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drkings's avatar
drkings
Copper Contributor
Nov 10, 2021

Chat options not available - Teams App for Mac

Hi there,

 

I'd love some help here.

 

I'm using a 64 bit iMac (2021) running the very latest version of MS Teams (October 2021) using MacOs Big Sur 11.6

 

When I join a meeting as a guest via the app I can't access the chat.

 

There is no chat bubble visible in my bar next to the sharing tray.  And when people in the meeting send chats I can't see them.

 

When I join the same meeting as a guest via my browser, the chat bubble and chat options show up just fine.

 

So I'm imagining that the issue is with my Mac and how the Teams App is running on it.

 

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this please?

 

Many thanks

 

Daniel

 

p.s. incidentally this happened the other day the other way round, when I was hosing a meeting and those who were joining me couldn't see the chat options (but I could).  This may be co-incidence or may be connected.

  • DaveTurnbull's avatar
    DaveTurnbull
    Copper Contributor

    drkings I'm not sure this will work for you or anyone here, but I solved it this way…

     

    When I was using a Microsoft-supplied email address, registered via my company's IT department (for example, email address removed for privacy reasons) the chat option wasn't showing. 

     

    Invites to Team meetings are, however, sent to my regular, non-ms email address. For example email address removed for privacy reasons 

     

    When I click an invite, I log in to Teams as my regular, non-MS company user (email address removed for privacy reasons). This seems to have put me in guest mode or something similar. In this mode, no chat window is shown or seemingly available.

     

    I asked my IT department to use our company's custom domain for our MS accounts (we use Google for our email and productivity suite, so this hadn't ever been done for MS). Once this had been done, and I could use my regular email for my Teams account, I was … tada! … shown the chat option.

     

    The Teams interface changed quite a bit. The layout of the UI and the location of buttons/options were different to the version I saw as a guest.

     

    I hope this helps.

    • DaveTurnbull's avatar
      DaveTurnbull
      Copper Contributor
      As the emails were removed when I posted this, I'll put them here in a non-standard format that hopefully helps the reply above to make more sense.

      The MS-supplied email was: name @ onmicrosoft dot com
      My regular address was: name @ company dot com
  • John_hba's avatar
    John_hba
    Copper Contributor
    I have the same problem and have no idea how to fix this.
  • Cath1900's avatar
    Cath1900
    Copper Contributor

    I have been trying to fix this issue for months. Uninstall, clear cache, reinstall, nothing has worked. I click on links to join meetings only as a visitor (I do not pay for the app, the other party does).

    Also, each and every time I try to join a meeting now, the option to click on "already have Teams...?" does not respond, so I have to re-install it each and every meeting. I can live with that, but I cannot work without a chat box.

    I have had no real help from Microsoft. It takes about an hour to explain the issues, and they seem to know less than I do. Nothing fixes the problems.

    Apple tells me that there are many issues with Teams for Mac users, and they have yet to be fixed.

    What is also strange is that I used to click on the "already have Teams", it worked, AND I had a chat box for over a year and a half! (and yes, everything on my Mac is up to date)

    I guess the only solution is to ask those who provide me with work to use Zoom, where I have never had any issues whatsoever.

     

     

     

     

    drkings 

  • MisMish46's avatar
    MisMish46
    Copper Contributor

    drkings  I also have this same problem - am running Big Sur version 11.6. I can see the chat function if I log into teams through the browser though - just not through the app

    • gaellima's avatar
      gaellima
      Copper Contributor
      Same here, also Big Sur 11.6.5, Teams downloaded and installed yesterday.
  • dizzlefizzle's avatar
    dizzlefizzle
    Copper Contributor

    Same here, and frustrating that there's no apparent solution other than using the web client.

    I was on a meeting yesterday where they said, "Oh, we put this in the chat for you." I was embarrassed that I had to ask them to email it to me as I couldn't see it.

    Super basic feature, and odd thing to disallow guests users from accessing. I'll have to try connecting by browser next time to see if that works.

  • Ryan_N007's avatar
    Ryan_N007
    Copper Contributor

    I too am experiencing this issue exactly as described by drkings.

     

    2014 MacBook Pro (Intel i7), 16GB Ram, running MacOS 11.6.2 (Big Sur).

     

    This has been a consistent problem for well over six months for me.  I just came from a meeting that required me to use the Chat feature in Teams--which was simply not available.  No top banner appears with clickable buttons.  This is true if I host and/or if I am a guest in a meeting hosted by someone else.


    Does anyone have a solution or advice for troubleshooting?  Many thanks in advance.

     

    Ryan N.

     

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