Allowing Participants in Zooms You Host to Copy from the Zoom Chat

By default, participants can't copy text from chat in Zoom. However, as host, you can adjust your Zoom settings to allow participants to save chat, which will allow them to copy from chat, too.

Audience: Faculty, Postdocs, Researchers, Staff, Students and Teaching Assistants

This KB Article References: Zoom
This Information is Intended for: Faculty, Postdocs, Researchers, Staff, Students, Teaching Assistants
Last Updated: February 24, 2022
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By default, you can't copy text from chat in Zoom. However, as host, you can adjust your Zoom settings to allow participants in your Zoom Meetings to save chat, which will allow them to copy from chat, too. For someone else's meeting, whether you can copy from chat in someone else's Zoom meeting depends on that host's settings, not yours.

Enable Zoom Setting To Save/Copy from Chat

  1. In a web browser, go to the Zoom Web Portal at stonybrook.zoom.us and sign in
  2. On the left, click Settings
  3. Near the top, in Search Settings, type Chat and hit Enter
  4. For Chat, be sure chat is enabled (blue); then, select the box next to Allow users to save chats from the meeting and select who you want to be able to save, and thus copy from, chat: only Hosts and co-hosts or Everyone
  5. Once you've enabled this setting, in the next Zoom you host, you can copy directly from a chat message or hold your mouse over a chat message click ... and then Copy
    copy chat in zoom meeting
  6. *Enabling this option allows the group you select (Hosts and co-hosts or Everyone) to save the entire chat transcript at any point during the meeting.*
    save zoom chat

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