Some members of a Team cannot use Chat in meetings set up in channels

Hi Natalie Simmons, 

Welcome to the Q&A Community 

I’m here to assist your problem. 

Could you please provide more information to me for a better support: 

• Is this a private channel or public one? 
• How did the students join the meeting—through the app or a link? 

In the meantime, I recommend you : 

1/ Double check with 2 student login correct account: 

• Open the Teams app on their MacBooks. 
• If already signed in, click the profile icon in the top-right corner, select "Sign out," and restart the app. 
• Sign in using the Microsoft account (likely their school email) that was added as a member to the team. Ensure it's not a personal Microsoft account or guest access. 
• Once signed in, navigate to the Team > Channel > Join the meeting from the calendar or channel post (avoid using a direct link if possible, as it might bypass authentication). 
• Rejoin the current meeting or test in a new one. This resolves the issue in most cases where users appear as guests despite being members. 

2/ Add member to Team: Follow this image below for step-by-step

• Click on three dot - Manage team - Add member
• Double check again that 2 student were add on
• Done and re-check again.

3/ Clear Teams Cached and try again: 

• In the Teams app, go to the profile icon > Settings > Privacy > Clear cache. 
• Quit Teams completely (use Activity Monitor if needed to force quit), restart the MacBook, and sign in again as described above. 
• If using a browser fallback, switch to the desktop app instead, as browser sessions can sometimes default to guest mode. 
• Refer to: Clear the Teams client cache - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn 

4/ You may coordinate with your IT admin to check if guest settings have enabled chat option in Teams admin center. 

5/ You may refer to the link below for further information on Team owner, member, and guest capabilities in Teams. 

You can refer to: Manage chat in Teams meetings - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn 

Team owner, member, and guest capabilities in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support 

If the channel is private (rather than public), ensure the students are explicitly added as members of that specific channel, as team membership alone isn't enough for private channel content like meeting chats. However, this is less likely since they can join the meeting itself. 

We appreciate your kind patience and understanding that sometimes the initial response may not immediately resolve the issue or there may be some misunderstandings about your scenario, but we would love to hear updates from you and find out further suggestions. 

Thank you for your kindness and understanding. If you need anything else, please feel free to contact me.  

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