diff --git a/frontend/src/Metamaps/Views/ChatView.js b/frontend/src/Metamaps/Views/ChatView.js
index 473c6f1e..9bd8b563 100644
--- a/frontend/src/Metamaps/Views/ChatView.js
+++ b/frontend/src/Metamaps/Views/ChatView.js
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import Backbone from 'backbone'
 import Autolinker from 'autolinker'
 import _ from 'lodash'
+import underscore from 'underscore'
 // TODO is this line good or bad
 // Backbone.$ = window.$
 
@@ -29,12 +30,12 @@ var Private = {
             "<div class='clearfloat'></div>" +
           "</div>",
     templates: function() {
-        _.templateSettings = {
+        underscore.templateSettings = {
           interpolate: /\{\{(.+?)\}\}/g
         };
-        this.messageTemplate = _.template(Private.messageHTML);
+        this.messageTemplate = underscore.template(Private.messageHTML);
 
-        this.participantTemplate = _.template(Private.participantHTML);
+        this.participantTemplate = underscore.template(Private.participantHTML);
     },
     createElements: function() {
         this.$unread = $('<div class="chat-unread"></div>');
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index c6c74f44..106294fd 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
     "babel-preset-es2015": "6.14.0",
     "babel-preset-react": "6.11.1",
     "backbone": "1.0.0",
+    "underscore": "1.4.4",
     "csv-parse": "1.1.7",
     "lodash": "4.16.1",
     "node-uuid": "1.4.7",