Chat Group Restriction

Administrators will have the ability to restrict chats between members of specific Collaboration Groups. Once restricted, members of the group will not be able to search for or initiate chats with other members of the group. Existing chats will also be restricted and users will no longer be able to continue the chat conversation if permissions are revoked. The same will also be applicable for existing conferences.

Also, the Collaboration configuration has been redesigned based on Redwood styles.

This new capability addresses various use cases aimed at enhancing communication dynamics while ensuring privacy and control.

• Restrictions can be implemented to comply with legal or regulatory requirements regarding the confidentiality of certain discussions or information shared within the group.

• Administrators can configure restrictions to prevent interactions outside the group among participants, ensuring that discussions remain focused on company-related tasks.

For Collaboration groups, there will be an additional checkbox labeled 'Allow chat between members of this group'. The checkbox is enabled by default for new and existing groups. If unchecked, users within this group will not be able to search for other members or initiate chats, unless their visibility is maintained through other configurations, such as belonging to another group with the option enabled or having visibility based on the 'Collaboration with groups' configuration.

For ongoing one-to-one chats, the users will be unable to continue conversations with each other in any of the following circumstances:

• Revocation of visibility permissions by unchecking the  'Allow chat between members of this group' checkbox for the group to which the users belong.

• Disassociation of the respective groups from the 'Collaboration with groups' configuration.

• Deactivation of the collaboration group.

• Deactivation of any of the users.

Whenever one of the Collaboration users tries to send a new message, the message won't be sent and both users will get a message stating that they no longer have permissions to chat with each other 'You no longer have permissions to chat with this contact'.

For ongoing conferences, if, at any time, there is at least one user in the conference who does not have visibility with any of the other users, the conference will be made inoperative. When such a situation arises and a user tries to send a new message to the conference, that message won't be sent and users of that conference will get a message stating that they can no longer send or receive messages in that conferences due to changes in permissions 'You can no longer send or receive messages in this conference since permissions have been modified'.

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

Changes to the 'Allow chat between members of this group' option will not affect existing broadcasts or helpdesk conversations.  If the options is disabled, this will prevent users from initiating future broadcasts and helpdesk requests with users with whom they do not have permissions to chat.

Business Benefit

• Allows customers to tailor the chat functionality according to their specific needs and workflows.

• Enhances productivity by ensuring that conversations are relevant to the group's goals by preventing users from starting irrelevant  conversations  using official communication channels.

• Minimizes unnecessary distractions in communication channels.

• Unwarranted broadcasts by field resources can be prevented,  as it will be possible to grant access solely to helpdesks to groups of field resource, allowing only helpdesk conversations to be initiate in such scenarios.

• Allow companies to implement security measures aimed to maintain a secure communication environment

Steps to Enable

• The 'Allow chat between members of this group' will be enabled by default for new and already existing groups.

• To disable the  'Allow chat between members of this group' for already existing groups,  go to  Configuration > Collaboration > (group_name)

Tips And Considerations

Ongoing one-to-one chats or conferences could be impacted by losing communication in the event the option 'Allow chat between members of this group' is disabled or the 'Collaboration with groups' configuration is updated.  Before implementing changes to configurations for existing collaboration groups, it is essential to thoroughly evaluate any potential impact on their functionality.