Chat function not working for everyone in video meetings

[janenolan]

Hi,

I'm using MS Teams for teaching a class of 120, however a number of students claim that when they join the meeting they do not have access to the chat function. I have offered the following solutions, neither of which seem to have solved the problem:

1. Make sure they join the meeting via the module teams page channel

2. Make sure they join using the MS Teams app, not the web link.

Do you have any other suggestions I could offer them?

I read on one forum that the chat function might be limited to only 20 people at a time, regardless of how many are in the meeting. Is this true? If it is, then I need to think about other ways of organizing my teaching.

Thank you

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hello, are you the one organizing the meetings as well? You can control the meeting chat with the meeting options. But as you're saying this is only happening for a few it could be a policy involved. There are both messaging policies and meeting policies to manage all kind of settings, as for the chat the former controls general chat functionality while the latter controls if chat is allowed in meetings. This is a per-user policy. You should verify that with your IT administrator.

And you can disregard from what you've read on the other forum as it isn't correct. Teams meetings are just now going from 300 to 1000 participants as default.

Attaching some links for guidance and reference.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/change-participant-settings-for-a-teams-meeting-53261366-...

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/keeping-students-safe-while-using-teams-for-distance-learn...

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/limits-specifications-teams#meetings-and-calls

[#3]

Thanks very much for your comprehensive reply. I'll try some of your suggestions and will post back to let others know the outcomes.

[#4]

@ChristianBergstrom 

I was in a meeting with 25 people. For some, the chat was working, for me and several others it was not. I looked up help on a side computer but did not want to go out of the meeting, come back in and then go through 4 steps to get chat. This is absurd. I do a lot of meetings on Zoom and never had this problem. 

One solution in an MS Teams thread was to select a button on the left side of the screen. These was nothing on the left side of my screen. I changed the screen size just in case it was off frame, but nothing. So I am totally confused why so basic a function requires a rocket scientist to figure it out. 

Also, not having chat I missed information links loaded by the speaker. An with chat I had no way to say, Hey, I don't have chat. How stupid can MS get and still walk. 

[#5]

@Daniel_McCormick__DJ if a team is created, a meeting is scheduled for that team and the relevant individuals joint the team then those individuals who are team members should be able to access the chat. It seems to be a new 'feature'.