Microsoft Teams: Chat Missing from Teams Meeting for an Attendee

Overview

Microsoft Teams is an easy way to pull together a group to share, collaborate and communicate in one central location without the use of phone calls that take time away from our day or emails that can easily get buried.  From directly within Teams we can bring everyone together to share information, securely edit files live and at the same time, bring together Microsoft Office 365 apps (OneDrive, OneNote, Planner, Forms, etc) and third-party apps and websites in one place, tag members of the team in conversations or actions and customize the work through adding notes (OneNote and others) and other applications.  

There are times that an attendee will report not seeing the chat bubble, or having any access to the in-meeting chat.  This is an issue on the attendee's device or with their internet connection.  Here are some troubleshooting tips to help them along.

Troubleshooting Missing Teams Chat

There are various reasons that the chat function can be missing for someone in a meeting. They include bad connection to the meeting, low internet bandwidth, wireless or network instability, low resource availability on their device, out-of-date version of Teams, or other similar conditions.  While not all of these are controllable, here are some steps that can be used to try and bring the chat feature in for the individual.

1. If on a tablet or other mobile device, switch to a computer, or make sure you are using the downloaded app from your app store.  Make sure to restart your computer/device before joining.
2. Exit the meeting, and rejoin the meeting.  This refreshes the connection to the meeting, and most of the time should restore the chat function.
3. Check your Teams version for updates.  Click here for instructions on how to check for updates.
4. If you are joining in the Desktop application, try launching Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge and join the meeting that way.  If you are already in the web browser, try downloading the desktop application from within Teams in your web browser.
5. Try restarting your computer/device.  It is a good practice to restart your computer or device before each meeting if possible, or at least once-per-day at a minimum when joining many meetings.
6. If you are able to, try resetting your wireless access point and/or internet router (at-home attendees only).