Microsoft ends Teams website live chat by mid-October
Reviewed by Helen Jones
Microsoft is retiring Teams live chat, also known as Customer Connect, the feature that relayed messages from a company website into Teams. New customers have been blocked from setting it up since early August 2026. Existing deployments keep working only until early to mid-October 2026. Microsoft says support ends and the service stops carrying those website messages by then, with rollout expected to finish around mid-October. Message Center notice MC1449174 frames the move as focusing investment on newer customer engagement tools, with Copilot Studio pointed to as the replacement path. This follows other 2026 Teams retirements such as Live Events and Together Mode.
For years, a simple website widget could drop visitor questions straight into a Teams chat or queue. Many mid-size firms treated that as a lightweight front door for sales, support, or general enquiries without buying a separate chat platform. That path is closing on a fixed calendar. After October, those messages will not arrive in Teams at all. The gap is not another free Teams toggle. It is a forced choice between a different engagement product, a rebuilt process, or silent drop-off on the public site. For day-to-day Outlook and channel work this changes nothing. For anyone whose job still depends on that inbound Teams stream, the clock is already short.
Analysis
Treat this as a trap to avoid only if your company still runs a website-to-Teams chat widget. This week, search Message Center for MC1449174 or ask whoever owns the public site whether Live Chat or Customer Connect is still live, then escalate ownership if it is. If nobody uses it, skip the Copilot Studio noise and keep your focus on inbox, Teams noise, and meeting follow-up.
Source note
Pulse published by Collab365 Spaces, reviewed by Helen Jones on . Cite as "Microsoft ends Teams website live chat by mid-October", Collab365 Spaces. 2 sources referenced.