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 organize 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 realizes 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.

Go to Main Menu