This article is written for G Suite for Education Administrators.

Do you notice the Chat feature in Google Docs editors? Students may use this features as an alternative to Hangouts which you may turned off. This feature may distract students from studying.

This article explains how Safe Doc blocks the Chat feature in Docs editors. If you have yet to install Safe Doc, apply a 30 days trial.

What's chaging?

Before

When multiple users are working on the same file at the same time, there is a small icon Chat icon in Google Docs next to the user list. Clicking that icon will pops up a chat side panel.

The Chat icon and window in Google Docs
The Chat icon and window in Google Docs

After

With Safe Doc chrome extension installed and configured, the feature is disabled. The Chat icon Chat icon in Google Docs along with the chat window are no longer accessible in these editors, when multiple users join.

Note those who don't have Safe Doc installed won't be impacted, such as teachers or staffs.

This applies to Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings.

Chat feature disabled in Google Docs
Chat feature disabled in Google Docs

How to get started

Given that you have deployed Safe Doc and learned how to Configure Safe Doc, add the following policy to disable the Chat feature.

"BlockInFileChat": {
  "Value": true  
}

On / off by default?

The Chat feature is not blocked by default. You need to explicitly set this policy to true.


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