This article is written for G Suite for Education Administrators.
Do you find an issue of students posting chat messages in Google Meet that interrupted online classes?
Yes, teachers wanted to disable Google Meet's Chat feature since it seems more harmful than good in remote learning.
This article demonstrates how Safe Doc chrome extension disable the Chat feature to keep the class quiet. If you have yet to install Safe Doc, apply a 30 days trial.
What's changed by Safe Doc
The chat feature resides in the right panel of Google Meet. Every participant in the room is free to chat without restrictions by default. Teachers will need to use the Host control to turn off chat capabilities on the students' ends. Messages sent are visible to all. Safe Doc removes the Chat bar, so students cannot find and use this feature.
How to get started
First of all, make sure you have deployed Safe Doc and read how to Configure Safe Doc.
Case 1: Block all chats
If your ultimate goal is to completely ban the chat feature in Google Meet, add and set the policy BlockMeetChat to true in the Safe Doc extension policy configuration. Save and verify if it works. The chat feature is not blocked if the policy is not set or false. Your teachers no longer have to turn off Chat for each meeting in the Host control.
"BlockMeetChat": {
"Value": true
}
Case 2: Block single student's chat with the magic /chatoff command
It's also possible for your teachers to temporarily ban a few students from flooding chat messages disturbing the lectures.
Ask your teachers to use the magic /chatoff <student email> command in the chat window to disable the given student's chat feature for the lecture session. Take a look at the following example.
- (The chatty student Pat Paul): types tons of chat messages disrupting the classroom.
- (The teacher): finds the email of annoying student.
- (The teacher): opens the chat window and types
/chatoff [email protected] - (The student Pat Paul): my chat bar is confiscated!
- The classroom returns to silence and focus.
The /chatoff command is managed by the Safe Doc policy EnableMeetChatOffCommand. If the policy is not set or false, the /chatoff command is not enabled. If the policy is set to true, the /chatoff command is enabled. Here is the policy setup.
"EnableMeetChatOffCommand": {
"Value": true
}
Caveat: students are also able to initiate the /chatoff command which disables the chat feature of other students.
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Safe Doc