Restrict Chat within Group Members

Administrators can restrict chats between members of a specific Collaboration group. Once restricted, the members of the group can't search for or start chats with other members of the group. Existing chats and conferences are also restricted, and users can no longer continue the chat conversation or conference.

You can restrict chats within the members of a Collaboration group using the Allow chat between members of this group setting on the Collaboration page. This capability helps you enhance communication while ensuring privacy and control. Some reasons for which you might restrict chats are:

To comply with legal or regulatory requirements regarding the confidentiality of certain discussions or information shared within the group
To prevent interactions outside the group among participants, ensuring that discussions remain focused on company-related tasks

Restricting chat between group members provides these benefits:

You can tailor the chat functionality according to your specific needs and workflows.
You can enhance productivity by ensuring that conversations are relevant to the group's goals by preventing users from starting irrelevant conversations using official communication channels.
You can minimize unnecessary distractions in communication channels.
You can prevent unwarranted broadcasts by mobile workers, as you can grant access only to the required helpdesks, where only help desk conversations can be started.
You can implement security measures aimed to maintain a secure communication environment.

Deselecting the Allow chat between members of this group check box

The Allow chat between members of this group check box is selected by default. When you deselect it, users within this group can’t search for other members or start chats. However, they can still search and start chats through other configurations, such as if they belong to another group with the option enabled, or if have the visibility based on the 'Collaboration with groups' configuration.

For ongoing one-to-one chats, users can’t continue conversations with each other in these scenarios:

Visibility permissions are revoked by deselecting the Allow chat between members of this group check box for the group to which the users belong.
Respective groups are disassociated from the Collaboration with groups setting.
Collaboration group is deactivated.
Users are deactivated.

When a Collaboration user tries to send a new message in these scenarios, the message isn’t sent and both users get the message, 'You no longer have permissions to chat with this contact' is displayed.

For ongoing conferences, if at least one user in the conference doesn't have the visibility with any of the other users, the conference is made inoperative. When a user tries to send a new message to the conference, that message isn’t sent and users of that conference get the message, 'You can no longer send or receive messages in this conference since permissions have been modified' is displayed.

Users can continue to create and add more members to conferences only if they've visibility to such users.

Changes to the Allow chat between members of this group option don’t affect existing broadcasts or help desk conversations. If the option is disabled, users can’t start future broadcasts and help desk requests with the users they don't have permissions to chat with.