--- title: How to Use Private Chats during your Event description: Allow attendees and presenters to communicate more quickly with one another during your event with private chats, where they can ask questions or engage amongst each other --- [Skip to content](https://kb.bigmarker.com/knowledge/how-to-use-private-chats-during-your-event#main-content) English Show submenu for translations [![Size=36px, Style=On-light, Brand=BigMarker-1](https://kb.bigmarker.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Size=36px%2c%20Style=On-light%2c%20Brand=BigMarker-1.png?width=171&height=36&name=Size=36px%2c%20Style=On-light%2c%20Brand=BigMarker-1.png)](https://www.bigmarker.com/) Open main navigation Close main navigation - English Show submenu for translations Welcome to the BigMarker Knowledge Base! - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. 1. [Knowledge Base](https://kb.bigmarker.com/knowledge?hsLang=en) 2. [Presenter Capabilities](https://kb.bigmarker.com/knowledge/presenter-capabilities?hsLang=en) 3. [Content & Engagement](https://kb.bigmarker.com/knowledge/presenter-capabilities?hsLang=en#content-engagement) # How to Use Private Chats during your Event ## Allow attendees and presenters to communicate more quickly with one another during your event with private chats, where they can ask questions or engage amongst each other Presenters and attendees at BigMarker events have the ability to send private chat messages to one another. Attendees can private message other attendees and—if allowed by the event host—they can also send private messages to presenters. Presenters can send private chats among themselves or to attendees.  Private chats appear in a separate tab in the BigMarker webinar room, keeping everything easy to access without having to navigate away from the webinar room. ### **How to enable private chats** By default, a BigMarker webinar allows attendees to send private messages to presenters, but not to other attendees. To change this and manage other private chat settings, visit the [session admin](https://kb.bigmarker.com/knowledge/introducing-the-new-session-admin?hsLang=en) go to **Engagement \> Enable Direct messaging**. ![](https://kb.bigmarker.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-14-2026-03-47-13-2594-PM.png?width=600&height=236&name=image-png-May-14-2026-03-47-13-2594-PM.png) If you want to allow attendees to send messages to each other, enable **Show Attendee List**. With this enabled, attendees will see other attendees within the **Private** tab of the chat panel. You can also enable this within the [host control panel](https://kb.bigmarker.com/knowledge/how-do-i-use-the-host-control-panel?hsLang=en) within the live webinar room.  ![](https://kb.bigmarker.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-09-2025-05-44-48-9327-PM.png?width=300&height=189&name=image-png-May-09-2025-05-44-48-9327-PM.png) ### **How can I send private chat messages during a session? ** Send private chats by going to the **Chat Panel** of the webinar room (the prominent white box on the right side of the screen), then selecting the **Chat** tab. To send a private message, select the **Private** sub-tab, as shown below. Then, in the search bar below the Private sub-tab, type the name of the person you'd like to message, then click on their name. Additionally, you can click on someone's name in the public chat, and if you are allowed to rivate message that person, a new private chat window will pop up. Then, if you have chosen to display private chat messages in a separate tab, a new private chat tab will appear along the bottom of the screen, as shown below. 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