Teams Webinar Chat issues

Joe Boukhari 61

Hosting a few weeks worth of weekly webinars where attendees need to register.

We are using the Webinar specific function for these

Chat is disappearing as soon as any attendees are admitted or join the meeting. Chat can only be found by going to the meeting occurrence in the Teams app and then clicking the "Chat" tab or navigating similarly through the mobile app.

When attempting to view or respond to chats in the meeting window, it says "You can't send messages because you are not a member of the chat" and that is for all members of the organization, including the organizer of the webinar.

Attendees are able to access the chat and use during the call - none of the attendees are members of the organization and are just guests.

After the meeting is complete and all attendees have left, the meeting chat then shows up on the left side of the Teams app as a recent chat and is accessible and can be used then.

Any help? Thanks!

David Coleman 36 Reputation points

2021-08-10T18:27:13.997+00:00

Hi, we have this issue too and can't see an answer anywhere for it. While giving a webinar as well is not a good look so we might need to look for an alternative product
Jessica Lango 41 Reputation points

2021-08-19T15:35:09.313+00:00

We do not like the webinar tools either, it is missing some basic functionality to make it great.

Like ability to chat with each other, have an exit survey, attendees the ability to choose their own breakout rooms.

For the ones hosting, ability to assign a co-host to help produce the webinar. Allow the presenters of the event to see things like registrations, modify the registration form, etc. It would be great if the panels could pop out, like chat and attendees. This would allow the hosts more of a control center instead of having to close and open every time you need to go to another window.

The tile grid to see people in the meeting, lets face it, that stinks! Sorry, but Zoom does that much better.

The video compression on the recording stinks, we really have limited ability to use the recording it is so terrible.

Just my two cents on what needs some urgent improvements!
David Coleman 36 Reputation points

2021-08-19T15:37:41.023+00:00

Yep, agree with that. I'm investigating new webinar tools as we speak!
Juan Carlos García Melgar 1 Reputation point

2021-08-25T19:41:58.617+00:00
Same issue here!
Even moderators have been taken out of the chat!

We change chat options from "only during meeting" to "Always" and the issue continues. Attendees are only allowed to chat at the tab "Chat" in Teams, and not able to chat in the main window were the meeting is taking place.

And no, it's not an update issue, at least not in my case.

I'm using Teams in:

Windows 10, version 1.4.00.19572 (64 bits)

Android phone

web version on Windows and Chrome: it seems to work fine.

I hope you can have some answers to share with us.
Thank you in advance.

Juan Carlos.

7 answers

Jessica Lango 41 Reputation points

2021-08-18T23:41:56.433+00:00
We have hosted a webinar two weeks in a row and have experienced problems each time with the chat.

The members of our organization identified as the host or presenters are not able to communicate with the chat. Says they are not a member of the chat.

Not all of our attendees are not able to chat with us.

During the course of the webinar it tells us that people are no longer part of the chat, but they are still in the webinar.

I have checked the settings to be sure the chat is enabled in the meeting settings, it is. Is there a setting we can turn on to fix this?
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David Coleman 36 Reputation points

2021-08-19T09:44:44.38+00:00

Yep, exact same issue here
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Sabrina S 11 Reputation points

2021-09-03T13:31:43.077+00:00

I hosted my first Teams webinar this week and experienced this exact same issue with the chat not working. Hopefully Microsoft will provide a fix asap.
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David Gorst 6 Reputation points

2021-09-17T04:27:27.887+00:00

I have organized 2 webinars in the past week and came across this issue.
I haven't found a proper fix yet though there are workarounds.

1) In Teams Admin panel under "Messaging Policies" Select the policy to edit then ensure Chat Permissions Role is set to full permissions

2) The Teams Desktop Application seems to be the main culprit for us, from what I have noticed, it seems to block the chat with OP's message description when the webinar starts getting over 20 odd users

3) Joining teams through the web browser seems to work for our attendees as well as the mobile apps for iOS / Android
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Xzsssss 8,861 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-08-11T07:13:30.027+00:00
Hi @Joe Boukhari ,

Do you mean the Chat button of the main menu was missing when the external guests joined the webinar? Is this button?

Are you using the newest version Teams? If not, please update it.

Based on my tests, I could see the conversation after joined the webinar as a guest and also send messages from browsers and Teams desktop clients. Also the organizer or presenter could see and use Chat button and the meeting chat.
Please try the following methods to see if those could help:

Leave this meeting and re-join in it.

In the meeting, check Meeting Options > Allow Meeting chat, make sure it is enabled.

Schedule a meeting in Calendar rather than start a meeting in a channel.

Best regards,
Lou

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Xzsssss 8,861 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-08-13T07:55:39.087+00:00

Hi @Joe Boukhari ,

Do the suggestions above help? If the issue has been resolved, please click “Accept as answer” to mark the helpful reply as an answer, this will make answer searching in the forum easier and be beneficial to other community members as well.

If you are still stuck in this issue, please feel free to post your questions.

Regards,
Lou

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Joe Boukhari 61 Reputation points

2021-08-23T15:56:57.067+00:00

The "Chat" icon on the left menu is still there, but when you go in to view chats, after the meeting has started it disappears from accessible chats. The version of Teams is the latest and this impacts all users in our organization, but not the guests/attendees outside the organization.

We hosted 5 different sessions with unique links for all and had the same issue on all 5.

Meeting Options were set to chat enabled for all and still did not positively impact the ability to use the chat. And the Meeting was created from the Calendar view in Teams, not from a Channel.

We love the ability to have folks register for an event, but not if we have to teach a workaround to get to the chat to engage with our teams.

Xzsssss 8,861 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-08-24T08:45:44.347+00:00

Hi @Joe Boukhari ,

Do you mean the specific chat created by the meeting disappears after the meeting starts? Like this:

If so, could you start the conversation in the meeting?

This chat appears after joined the meeting as a organizer. Please try sending something in "Conversation" inside the meeting. And will the this chat show on a browser Teams?

Best regards,
Lou

Joe Boukhari 61 Reputation points

2021-08-27T22:57:59.793+00:00

The chat works and appears in that left side list before guests are admitted to the meeting. The chat from the meeting window works in the same time. As soon as guests are admitted, the chat disappears from that left menu and the chat gives the message that "you are not a member." The conversation is started and runs, but these views - or lack thereof - never show up until all guests have left the meeting.

We tested it again today with a completely fresh webinar and had the same exact issue.

The chat is working from a workaround by going to the meeting details and clicking the "Chat" tab at the top of the meeting details screen. But it never shows on the left side of the main teams window until the meeting is ended and all guests have left.

Xzsssss 8,861 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-09-01T02:38:41.54+00:00

Hi @Joe Boukhari ,

Thank you for the clear details. I am going to do some research about this and see in what situation will this happen. For now I'm not sure it is affacted by some feature settings or it's like a bug.

Best regards,
Lou

Emanuel Fernandes 11 Reputation points

2021-09-09T17:23:51.153+00:00

My organization just experienced the same problem.
We schedule a webinar and had +500 enrolled.
We started the meeting 30 minutos before, so Presenters could talk anda prepare. Meanwhile, attendees started to join the lobby.
At the designated hour we had +300 attendees in the lobby. We wanted to Admit All them, but we got errors; one or two entered, all the others gave error. After several attempts, and with 15 minutes passed by, we only had less then 50 admitted. We than change options to by pass lobby. People started to enter... we got to 495 attendees.
Somewhere in time, the organizer was kind of kicked off, and then some presenters; other presenters, like me, we lost access to the Chat on the desktop app (left pane).

The webinar window kept working, but we couldn't write on the chat. Some attendees could write.
Using the phone app (android) I could use the chat and post.
The desktop app is up to date, as the operating system.
At the end, as people left the meeting, suddenly the Chat appear on the left pane and we could write and several attendees started writting... I think it appeared when the countdown come down the 300 or 280...or something like that; the phone app had one number the desktop app says +99; the webinar window was less than the phone app.
Our organization felt badly about all this. We got several complaints.
We have several webinars to agend. Hope this is a "bug" that you can fix. Is it the desktop app and the number of attendees +300?

Joe Boukhari 61 Reputation points

2021-09-14T15:55:43.88+00:00

We are not able to engage with the conversation from inside the meeting or from the chat pane on the left side. We can only access from the Meeting Details in the Teams Calendar and clicking on the Chat tab inside of the calendar invite view.

We used the webinar again today, and it locked out the chat just the same as described multiple times in this thread.

This is what the meeting chat shows in the meeting window:

The chat still doesn't show on the left side of the Teams app either.

Thanks,

Joe Boukhari 61 Reputation points

2021-09-14T17:23:45.19+00:00

My issue that I've rundown through this thread has been with small and large groups. Today was about 30, previously it's been over 100 and it does it regardless of audience, guest, or presenter count. I have been the only organizer, and have never been kicked off - so that piece could be unique for your situation. We have had the chat disappear at the meeting start time and reappear after the meeting is ended or the ending time.

Xzsssss 8,861 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-09-15T09:31:31.44+00:00

Hello @Joe Boukhari ,

I was trying to help but, until now, I got no replies:(

Seems it's not a setting mistake, cause I have check all the related features and settings in both Teams clients and Teams Admin Center.
Please try using the Teams on browsers to see if it works.

Otherwise, kindly suggest that you can open a Service Request or a Ticket*Get Support* for a better support on this issue.

Best regards,
Lou

Emanuel Fernandes 11 Reputation points

2021-09-15T09:55:39.617+00:00

Hi. I'm sorry to say, but webinars (not simple meetings) still have this problems. When the number of attendees passes 260-280-300 (never managend to get a number) the problems start to happen.
And let me tell you again:

it happens with the webinars (not meetings, nor live event)

when the number of attendees passes 260-300 (again, not sure, because my colleagues had different numbers, but on the late two hundreds/300)

it happens with the desktop app; the android app kept the chat working (but with over 400 attendees it wasn't of any use)

some presenters kicked off, but could join again withou problems

the conversation / chat disappear from the left pane of the Teams desktop app, we had to go around the calendar to return to the webinar and we lost access to write in the webinar chat

with more than 300 hundred persons to admit at the beggining, with had lots of problems and had to ignore the lobby and let everyone enter.
@Joe Boukhari when you refer 30 or 100 persons, i'm sorry to say you need to test with more than 300.
Thanks

Joe Boukhari 61 Reputation points

2021-09-20T14:43:33.527+00:00

Hey there! Using the Teams Browser version is not a suitable solution for the level of training I need to conduct. I think based on this thread, this is a larger issue that is affecting more users in other organizations. Based on that knowledge, do I need to submit a support ticket? Or can Microsoft handle this huge miss? The webinar feature has been out since May or before and doesn't function how it should.

Thanks.

Xzsssss 8,861 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-09-21T05:58:32.533+00:00

Hi @Joe Boukhari ,

Yes, as I said, I could completely understand your feeling. Of course you could open a ticket for a better support, then let's hope the product engineers could give us something useful.

Best regards,
Lou
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