How to Enable Teams Meeting Chat or Allow It During Meetings Only

Before you start

Meeting chat settings are managed in the meeting organizer's options or through Microsoft Teams meeting policy settings. The exact location depends on whether you are setting up a single meeting, editing an existing meeting, or configuring policies in the Teams admin center. You need permission to edit the meeting invitation or access to the relevant admin policy. The change affects the meeting chat behavior configured for that meeting or policy; it does not control camera permission, selected camera, resolution, frame rate, or lighting for meeting video.

Step-by-step instructions

Use these steps when you are the meeting organizer and want to change chat for one meeting. The available option may differ slightly depending on the Outlook or Teams version, but the setting usually appears in the same meeting options area.

• 1. Open Microsoft Teams and go to your calendar.
• 2. Create a new meeting or open an existing meeting invitation.
• 3. Select Meeting options or open the meeting options link in the invitation.
• 4. Find the meeting chat section or chat control.
• 5. Select In-meeting only if you want chat to be available only while the meeting is active.
• 6. Save the meeting options.
• 7. Send or update the meeting invitation so participants receive the updated settings.

If you do not see the chat control for a meeting, the option may be limited by an admin meeting policy. In the Microsoft Teams admin center, an administrator can find the meeting policies area and review the chat-related control that allows meeting chat. Policy changes apply according to the admin configuration and may affect multiple users or meetings. Keep the procedure reversible by noting the previous value before changing it, so you can restore the original setting if needed.

Check the output

After saving the setting, open the meeting details again and confirm that the chat option shows In-meeting only. If you can schedule a short test meeting, join it and check whether chat is available during the meeting. In Teams, chat that is limited to the meeting may not remain available for new messages after the meeting ends, depending on the applied setting and policy. Do not rely on unsupported measurements or assumed behavior; verify the visible control and the in-meeting result for your specific Teams version.

Common problems and next steps

If the In-meeting only option is missing, the meeting may be using a policy that does not expose the control to the organizer. Ask your Teams administrator to review the meeting policy, or check whether your Teams client needs an update. If chat is still available after the meeting ends, the setting may not have saved, the meeting may be using a different policy, or the chat window may be showing a pre-existing conversation rather than new access. Reopen meeting options and confirm the saved value. For participants, permission to use meeting chat is based on the meeting or policy setting, not on their webcam setup.