Create a Lync Chat Room

If you’ve been given authorization by your Lync administrator, you can quickly get started creating your own persistent chat rooms. The following sections explain how to create, manage, and disable chat rooms.

Create a new chat room

  1. In the Lync main window, in the Chat Rooms view, click the Add a room button, then click Create a Chat Room on the drop-down menu. (If you don’t see these options, your Lync administrator hasn’t given you permission to create and manage chat rooms.)

On the My Rooms page that opens, click Create A New Room.

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Name your new chat room

When you create a chat room you’ll want to give it a unique and descriptive name.

  1. On the Create a room window, in Room Name, enter a name. A room name can contain up to 256 alphabetical, numeric, or special characters, including spaces, in any combination.
  2. Click the Check Names icon to make sure it’s not already being used. If it is, you’ll be prompted to pick another name.

If you decide to change the room name later, the new name will be displayed for you and the room’s members and followers going forward. It’s a good idea, although, to find an appropriate name to start with and then stick with it. Changing a room name can create confusion for users who’ve set up notifications, or added your room as a Favorite.

Write a chat room description

When you create your chat room, click Description on the Create a room window, and enter an explanation of the room’s purpose. Keep your description short (256 characters maximum), and write it so it helps others decide whether to request membership and whether to set up notifications to keep tabs on what’s being discussed in it. You can change the description at any time.

Select a privacy setting

Every Lync chat room has a privacy setting, which controls who can find and participate in it. The three settings are:

  • Open – Anyone can find this room (via search), open it, and read and write in (“post to”) it. Open rooms have no “membership” as such.
  • Closed – Non-members can find this room and see who is a member, but only members can open the room, read or post to it. (This is the default setting.) To join a closed room, the user must ask a manager of the room to be added to the members list. The room card identifies the chat room managers.
  • Secret – Non-members won’t be able to find this room or its room card, learn who has membership in the room, or read or post to it.

You can change the privacy setting for a room you manage at any time. For more information about chat room privacy settings and room membership, see Understanding Lync chat room membership Links to an external site..

Add web applications to your chat room

Depending on how your organization has decided to use Lync persistent chat, you might have access to a lot of useful web-based applications that can make the room a much more productive place for your members to spend time in. If there are web-based applications available for your room, you’ll see an Add-in heading on the Create a room window. Just click the drop-down arrow below the heading, and select the web apps you want to add.

Add or remove chat room managers

As the room manager, you can add others as managers to share the management duties for a room you’ve created. (As explained below, managers must appear in the pool of potential members for the room category that your room belongs to.)

To add a room manager, open the chat room window and, in the Managers field, type the name of anyone you want to assign as a co-manager. Like you, these managers can add room members and edit some room settings. Once you’ve added your managers’ names (separated by semi-colons), be sure to click the Check Names button to confirm that Lync can identify these people. Your new co-managers won’t automatically become room members─you’ll have to add them as members.

Add or remove chat room members

As the room manager, you can control who can join the closed or secret rooms you create. (Rooms with a privacy setting of “open” do not require or allow membership.) That is, you can add members as you see fit (again, as long as they appear in the pool of potential members for the room category that your room belongs to). You can also remove members from the room. In Members, enter the names of people to invite to be room members. You’re automatically a member of any closed or secret room you create.)

If you don’t want to notify your contacts that they’ve been made members of your room, select the No invitations sent to members button. Otherwise, depending on the corresponding setting of the Parent room category your room is identified with, notifications will or will not show up in each member’s New list (just like a contact notification) on the Chat rooms view of the Lync main window.

Confirm your chat room settings

Once you’ve selected the appropriate options as described above, click the Create button.