Unable to see Chat hen I go to the Teams Desktop (or in browser)

Dear @Neelu Sinha,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

In Microsoft Teams, being able to chat with someone outside your organization depends on external access settings, not just whether the contact is saved.

To send and receive chats with external users, both organizations must allow external chat in Teams. If this setting is restricted on either side, the chat may not appear at all.

In this case, I recommend you reach out to your IT Admin to check if these settings are enabled. For more information, please refer to IT Admins - Manage external meetings and chat with people and organizations using Microsoft identities

Go to Teams Admin Center > Users > External access > Choose which external domains your users have access to.

Then, Admin can choose to enable or disable chats and meetings with external unmanaged Teams users (users not managed by an organization, such as Microsoft Teams (free)).

If enabled, your IT admin can also control if people with unmanaged Teams accounts can start chats and meetings with users in your organization.

• In the Teams admin center, go to Users > External access.
• Turn on the People in my organization can communicate with unmanaged Teams accounts setting.
• If you want to allow external unmanaged Teams users to start the conversation, select the External users with Teams accounts not managed by an organization can contact users in my organization checkbox.
• Select Save.

Once both organizations must allow external chat in Teams, you can add or invite people outside of your organization to a one-on-one chat. This includes anyone who uses Teams, Teams Free, and Skype for Business.

• On the left side of Teams, select Chat and then click "New message" to start a new chat.
• Type the email address of the person that you'd like to invite.​​​​​​​
• If their name appears, select it from below the command bar. If there isn’t a name match, type in the e-mail and see the results.
• To start the chat, type a message in the text box at the bottom and then select Send
• For reference: Add or invite people outside your org to a chat in Microsoft Teams

If the issue still persists, to help identify why the external chat isn’t appearing, could you please confirm the following:

• What type of account is the external user using (work/school tenant or personal Microsoft/Teams Free account)?
• If you start a new chat and manually enter the external user’s full email address, does Teams find them and allow you to send a message?
• Does the issue occur in both the Teams desktop app and Teams on the web?
• Are other users in your organization able to chat with the same external contact, or is it only affecting your account?

Note: Please understand that as a forum moderator, my role is to provide general guidance and troubleshooting support. I don’t have access to internal systems or backend tools, and I appreciate your understanding of these limits.

I hope the information shared helps point you in the right direction. Please try the steps above and let me know if they work. If not, we can continue working together to narrow this down.

The first response may not always resolve the issue right away, but with your help and more details, we can work toward a solution.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. I'm looking forward for your reply.

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