diff --git a/react/features/base/react/components/web/MultiSelectAutocomplete.js b/react/features/base/react/components/web/MultiSelectAutocomplete.js
index 1312d38f6..1641fff35 100644
--- a/react/features/base/react/components/web/MultiSelectAutocomplete.js
+++ b/react/features/base/react/components/web/MultiSelectAutocomplete.js
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ import React, { Component } from 'react';
 
 import InlineDialogFailure from './InlineDialogFailure';
 
+const logger = require('jitsi-meet-logger').getLogger(__filename);
+
 /**
  * A MultiSelect that is also auto-completing.
  */
@@ -290,7 +292,9 @@ class MultiSelectAutocomplete extends Component {
                     error: false
                 });
             })
-            .catch(() => {
+            .catch(error => {
+                logger.error('MultiSelectAutocomplete error in query', error);
+
                 this.setState({
                     error: true,
                     loading: false,
diff --git a/react/features/base/util/httpUtils.js b/react/features/base/util/httpUtils.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..91c10616e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/react/features/base/util/httpUtils.js
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+const logger = require('jitsi-meet-logger').getLogger(__filename);
+
+/**
+ * Wrapper around fetch GET requests to handle json-ifying the response
+ * and logging errors.
+ *
+ * @param {string} url - The URL to perform a GET against.
+ * @returns {Promise<Object>} The response body, in JSON format, will be
+ * through the Promise.
+ */
+export function doGetJSON(url) {
+    return fetch(url)
+        .then(response => {
+            const jsonify = response.json();
+
+            if (response.ok) {
+                return jsonify;
+            }
+
+            return jsonify
+                .then(result => Promise.reject(result));
+        })
+        .catch(error => {
+            logger.error('Error performing get:', url, error);
+
+            return Promise.reject(error);
+        });
+}
diff --git a/react/features/base/util/index.js b/react/features/base/util/index.js
index 1a4ad8b91..0e99d5372 100644
--- a/react/features/base/util/index.js
+++ b/react/features/base/util/index.js
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 export * from './helpers';
+export * from './httpUtils';
 export * from './loadScript';
 export * from './randomUtil';
 export * from './uri';
diff --git a/react/features/invite/actions.js b/react/features/invite/actions.js
index 71bd3bcca..2dde00b2f 100644
--- a/react/features/invite/actions.js
+++ b/react/features/invite/actions.js
@@ -5,8 +5,7 @@ import {
     UPDATE_DIAL_IN_NUMBERS_FAILED,
     UPDATE_DIAL_IN_NUMBERS_SUCCESS
 } from './actionTypes';
-
-declare var $: Function;
+import { getDialInConferenceID, getDialInNumbers } from './functions';
 
 /**
  * Opens the inline conference info dialog.
@@ -48,12 +47,10 @@ export function updateDialInNumbers() {
         }
 
         const { room } = state['features/base/conference'];
-        const conferenceIDURL
-            = `${dialInConfCodeUrl}?conference=${room}@${mucURL}`;
 
         Promise.all([
-            $.getJSON(dialInNumbersUrl),
-            $.getJSON(conferenceIDURL)
+            getDialInNumbers(dialInNumbersUrl),
+            getDialInConferenceID(dialInConfCodeUrl, room, mucURL)
         ])
             .then(([ dialInNumbers, { conference, id, message } ]) => {
                 if (!conference || !id) {
diff --git a/react/features/invite/components/AddPeopleDialog.web.js b/react/features/invite/components/AddPeopleDialog.web.js
index 29a86dcdb..eb5304223 100644
--- a/react/features/invite/components/AddPeopleDialog.web.js
+++ b/react/features/invite/components/AddPeopleDialog.web.js
@@ -568,7 +568,7 @@ class AddPeopleDialog extends Component<*, *> {
 
         let peopleSearchPromise;
 
-        if (this.props.enableAddPeople) {
+        if (this.props.enableAddPeople && text) {
             peopleSearchPromise = searchDirectory(
                 _peopleSearchUrl,
                 _jwt,
diff --git a/react/features/invite/functions.js b/react/features/invite/functions.js
index cb216399d..6dbe95203 100644
--- a/react/features/invite/functions.js
+++ b/react/features/invite/functions.js
@@ -1,8 +1,44 @@
 // @flow
 
+import { doGetJSON } from '../base/util';
+
 declare var $: Function;
 declare var interfaceConfig: Object;
 
+const logger = require('jitsi-meet-logger').getLogger(__filename);
+
+/**
+ * Sends a GET request to obtain the conference ID necessary for identifying
+ * which conference to join after diaing the dial-in service.
+ *
+ * @param {string} baseUrl - The url for obtaining the conference ID (pin) for
+ * dialing into a conference.
+ * @param {string} roomName - The conference name to find the associated
+ * conference ID.
+ * @param {string} mucURL - In which MUC the conference exists.
+ * @returns {Promise} - The promise created by the request.
+ */
+export function getDialInConferenceID(
+        baseUrl: string,
+        roomName: string,
+        mucURL: string): Promise<Object> {
+    const conferenceIDURL = `${baseUrl}?conference=${roomName}@${mucURL}`;
+
+    return doGetJSON(conferenceIDURL);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Sends a GET request for phone numbers used to dial into a conference.
+ *
+ * @param {string} url - The service that returns confernce dial-in numbers.
+ * @returns {Promise} - The promise created by the request. The returned numbers
+ * may be an array of numbers or an object with countries as keys and arrays of
+ * phone number strings.
+ */
+export function getDialInNumbers(url: string): Promise<*> {
+    return doGetJSON(url);
+}
+
 /**
  * Get the position of the invite option in the interfaceConfig.INVITE_OPTIONS
  * list.
@@ -78,13 +114,24 @@ export function searchDirectory( // eslint-disable-line max-params
 ): Promise<Array<Object>> {
     const queryTypesString = JSON.stringify(queryTypes);
 
-    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
-        $.getJSON(
-                `${serviceUrl}?query=${encodeURIComponent(text)}&queryTypes=${
-                    queryTypesString}&jwt=${jwt}`,
-                resolve)
-            .catch((jqxhr, textStatus, error) => reject(error));
-    });
+    return fetch(`${serviceUrl}?query=${encodeURIComponent(text)}&queryTypes=${
+        queryTypesString}&jwt=${jwt}`)
+            .then(response => {
+                const jsonify = response.json();
+
+                if (response.ok) {
+                    return jsonify;
+                }
+
+                return jsonify
+                    .then(result => Promise.reject(result));
+            })
+            .catch(error => {
+                logger.error(
+                    'Error searching directory:', error);
+
+                return Promise.reject(error);
+            });
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/webpack.config.js b/webpack.config.js
index 301c590e3..dfc12a74f 100644
--- a/webpack.config.js
+++ b/webpack.config.js
@@ -139,8 +139,9 @@ module.exports = [
         entry: {
             'app.bundle': [
 
-                // XXX Required by at least IE11 at the time of this writing.
+                // babel-polyfill and fetch polyfill are required for IE11.
                 'babel-polyfill',
+                'whatwg-fetch',
                 './app.js'
             ],