Webinar - Disable Chat Function for Specific Attendees

[Bas2935]

Is there a way to disable the chat for only specific attendees in a webinar?

We are offering large webinars with the chat function enabled for the entire webinars. However, we want to be able to restrict some attendees from being able to post in the chat, due to disrupting the chat. Keeping the chat on for attendees to be able to post in the chat is an important part of our webinars, so we don't want to turn the chat off or restrict everyone.

Thank you!

[Ray_Harwood]

Welcome to the Zoom Community, @Bas2935.

No, sorry, that level of control isn't built in to Zoom.  My suggested approach to "disruptors" is to move them to the Waiting Room, chat with them directly there, admonishing them to behave or be removed entirely from the session, get their acknowledgement to comply, let them back in for one more try, and if they are disruptive again, use the Remove menu item on them in the Participants window.

[Bas2935]

Thank you for your response and suggestion. My understanding is that there aren't waiting rooms in Zoom Webinars. If there are available, we aren't able to leave the main webinar to have private conversations with attendees - the events are too large to have to do that with every person disrupting the chat. Do you know how I can make a request to Zoom for a new feature?

[Ray_Harwood · Accepted solution]

Ah, you’re correct, @Bas2935 – this is a Webinar (I forgot) and webinars don’t support Waiting Rooms.  And it looks like you’re running the entire show, and can’t be distracted from the “main event” other than to disable their chat.

The Feature Request process at Zoom has changed in recent months, and is essentially built in to the Feedback process. See this Zoom Support article for details:

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0068808

You might also consider using the Report feature for frequent/recurring offenders:

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0067474 

[Bas2935]

Thanks so much for the information about sending feedback to Zoom and for reporting inappropriate behavior. I appreciate it!