How to enable chat in your event?

Last updated: October 30, 2026

You can add a chat to your event site under Audience interactions. Enable Chat toggle to show chat on your event site.

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On the new event site, chat needs two things: the Chat toggle in Audience interactions turns chat on for the event, and a Chat block in the Layout Editor decides where chat shows on the page. Viewers see chat only when both are in place. See How to use the new event site.

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Options for customizing

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Moderation

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You can have a chat functionality with 1) open chat or 2) moderated chat.

  1. Open chat: If you disable the moderation option, you’ll have an open chat. This means that all the comments sent by attendees are shown automatically to everyone on the event site.

  2. Moderated chat: You can create a moderated chat, where you can control which messages are shown on the event site.

Private Mode

Private mode makes all chat messages private. In private mode, there is no public chat – viewers can only talk with moderators and producers. It is recommended to also toggle on Display chat with video/slides setting! There is also a new tab in Chat Moderation which is called Private. There it is possible to respond to private messages. However, the tab is only visible when Private Mode is on.

Display chat with video/slides

Doesn’t apply to the new event site. There, where you place the Chat block in the Layout Editor decides where chat shows.

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Enable this feature, if you want to have chat next to the Video and slides on their right side, not below. Usually this option is disabled and the chat is placed under the video and slides. If you’re not using slides, this is not relevant for you.

Multi-column chat wall

Doesn’t apply to the new event site.

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Enable this feature to have messages next to each other as a chat wall (left image) instead of a linear chat stream (right image). This way you can ensure a compact event site.

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Users can reply to messages

Doesn’t apply to the new event site.

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Allow users to reply to messages sent to the chat.

Show chat when video player is hidden

Doesn’t apply to the new event site.

Enable this feature to allow seeing messages in the hidden event states:

  • After registration before the live event starts
  • After the live before the recording is shared

Open message submit form automatically

Doesn’t apply to the new event site.

Disable this, if you want to first let user to click before opening the chat.

Show profile images in chat

Doesn’t apply to the new event site.

Enables showing profile images as small icons next to the sent message. If you have enabled profile pictures in registrations or LinkediIn registration, the profile images are shown here as well as in participant list.

Enable message reactions

Doesn’t apply to the new event site.

Enable to allow reacting to sent messages. Attendees can react to messages by clicking the emoji icon on the right top corner of a message.

Allow image attachments

Doesn’t apply to the new event site.

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Enable to allow sending images in the chat. You can attach image in the top right corner of the chat box.

Show emoji picker in chat input

Not yet available on the new event site.

Lets viewers open the emoji picker from the chat input when writing a message. Disable this to hide the emoji button.

Hide all messages on viewing page

Enable this to hide all chat messages from viewers. Viewers can still send messages, and moderators can still publish messages on the moderation page, but the audience doesn’t see them. Use this when you want questions from the audience without a visible chat.

Hide message submit form if event state is published recording

Enable this to stop viewers from sending new messages once the recording is published. Messages published earlier stay visible, so viewers watching the recording can still read the discussion.

During a Premiere, viewers can still send messages even when this setting is on, because a Premiere plays like a live event. The form is hidden once the Premiere ends.

Set chat name from SSO authentication or registered user

Not yet available on the new event site.

Fills in the viewer’s chat name automatically. With SSO authentication (for example Microsoft 365), the name comes from the viewer’s profile. With registration, the first and last name from the registration form are used.

If neither is available, you can set the chat name with the vs-chat-name query parameter in the event link, even when this setting is off.

Do not allow users to change their name

Not yet available on the new event site.

Viewers can’t edit the chat name that was filled in for them. This is recommended with Private Mode.

Appearance

Doesn’t apply to the new event site.

In appearance, you can modify the appearance of your event site’s chat area, from font and background colors to shadows and margins. You can also use custom CSS code if you want to modify the area further

Texts

Doesn’t apply to the new event site. There, set the chat texts in the Chat block in the Layout Editor.

In texts, you can modify the titles, placeholders and button texts, as well as the response when you’ve submitted your message for moderation.