Turn off messaging or calling for Webex App users

Messaging off

With Basic Messaging disabled, app users can't send or receive chat messages. The Messaging and Teams controls are not on the navigation menu.

Users still have their calling and meeting controls if they are appropriately licensed.

What this looks like to users without messaging

Users can schedule, join, and start meetings from the calendar view. They do not have spaces, so they cannot schedule meetings in spaces.

Users can make and receive calls, so they still see their contacts, keypad, and call history:

What this looks like to your users who can use messaging features

If you have users within your organization who have messaging licenses, they can't use their messaging controls to collaborate with users who do not have the license. They can see the controls, but they are inactive.

You can't invite those users to spaces; their names are grayed out, and their status says they can't receive messages:

You can't send a direct message to those users, their names are grayed out when you search for them:

You can't use the direct message control on a user's contact card. The control is visible but inactive, and there's an alert reminding you that the person can't receive messages. The other collaboration modes are still active on the contact card:

Your contacts view shows users who can't receive messages. The direct message control is visible but inactive, and the other collaboration modes are still active on the contact:

Call on Webex Off (and no other calling option)

When you disable the free Call on Webex license for a user, and there is no paid-for calling license in place, then the user cannot make calls from the Webex App.

These users can use direct messaging, spaces, and teams, but the call history and keypad options are not available on the navigation menu:

Users can schedule, join, and start meetings from the calendar view:

Both Messaging and Call on Webex Off (with a paid calling option)

With both Basic Messaging and Call on Webex disabled, users see the controls related to Meetings and their paid calling option. They can't use Call on Webex to call another user. Messaging and Teams don't appear in the navigation menu.

What Webex looks like to users who have a paid calling option without Basic Messaging

Users can schedule, join, and start meetings from the calendar view. They do not have spaces, so they cannot schedule meetings in spaces.

Users can make and receive calls, so they still see their contacts, keypad, and call history:

Basic Messaging off and Call on Webex off (Meetings only)

With both Basic Messaging and Call on Webex disabled, app users see only the navigation related to Meetings and (other) calling options. Webex App users can't use Call on Webex to call another user. Messaging and Teams don't appear in the navigation menu.

What Webex looks like to users with no calling and no messaging

Users can schedule, join, and start meetings from the calendar view. The navigation menu does not have Teams, Messaging, Call history, or Keypad icons.

The user is not licensed to send direct messages, create spaces, or make calls. When they click the + button, they only see the options to add a contact or schedule a meeting:

When another user opens the contact card for a user who does not have messaging or calling licenses, they do not see the buttons that they would need to send a direct message or make a call to that user:

If I remove a user's messaging license, what happens to the user's messaging instance and data?

The user loses messaging capabilities, and can't send or receive messages.

The user's data (messages, files, and so on) is retained according to your organization's retention policy.

How long will the changes take to appear on the Webex App?

The license changes can take up to 24 hours to reflect in the application.

Will you send out a welcome email when I modify licenses for a user?

We only send welcome emails to users once, when you first onboard them. They won't receive an email for license modification. If you plan to modify user licenses, you should plan to communicate with the users as well.

How can I stop these welcome emails from being sent out?

Read suppress automated welcome emails.

What if I remove a license by mistake? Does that person lose all their messages?

We retain user-generated data for a period of time, so you may be able to get the user's data back by granting the license again. The message retention period is governed by your organization's retention policy.

Can I modify licenses via the API?

Yes. See the API documentation at https://developer.webex.com/docs/admin-api-guide.

Relevant API calls:

• Create user: POST v1/people

  Update user: PUT v1/people/{personID}

  View user list: GET v1/people

To remove one or more licenses from a user, update the user with every license except the ones to be removed, from the following list of BASE64 encoded strings (replacing ORGID and USERID with the appropriate values):

General issues with removing licenses

• Changes to user licensing can take up to 24 hours to propagate through the system.

Issues with removing Basic Messaging license

• If a user in a different organization sends a message to a user who does not have Basic Messaging, Webex does not tell the sender that the message was not delivered.

  This issue exists because we do not share messaging capabilities between organizations.

• If two users within the same organization share a 1:1 messaging space, and then one of those users has Basic Messaging removed, the other user can still send messages to the space.