Microsoft tosses Teams Live chat into its feature graveyard

Microsoft is killing Live chat in Teams about 18 months after launch as it seeks to "focus investments on newer customer engagement and communication experiences." The service will be retired on October 5, when customer messages will stop reaching Teams. Microsoft blocked new setups on August 6 and told users to remove the widget from their websites before retirement. Any remaining instances will be hidden afterward. Live chat was a relatively simple feature available with the Teams versions of Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard, and Premium. Companies embedded a chat widget on their websites, and messages from visitors were routed to a support team in Teams. Administrators could specify business hours and assign up to 25 users to handle conversations. Existing customer data and Teams channels will remain available, but no new conversations, escalations, or interactions will be possible. Microsoft pointed customers toward Dynamics 365 Contact Center with Live Chat and Copilot Studio's contact center AI tools instead. In March 2025, it was all going to be very different as Microsoft trumpeted the service's arrival. Brenna Robinson, General Manager, Microsoft 365 & Copilot, Small and Medium Business, wrote: "Today we're excited to take that customer experience to a new level with the introduction of live chat in Microsoft Teams - a faster and more engaging way for you to connect with your customers." Robinson has since become Microsoft's General Manager for AI Business Solutions. Live chat, meanwhile, has been wheeled into the Raiders of the Lost Ark-style warehouse where Microsoft stores everything that once seemed like a good idea. Microsoft has axed several Teams services over the last few months. In February, it announced the end of Teams live events, replaced by a Teams "events experience." The Teams Together mode, which placed users in a virtual meeting space, was also ditched. Live chat is another casualty of Microsoft's efforts to tidy Teams' unwieldy collection of features. The company has not elaborated on those "newer customer engagement and communication experiences," although its recommendation of Copilot Studio means AI is already waiting in the wings. (R)