Chatting in Zoom Webinars

The chat feature lets webinar attendees, the host, co-hosts, and panelists communicate throughout the webinar. As the host, you can control who panelists and attendees can chat with. Account owners and admins can disable chat entirely.

Note: If you’re prompted that your message triggered a Chat Etiquette policy, you may be warned or blocked depending on your administrator’s settings. The Chat Etiquette Tool does not send additional message details, such as data or metadata, to the account admin, Zoom, or any third-party services.

This article covers:

How to chat in Zoom Webinars
How to manage Zoom Webinar chat settings

Prerequisites for chatting in Zoom Webinars

Zoom desktop app for Windows, macOS, or Linux: Global minimum version or higher
Zoom mobile app for Android or iOS: Global minimum version or higher
Zoom Web app
Zoom Webinars chat enabled

How to chat in Zoom Webinars

Webinar chat permissions depend on your role in a webinar and what the host’s settings are:

Webinar hosts, co-hosts, and panelists can send messages to each other, to a specific host or panelist, or to everyone in the webinar if enabled by the host.
Webinar attendees can send messages to hosts and panelists and everyone in the webinar if enabled by the host. If the host disables webinar chat for attendees, attendees can't send messages but can still view messages from the host and panelists.
Note: Attendees can't send private messages to other webinar attendees. Learn more about attendee controls in a webinar.

Windows | macOS | Linux

Start or join a webinar.
In the webinar controls toolbar, click Chat .
If you’re in full screen mode, the Webinar chat window will appear as a movable and adjustable window. If not, it will appear on the right side of your screen.
In the bottom-left corner of the Webinar chat window, next to the To: section, click the drop-down icon to choose the message recipient.
In the Type your message here… field, enter the message you want to send.
(Optional) If enabled by the host, use the following options according to your needs:
- File : Click to send a file in the webinar chat.
- Emoji : Click to add emojis to your message.
- Note: Alternatively, enter a colon followed by at least 2 characters to find matching emojis. For example, typing :jo will provide:
  - :joy:
  - :joy_cat:
  - :joystick:
Press Enter on your keyboard to send your message.

Android | iOS

Start or join a webinar.
At the bottom of your screen, tap Chat .
The Webinar chat screen will open.
In the bottom-left corner of the Webinar chat screen, next to the Send to: section, tap the drop-down icon to choose the message recipient.
In the Tap here to chat field, enter the message you want to send.
(Optional) If enabled by the host, tap Emoji to open the emoji panel and add emojis to your message.
Note: Alternatively, enter a colon followed by at least 2 characters to find matching emojis. For example, typing :jo will provide:
- :joy:
- :joy_cat:
- :joystick:
Tap the send icon .

Web client

Start or join a webinar.
In the webinar controls toolbar, click Chat .
If you’re in full screen mode, the Webinar Chat window will appear on the right side of your screen. If not, it will open in a movable and adjustable window.
In the bottom-left corner of the Webinar Chat window, next to the to: section, click the text with blue background to choose the message recipient.
In the Type your message here… field, enter the message you want to send.
Press Enter on your keyboard to send your message.

How to manage Zoom Webinar chat settings

During a webinar, hosts can change webinar chat options to control who panelists can chat with, who attendees can chat with, and save in-webinar chat messages as a text file.

Start a webinar.
In the webinar controls toolbar, click Chat .
The Webinar chat window will appear.
In the bottom-right corner of the Webinar chat window, click the more icon .
A small window will appear, giving you control over these settings:
- Save chat: Click to save in-webinar chat messages as a text file and store them in the same location as your computer recordings.
- Panelists can chat with:
  - Host and panelists: Panelists can only chat with each other and the host, not with attendees.
  - Everyone: Panelists can chat with everyone in the webinar, including attendees.
- Attendees can chat with:
  - No one: Attendees can’t chat with anyone.
  - Host and panelists: Attendees can only chat with hosts and panelists.
  - Everyone: Attendees can chat with everyone in the webinar, including other attendees.