoom will delete all persistent chat messages and metadata from the cloud after the specified retention period.
- When this setting is enabled, Zoom automatically deletes all persistent chat messages, files, images, and metadata on the local device after the specified retention period. You can specify the period for which messages will be stored on the desktop or mobile device running Zoom, Users can still access files or images that they manually download on their local devices.eir loEdited or deleted messages can be stored in the cloud (along with the original version).n the cloud.
Learn more about chat storage settings and view chat history.
Security features for Zoom Chat
Setting account-level chat security settings
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
- In the navigation menu, click Account Management then IM Management.
- Click the IM Settings tab.
- In the Security section, change these settings to get started:
- Enable advanced chat encryption
- Allow users to add contacts: If turned off, users can’t add external contacts but can still view the company contact directory.
- Allow users to chat with others: Specify who internal users can chat with.
- Show status to external contacts: Show users’ presence status to their external contacts.
Learn more about IM groups and other advanced settings.
Removing external contacts
If users in the account add external contacts, you can view these external contacts and remove them from the account.
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
- In the navigation menu, click User Management then Users.
- In the Users tab, click the gear button in the top-right corner of the table, then select External Contacts.
- Locate a user that has external contacts, then click the number in the External Contacts column.
You will see a list of external users that were added by the selected user. - (Optional) Click the number in the Channels column to view channels or group chats they are members of.
- Click the ellipses button (…) in the last column, then click Remove from Account.
Learn more about managing internal users and external contacts.