Zoom meetings often require multi-tasking, es­pe­cially for the meeting hosts. The Zoom Chat feature is par­tic­u­larly useful for this. To avoid in­ter­rupt­ing a present­a­tion, to organise a team meeting, or to answer in­di­vidu­al par­ti­cipants, you can send private chat messages or group messages via Zoom Chat. The host de­term­ines who can chat with whom in the meeting.

Enable Zoom Chat in a meeting

The chat feature for Zoom meetings is self-ex­plan­at­ory and is easy to enable and disable. You can use the Zoom Chat in both the Zoom desktop app and the mobile app. Before or during a meeting, determine whether you want to allow attendees to use the private or public chat feature, or keep it disabled. Follow these steps to use Zoom Chat.

In the desktop app

  • Step 1: Create a Zoom meeting and click on ‘Chat’ in the menu bar after the meeting has started.
  • Step 2: A chat window will now open in which you can write messages to in­di­vidu­al par­ti­cipants or to everyone.
  • Step 3: If you only want to write to one specific par­ti­cipant, click on the name field next to ‘To:’ and select the name.
  • Step 4: To manage the chat function, go to the ‘...’ symbol. Here you can define whether only the host is allowed to use the Zoom Chat or all the par­ti­cipants. You can also specify whether users can send private messages to other par­ti­cipants or only public chat messages.
  • Step 5: New messages are displayed in the form of a preview message and by a number appearing next to the chat symbol.
  • Step 6: Meeting par­ti­cipants can use the chat function by clicking on ‘Chat’ in the bottom bar and, depending on the settings, selecting par­ti­cipants to chat with or writing a group message.
  • Step 7: To use Zoom Chat while screen sharing, go to the ‘Chat’ symbol to use the un­anchored chat menu with the same sharing and sending options.
Image: Zoom meeting with active chat function
Depending on the size of your meeting window, you can also find the chat function under ‘…’.

In the mobile app

  • Step 1: Start a meeting and tap the screen to make the controls visible.
  • Step 2: Tap the ‘...’ symbol and select ‘Chat’ below.
  • Step 3: Under ‘To’, you select whether you want to send a message to all par­ti­cipants or whether you want to send a private message to in­di­vidu­al par­ti­cipants.
  • Step 4: Incoming messages are displayed at the bottom of the screen. To read them, go back to ‘...’ and ‘Chat’.
Image: Chat feature in the Zoom mobile app
You can also exchange messages via chat in the smart­phone app.

How do you disable Zoom Chat?

If you want to make sure that the Zoom Chat feature is disabled from the start of a scheduled meeting, you can do so via the Zoom profile settings. Proceed as follows:

  • Step 1: Log into your profile on the Zoom Web Portal.
  • Step 2: Go to ‘Settings’.
  • Step 3: In the ‘Meeting’ tab, scroll down to the ‘Chat’ section.
  • Step 4: You can now disable the public group chat under ‘Chat’ and/or disable the private chat under ‘Private chat’.
Image: Chat options in the Zoom settings on the website
In the settings, the host de­term­ines whether users are allowed to use the chat. In addition, you can also decide whether chats should be saved auto­mat­ic­ally.

Save a Zoom Chat auto­mat­ic­ally or manually

Zoom realises that chat meetings can still be of im­port­ance even after a meeting has ended and therefore provides a save function for Zoom Chats. You can choose to save chats auto­mat­ic­ally or manually.

How to save chats auto­mat­ic­ally

  • Step 1: Go to your profile on the Zoom web portal.
  • Step 2: Go to the ‘Chat’ section under ‘Settings’ in the ‘Meeting’ tab.
  • Step 3: Activate the function ‘Auto saving chats’.

How to save chats manually and locally

  • Step 1: In the meeting, go to ‘Chat’ in the menu bar.
  • Step 2: Click ‘Save Chat’ to save the current chat locally on your device. The location is usually your Zoom folder in ‘Documents’.
Image: Option to save a meeting's chat
While the meeting is happening, you can save the chat at any time.

What is the Zoom Chat?

As a meeting host and ad­min­is­trat­or, you have many re­spons­ib­il­it­ies on Zoom. When creating a Zoom meeting, you have to decide who should attend the Zoom meeting, who can record a Zoom meeting, share the screen, and even whether par­ti­cipants are allowed to use a virtual Zoom back­ground. Another important job is taking care of the Zoom Chat in meetings.

Zoom Chat allows par­ti­cipants and hosts to send private chat messages or public group messages during a meeting. The host decides in advance whether to allow par­ti­cipants to chat with each other or to disable the chat during the meeting. Private chat messages between Zoom par­ti­cipants cannot be viewed by the meeting host. You can also save the Zoom Chat locally to your device or to the cloud when the meeting is over.

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