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.
If you are an admin, here is where you can find and control the settings:
Teams admin center > Meetings > Meeting policies > Meeting engagement > Meeting chat.
There will be five options to choose from:
- On for everyone
- On for everyone but anonymous users
- Off
- In-meeting only for everyone
- In-meeting only except anonymous users
By selecting one of the new "In-meeting only" options, you can disable the ability for participants to send messages in the meeting chat before or after the meeting. This is particularly useful for maintaining focus and ensuring that discussions are contained within the meeting timeframe. Participants will still be able to read past chat history but can only send messages while the meeting is active.
The rollout has been announced to start early December for targeted release, and reaching GA in January for the rest of us.