Chat only mode in Teams

[woelki]

Hey all,

we have a new customer who wants to limit the user experience to different groups on the Teams rollout. There shall be 3 groups.

1. Full user experience to a small bunch of users
2. Full user experience, but not allowed to create teams
3. Chat only

I already know how to manage the teams / O365 goup creation. So I'm still trying to establish the requirements for group 3. It's quite easy to remove audio / video capability. But the customer wants to have the user experience of group 3 set to a minimum what means instant messaging only. Would it be possible to remove all the buttons like teams, files and meetings?

Thanks in advance.
Kind regards,
Woelki

[#2 · Accepted solution]

I don't think that is possible, when you turn off a native app, it will affect everyone.

They could use Skype for Business for those people that just need chat.

I would want to know why the customer wants to prevent their people from being more productive.

[#3]

Yeah Dean is right you cannot remove the Teams tab. As long as they are not in a team thou the Team tab doesn’t really do anything so it’s essentially disabled. The only tab you can hide is chat. You could do the Skype route but I wouldn’t recommend that because you’ll run into cross compatibility issues etc. down the road. Just have group 3 in no teams and they will be good to go.

[#4]

Yes, the customer is afraid that his employees will not use Teams in the "correct" way. The O365 migration is coming soon and they have not managed to realize user workshops before.

So they want to reduce the orginal functionality.

I already tested a bit with S4B as well, but why are there incompatibilities between S4B and Teams?

[#5]

There is a whole coexistence model you have to setup and follow and if you don't have Skype for Business yet, I wouldn't even suggest that as an option, you will cause more work and more headaches for yourself than just starting out on Teams for the beginning.

A few coexistence issues when talking about chat between Teams members and Skype, is no group chats. You can't do group calls, without starting up a meeting. Skype isn't persistent chat, the mobile app isn't close in features, the list can go on. It's just not a good idea at all.

Not adding someone to a Team in Teams and restricting their creation for Group3, is the best way to go, no one will be able to do anything on the Teams tab, it will just be blank, unless they can create Teams, but they will still be able to use chat. This is the route you want to take.

[#6]

Thanks Chris, this helps a lot.

[#7]

Oh, I have one additional question.

For sure only group owners can invite additional team mebers. But is there a possibility to limit the audience who is able to join teams?

[#8]

Right. Not really a way to prevent. Long as you have group creation restricted I don’t understand why you are so worried about people being on a team? :p if a few people stumble into one not a big deal the real damage is team creation!

[#9]

Yes, I'm on your side. We just try to stick as close as possible to the customers requirments. I'm just investigating what is possible. But for sure we have our mission in adoption and transformation of the digital workplace. With this knowledge we can ensure a smooth onboarding full of new experiences, so for sure we want to be our customers more productive as well.