Enabling or disabling in-meeting chat in zoom App

Participants in meetings and webinars can use the chat feature to converse. Taking control of who can talk to who in your meeting or webinar is up to you. The chat feature can also be disabled for everyone, or private chat can be disabled so that participants cannot send each other private messages.

All users in an account or specific groups within an account can participate in chat, or chat can be disabled by account owners or admins. It is also possible for users to enable or disable the feature when hosting their own meetings or webinars for their own purposes.

Prerequisites for enabling or disabling in-meeting or in-webinar chat

• Meeting or webinar hosting privileges.
• For controlling access to chat from the desktop, you’ll need Zoom 4.x for Windows or macOS
• Zoom mobile client for iOS and Android, version 4.x for monitoring and controlling access to chats by the host and participants

How to enable or disable in-meeting and in-webinar chat

The host, co-hosts, and participants are prevented from chatting in any meetings when the in-meeting or in-webinar chat feature is disabled. There will be no chat option available to participants when the feature is disabled.

Alternatively, you can disable private chat, so that no one can send private messages to other meeting participants, if you do not want everyone to have chat. Meeting hosts can still send private messages to participants.

Note:

Meetings and webinars are automatically configured with the Chat setting. You can have separate chat settings for Meetings and Webinars by contacting Zoom. Your settings will differ from those described in this article if you have this feature enabled.

Account

You can enable or disable all users’ chat for an account by following these steps:

1. Log in as an administrator with the privilege to edit account settings through the Zoom web portal.
2. On the left hand side, select Account Settings from the Account Management menu.
3. Select Meetings.
4. To enable or disable chat, click the Chat toggle in the In Meeting (Basic) section. The Chat feature will be disabled, along with Private chat and Auto-saving chats.
   Note:
5. If Zoom enabled Meeting chat and Webinar chat separately for you, you may see separate chat settings.
6. Verify the change by clicking Turn On or Turn Off if a verification dialog appears.
7. Then click Save to change the chat permissions:
   Note:
8. Unless the host is running a client version 5.7.3 or higher, these settings won’t function properly.
   • Allow participants to chat with:
   • In a meeting or webinar, specify who can be spoken to during the meeting or webinar using the in-meeting or in-webinar chat.
   • Allow users to save chats from the meeting:
   • Hosts and co-hosts can choose whether the chat transcript should be saved or not.
9. When you click the lock icon, you can have this setting applied to all users in your account. To make this setting mandatory, click Lock.

Group

Note:

Those who signed up for a new Zoom account after August 21, 2021, or those who enabled the New Admin Experience, will now see the Groups page instead of Group Management.

Chat can be enabled or disabled for a group of users by:

1. Register as an admin on Zoom’s web portal with the permission to edit groups.
2. Click on User Management, followed by Group Management, on the navigation panel.
3. Then click the Settings tab next to the appropriate group name.
4. Click Meetings.
5. To enable or disable Chat, click the toggle under In Meeting (Basic). Chat, Private chat, and Autosaving chats will also be disabled if Chat is disabled.
   Note:
   • In grayed out options, the account level has locked them and they must be changed by the account level.
   • Zoom may enable separate chat options for Meetings and Webinars if you requested it.
6. Verify the changes by clicking Turn On or Turn Off if a verification dialog appears.
7. Click Save after changing the chat permission settings (optional):
   Note:
8. Client versions 5.7.3 and above are required for these settings to function properly.
   • Allow participants to chat with:
   • Participants in meetings and webinar panelists can chat during the meeting or during the webinar.
   • Allow users to save chats from the meeting:
   • Whether hosts and co-hosts can save chat transcripts or if everyone can.
9. Click on the lock icon to make this setting mandatory for all users in your account. When you confirm this setting by clicking Lock, your account will be locked.

User

Chat can be enabled or disabled for your own use as follows:

1. Zoom’s web portal is available for signing in.
2. Select Settings from the navigation panel.
3. Select Meetings.
4. To enable or disable Chat, click the toggle under In Meeting (Basic). You will also be able to disable Private chats and Auto saving of chats if you disable Chat.
   Note:
   • There is a possibility that if the option is grayed out, it has been locked at the account level. You will need to do changes at this level.
   • If your admin has requested that Zoom enable separate chat settings for Meeting chats and Webinar chats, then you may see these separate settings on the Zoom Admin website.
5. Click on the Turn On or Turn Off button, if a verification dialog appears, to verify the change has been made.
6. Please click on this link to make the following changes to your chat permissions, then click on the Save button:
   Note:
7. The host needs to be running client version 5.7.3 or higher for these settings to work.
   • Allow participants to chat with:
   • The meeting organizer should specify who conversation can take place in a meeting or a webinar, as well as who can interact with the meeting participants.
   • Allow users to save chats from the meeting:
   • Allow or disallow hosts and co-hosts to save chat transcripts.

How to control chat access during a meeting or webinar

Participants have the option of chatting with everyone, with panelists and the host (for webinars), or with the host alone during meetings and webinars.

1. Host a webinar or meeting.
2. Go to the controls and select Chat.
3. Choose Participants Can Chat With from the list of options at the bottom of the in-meeting Zoom Group Chat window.
   • When the host is hosting a meeting, the participants can chat with everyone or just with the host.
   • With webinars, the host will have the option of allowing attendees to chat anonymously, with all panelists (including the host), or with all panelists and all attendees.

Find out more about using chat in meetings and webinars.