Upcoming Enhancements to Microsoft Teams Meeting Chat Controls

There are many kinds of meetings, and Teams is a great tool to have virtual meetings in. As an example, it is possible to get to the chat of the meeting and start the discussion up front or continue the discussions or ask follow up questions after the meeting is over.  But sometimes, there are scenarios where organizer would want to keep the chat closed for comments outside of the meeting timeframe. And here is a new feature coming our way, to control exactly that behavior. The Teams admin center will soon allow setting up policies that will enhance your control over meeting chats. These new options are designed to give administrators more flexibility in managing how and when participants can interact via chat during meetings. These options will be available across all platforms, including Teams for Windows and Mac desktops, Teams on the web, and Teams for iOS/Android. This update is part of the Microsoft 365 Roadmap   If you are an admin, here is where you can find and control the set

Town Hall for Microsoft Teams and retirement of Live Events

Microsoft has announced a new feature called 'Town Halls' in Microsoft Teams. This new experience is designed to host and deliver large-scale, internal events, and will eventually replace Microsoft Live events which is set to be retired for commercial customers on September 30, 2024


Some of the highlights of Town Halls include:

  • It provides a familiar interface to plan, create and produce large scale events.
  • It provides a one-to-many format with advanced production capabilities.
  • It offers a structured approach for attendee engagement.
  • It enables customers to extend their reach to scale their message and connect with audiences everywhere.
  • It allows organizations to create professionally produced, studio-quality events that deliver a more dynamic experience.

The feature will be enabled by default once it rolls out, but it can be controlled through the "Set-CsTeamsEventsPolicy" cmdlet: Set-CsTeamsEventsPolicy -Identity "policy name" -AllowTownhalls Disabled 

According to a post in the message center the rollout may begin already this month. This is associated with the roadmap item: 123148