Hide the Call and Search buttons in persistent chat rooms in Skype for Business (Lync)

In Skype for Business (Lync), there are situations in which users don't need the functionalities of the Call and Search buttons. Also, you may want to prevent users from clicking the Call button in a chat room by mistake. Doing this turns the chat session into a conference call.

This article describes how to hide the mode bar that contains the Call and Search buttons at the bottom of persistent chat rooms.

To hide the Call and Search buttons, the administrator can follow these steps:

1. Deploy the following update to all Skype for Business users, as appropriate:
    
   • Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013)
     December 6, 2016, update for Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013)
   • Skype for Business 2016
     May 9, 2017, update for Skype for Business 2016
2. Deploy the following registry update to all Skype for Business users:
    
   1. In Registry Editor, locate the following registry subkey, as appropriate:
      
      Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013)
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync
      
      Skype for Business 2016
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Lync
   2. Create a DWORD key that has the following name and value:
      
      Name: HideGroupChatRoomModebar
      Value: 1
3. Ask all Skype for Business users to restart Skype for Business.