Microsoft Teams: Private chat for organizers from April 2026

Starting in April 2026, Microsoft is introducing a new private chat feature for structured meetings, webinars, and town halls in Microsoft Teams. Organizers, co-organizers, and presenters will have a separate communication channel that functions independently of the participant chat. This is intended to improve coordination among those responsible without other participants being aware of the discussions.

The rollout begins in early April 2026 for users in Targeted Release and will be available worldwide and in the Government Community Cloud (GCC) by the end of April. The feature is available for all common Microsoft Teams clients: desktop versions for Windows and macOS, web application, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and Microsoft Teams Rooms for Windows and Android.

The unification of backroom chat behavior in town halls is particularly important. Previously, this varied depending on the streaming chat setting and Teams Premium license. In the future, the default will be "ON" for all town halls, regardless of license type. This may require adjustments for organizations that use different configurations for premium and non-premium events.

Differences from regular chat in detail

The private chat fundamentally differs from the conventional participant chat: it is exclusively accessible to the roles of organizer, co-organizer, and presenter and remains persistently available before, during, and after the event. Thanks to this isolation, those responsible can handle their coordination tasks, such as Q&A management or presenter changes, without disturbing or distracting participants.

The new feature also affects existing events: administrators can disable the new policy tenant-wide. In this case, town halls and webinars already planned with backroom chat enabled will lose access after an update of the event options. Town halls without a Teams Premium license with previously disabled backroom chat will automatically switch to the new default setting after the introduction.

Administrators control the feature granularly via the Teams Admin Center with Meeting Policies. Selective deactivation is possible tenant-wide or per policy. The feature is available regardless of license type.

The change aligns with Microsoft's strategy to establish town halls as the standard for scalable events. Legacy Live Events will be discontinued on June 30, 2026 (already planned events can be run until February 28, 2027). Existing town halls will adopt the new policy after an update of the meeting options. Organizations with disabled streaming chat for town halls should note that the backroom chat will continue to run independently and is enabled by default.

Microsoft provides further details in the official Message Center.

(fo)