After deploying Zoom Team Chat basics such as user groups, pre-defined chat channels, and account-level settings, you can create additional user groups, change user group settings, and create channels for specific teams, projects, or topics.

Once you’ve completed initial deployment of contact groups and Zoom Team Chat channels, you adjust how Zoom Team Chat functions for your users, chat security settings, and what services you use to store your messages and files sent through Team Chat.

This article covers:

• How to configure Zoom Team Chat settings
  • Change Zoom Team Chat settings for sharing
  • Change Zoom Team Chat visibility settings
  • Change Zoom Team Chat security settings
  • Change Zoom Team Chat storage settings

Prerequisites for admin management of Zoom Team Chat settings

• Account owner, admin, or user assigned a custom role with chat permissions

How to configure Zoom Team Chat settings

Zoom Team Chat has account-level settings that apply to all users. You can enable or disable certain chat features like file transfer and code snippets. The following steps are a few of the settings you can enable or disable.

Learn more about all the available account-level settings.

Change Zoom Team Chat settings for sharing

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Account Management then Account Settings.
3. Click the Team Chat tab.
4. In the Sharing section, change these settings as needed:
   • Screen capture*
   • Users can share files in chats and channels*
   • Chat emojis*
   • Search and send animated GIF images
   • Send code snippet
   • Record voice messages*
   • Record video messages*
   • Translate messages*

*Note: You can also configure these settings at the group level, so that different groups of users on your account have different features and access.

Change Zoom Team Chat visibility settings

These visibility settings are only available at the account level.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Account Management then Account Settings.
3. Click the Team Chat tab.
4. In the Visibility section, change these settings to get started:
   • Set Chat as a default tab for first-time users: Upon first sign-in to the client, the Team Chat tab is the default, instead of the Home tab.
   • Show H.323 contacts: Display a user’s H.323 contacts in the Contacts tab.
   • Ungrouped users can search for any contacts: Users not in any contact group can search for any contacts in the same domain, the same account, or the same organization. Search results will not include members of groups in which the 'visible to' and 'searchable by' group privacy setting is set to 'members only'.
   • Announcements
   • Suppress deleted or deactivated user notice in group chats and channels: When a user is deleted or deactivated from the account, display no message in any group chats or channels where they were members.

Change Zoom Team Chat security settings

Zoom Team Chat security settings can be configured for the entire account through Account Settings, or at the Group Settings level for more granular control for different users groups or departments. Some of the the following settings are only available at the Group-level.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Account Management then Account Settings.
3. Click the Team Chat tab.
4. In the Security section, change these settings as needed:
   • Enable advanced chat encryption
   • Allow bots to participate in chats and channels: Some chatbots added to chats and channels can read and write messages. For third-party chat services added by you, you are instructing Zoom to send your message data through that service when you allow bots.
   • Enable Personal channel in Chat window: Provides a personal chat space for each user, for keeping notes and sending themselves reminders.
   • Allow users to search others*: Controls if users can search for others In the same account or others Under the same master account, including sub accounts.
   • Allow users to add contacts**: If turned off, users can't add external contacts but can still view the company contact directory. This can be restricted to certain organizations, domains, and specific users.
   • Allow users to chat with others**: Specify who internal users can chat with. This can be restricted to certain organizations, domains, and specific users.
   • Allow users to create channels*: Controls if users can create channels, with sub-options for creating public and private channels.
   • Show status to external contacts: Show users' presence status to their external contacts.
   • Share links to messages and channels in Team Chat: Users can create a link directly to a specific chat channel or message in a channel.
   • Schedule a meeting from chat or channel: Users can quickly schedule meetings with members of a chat or channel in Team Chat.
   • Chat Etiquette Tool: Allows admins to create policies to prevent unwanted sharing of sensitive information based on defined keywords and text patterns/regular expressions (such as account numbers and social security numbers).
   • Allow channel owner and admin(s) to remove messages of other members: Allows admins to remove messages from other members when necessary. 
     The affected members will see their message removed, and the admin will view the original message in the chat history report.

*Note: These settings are only available at the Group-level settings.
**Note: These settings can also be configured at the Group-level, so that different groups of users on your account have different features and access.

Change Zoom Team Chat storage settings

You can choose how long chat messages are stored in the Zoom cloud and on local devices. This will delete all messages after the designated time frame.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Account Management then Account Settings.
3. Click the Team Chat tab.
4. In the Storage section, change these settings as needed:
   • *Set retention period for messages and files in Zoom's cloud: Automatically save all persistent chat messages to the cloud.
     You can specify the retention settings based on the type of chat, distinguishing between direct messages/group conversations and channels. After the specified cloud retention period, Zoom will remove all persistent chat messages and metadata from the cloud. 
     Admin can also configure their chat channels to utilize Box or SharePoint for file storage and creation.
   • *Store messages on local devices (excluding personal channel messages): Automatically delete all persistent chat messages and metadata on the local device after the specified retention period. Attachments will still save on the local device. You can specify the time period messages are stored on the desktop or mobile device running Zoom settings based on the type of chat, distinguishing between direct messages/group conversations and channels. 
     Note: Users that manually download files or images can still access them on their local device.
   • Store edited and deleted message revisions: Store edited/deleted messages (as well as the original version) in the cloud.
   • Send data to third-party archiving service*: Store and backup Zoom Team Chat with a 3rd-party service.
5. Click Save.

Notes:

• Setting retention by different chat types is only available with version 5.14.0 or later.
  Using previous versions will default to the shortest of the specified retention periods.
• *These settings can also be configured at the Group-level, so that different groups of users on your account have different features and access.

Learn more about chat storage settings and view chat history.