O365 - Disabling "Start Chat" Button

[CHiLL]

We've noticed that when users view another user's profile on O365, they have an option to "Start chat". This opens an an instant messaging window within the browser (or tries to launch Skype...it's inconsistent in it's behavior for me). Obviously this isn't something we want students to have access to. I have checked user licenses in O365 and they all have Skype disabled, although Kaizala Pro is enabled. Kaizala is Microsoft's new group chat tool that in their infinite wisdom, deem acceptable for all users to have enabled by default. If I turn off the Kaizala Pro license for a user manually, the "Start chat" box becomes grayed out - this is ideal.

 

However I cannot seem to find a Powershell command to turn this specific license off. Microsoft's documentation appear to only suggest using the Exchange Admin Centre to remove the license from a user manually or go to the Kaizala dashboard and turn off Kaizala for the whole site. I have turned Kaizala off for the whole site - but the chat button still works. I'm confused as to why removing the Kaizala license grays the option out, but disabling the feature across the site doesn't.

 

Does anyone know how to turn off this license via Powershell, so I can apply it to all users?

[CHiLL]

I've spoken with Office 365 support about this and they're still looking into it. It isn't Kaizala because Kaizala requires a mobile app to work for the end user.

 

Here's more info about the issue:

Screenshot of the button in question:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]57105[/ATTACH]

 

When the user presses this button, the action is pretty irregular, however it does one of two things:

Open Skype if installed or open a chat window within the window. This is intermittent because if Skype is installed, it will almost always try to open that application, but sometimes it will open the chat window. If it asks to open the application and you refresh the page, it may ask to open in Skype again, or it might open in the browser.

 

Obviously we don't want students using instant messaging, however I cannot figure out how to disable it. Skype for Business licenses are disabled for students (but it doesn't stop them being able to launch, log in and use Skype for Business if it's installed on the machine as part of Office 2019). I've also disabled Kaizala site wide and it still works for them.

[Danp]

How strange, I haven't noticed Kaizala before. It looks to me like it's a rival app to Teams which seems pointless!

[LRSFC_DanJ]

We've noticed that when users view another user's profile on O365, they have an option to "Start chat". This opens an an instant messaging window within the browser (or tries to launch Skype...it's inconsistent in it's behavior for me). Obviously this isn't something we want students to have access to. I have checked user licenses in O365 and they all have Skype disabled, although Kaizala Pro is enabled. Kaizala is Microsoft's new group chat tool that in their infinite wisdom, deem acceptable for all users to have enabled by default. If I turn off the Kaizala Pro license for a user manually, the "Start chat" box becomes grayed out - this is ideal.

 

However I cannot seem to find a Powershell command to turn this specific license off. Microsoft's documentation appear to only suggest using the Exchange Admin Centre to remove the license from a user manually or go to the Kaizala dashboard and turn off Kaizala for the whole site. I have turned Kaizala off for the whole site - but the chat button still works. I'm confused as to why removing the Kaizala license grays the option out, but disabling the feature across the site doesn't.

 

Does anyone know how to turn off this license via Powershell, so I can apply it to all users?

 

The ServicePlan for Kaizala is "KAIZALA_O365_P2" (at least for us) so just add this to your list of DisabledPlans when assigning licenses.

 

I tried to include our PowerShell code for doing this bit in this post but the code tag doesn't seem to be able to cope with multiline blocks of code.

 

This Microsoft page has some useful info: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/enterprise/powershell/disable-access-to-services-while-assigning-user-licenses

Edited March 10, 2020 by LRSFC_DanJ

[CHiLL]

The ServicePlan for Kaizala is "KAIZALA_O365_P2" (at least for us) so just add this to your list of DisabledPlans when assigning licenses.

 

I tried to include our PowerShell code for doing this bit in this post but the code tag doesn't seem to be able to cope with multiline blocks of code.

Disabling Kaizala didn't disable the chat. We have Office 365 supported remoting in at the moment. They say that the IM policy is defined in the OWA policy within O365 Exchange Admin Centre. This is set to disabled for our users and he confirmed that with the fiddler logs - IM is disabled. However the button and chat feature still works.

[willtech]

I have slightly same issue open with Microsoft with users chat in OWA. I have seen that if you create another OWA Policy then set the IM to disable it works for us. On ours it looks to be an issue with the default OWA policy. Edited March 11, 2020 by willtech