Microsoft tosses Teams Live chat into its feature graveyard
Website support widget lasted 18 months before Redmond ended the conversation
Microsoft is phasing out Live chat functionality within Teams, approximately 18 months after its initial launch, as the tech giant aims to concentrate its resources on more advanced customer engagement and communication tools. The service will be discontinued on October 5, with messages no longer being delivered to Teams once that date arrives.
Microsoft blocked additional configurations on August 6, urging users to remove the widget from their websites before the retirement date. Any remaining instances of the feature will subsequently be concealed.
Live chat was an uncomplicated feature accessible to users of Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard, and Premium versions of Teams. Companies integrated a chat widget onto their websites, with messages from visitors being directed to a support team within Teams. Administrators could designate business hours and assign up to 25 users to manage conversations. Although customer data and Teams channels will remain accessible, new conversations, escalations, or interactions will no longer be feasible.
Microsoft has directed customers towards Dynamics 365 Contact Center with Live Chat and Copilot Studio's contact center AI tools as replacements for Live chat. In March 2025, Microsoft had initially celebrated the arrival of the service, highlighting its enhanced customer experience. However, the fate of Live chat has now seen it relegated to the "Raiders of the Lost Ark"-style warehouse, where Microsoft stores items that once appeared promising.
Microsoft has dismantled several Teams services in recent months, including the discontinuation of Teams live events, now replaced by a "Teams events experience." Additionally, the Teams Together mode, which presented users in a virtual meeting space, has also been eliminated. Live chat joins this list of casualties as Microsoft endeavors to streamline Teams' complex array of features.
The company has not disclosed further details regarding the "newer customer engagement and communication experiences," though the recommendation of Copilot Studio suggests that artificial intelligence is already on the horizon.
Written by urgent.news from The Register Science's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
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