This article covers how to configure chat roles and manage members in Finalsite Chat, including how to use the four permission levels and how to add or adjust membership in the CMS. Two separate systems control access here: a person's chat role sets their granularity within the Chat module itself, and a separate CMS permission in the Mobile Apps module controls whether they can make adjustments to Chat's setup from the CMS. This article focuses on chat roles. To learn about setting modular permissions, check out the article, "Chat for school leaders: Set admin permissions."
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💡Quick answers
- What are the four chat roles? District Admin, School Admin, Chat Manager, and Chat Participant. District Admins have the highest level of access across all schools; Chat Participants (parents, guardians, students) have the most limited access.
- Who can create chat rooms? District Admins, School Admins, and Chat Managers can all create rooms. Chat Participants cannot.
- Where are chat rooms created? Chat rooms can be created manually in two ways or dynamically via Academic Classes in Group Manager. See "Create chat rooms in Finalsite Chat" for step-by-step instructions for all three methods.
- What is the difference between a chat room and a direct message? Chat rooms are group conversations for a whole class, team, or organization. They persist and are managed by a Chat Manager. Direct messages are targeted private conversations between two or more specific users.
- How are members added to an existing room? In the Chats explorer, select the room, then click + Add members in the right panel. Members can be added individually via Constituent or in bulk via Group Manager groups. Chat Managers need to be separately granted access to the Chats explorer in CMS Permissions. The Chat Manager role alone doesn't include it. See "Mobile App and Chat permissions" for details.
- Can a user's chat role be changed after setup? Yes. In the Members tab, expand the role dropdown next to any member to assign a new role. Some role adjustments (such as changing participant permissions) require Finalsite Support.
- Does a School Admin's access change with location-filtering? Yes. Location-filtering limits admins to their own school instead of the whole district. Once it's enabled, School Admins only see their assigned school(s); before that, they see all schools like a District Admin. To keep all-school access after filtering is on, reassign that person to the District Admin chat role.
- Can students be included in chat? Yes, students can be added as Chat Participants. See "Chat for school leaders: Include students in Chat communication" for setup details.
- Can chat rooms be renamed? Yes. Any user holding the Chat Manager role can rename a chat room from within the mobile or web Chat feature. See Rename a chat room below for details.
- Can Chat Managers archive chat rooms? Not on their own. Archiving a room requires an Admin role (District Admin or School Admin) in addition to Chat Manager. The Chat Manager role by itself does not include archive permissions.
- Does the Chat Manager role include access to the Chats explorer? No. That access is granted separately in CMS Permissions by a main Site Admin. Without it, a Chat Manager still manages their rooms from the mobile or web Chat feature itself, just not from the CMS. See "Mobile App and Chat permissions" for details.
In this article
- Understand chat types
- Assign chat roles
- Create chat rooms
- Rename a chat room
- Monitor all communication
- Manage room membership
Understand chat types
Here are the different chat formats available in Finalsite's chat feature:
- Direct chat between 2 people
- Group chat with multiple people
- Auto-created chat rooms based on SIS, and ability to create more chat rooms
- One-way chat room: admin can send messages to group without recipient ability to respond
- Two-way chat room: anyone can send a message
The mobile Chat homescreen is divided into two sections: Chat Rooms and Direct Messages.
Compare chat rooms and direct messages
Chat rooms
A chat room is a place where all members of a class, an athletic team, or a fine arts group can communicate together on an ongoing basis. Rooms with new, unread messages will be listed first. A small notification bubble with a number inside signifies new and unread messages in that chat room.
- Read and write new messages.
- Mute or unmute push notifications with an easy toggle.
- View other chat room members.
- Post files and other media in messages or replies.
- Change formatting (bold, italic, strikethrough).
- Reply and react to messages with comments and/or emojis.
- Leave rooms no longer needed.
Direct messages
Direct messages are more situational or targeted toward having a quick conversation with a smaller audience. New and unread messages will display first with a notification bubble.
- Involve other teachers or parents/guardians in a message.
- Write or reply regarding a mutual student.
- Know with confidence who is included in a direct message.
- Mute when notifications for a message are no longer needed.
Assign chat roles
During the implementation of the chat feature in Finalsite's mobile app, the integration team will work with the district to assign roles, ensuring that each role has the right level of involvement in the chat process.
Chat roles vs. Chat permissions
📌 Note: Roles, permissions, and explorer access all live in different places
- A Role (District Admin, School Admin, Chat Manager, Participant, assigned in Mobile Apps module → Chat tab → Members tab) sets a person's granularity within the Chat module itself: what they can send, moderate, or monitor.
- A CMS Permission (Permissions tab → Mobile Apps → Chat) controls whether that person can make adjustments to Chat's setup from the Mobile Apps module in the CMS.
- Chats explorer access is a separate grant that controls whether a person can open the Chats explorer to view and manage individual rooms (add members, etc.) from the CMS. Having the Chat Manager role does not include this by default. It is configured in CMS Permissions, where a main Site Admin can grant it to lower-level admins. See "Mobile App and Chat permissions" for details.
All three are independent; assigning one does not grant the others.
Here are the 4 chat roles available to choose from.
- District Admin: This may be a Director of Communications, a Tech Director, or Superintendent. This is the role with the highest level of abilities within the chat setup, including the ability to monitor all chat messages and rooms in all schools.
- School Admin: This role might be a Head of School or Principal/Assistant Principal. They may have the highest level of rights within their own school but not over other schools in their district.
- Chat Manager: A Chat Manager is an assigned role to manage a particular chat room or rooms, though limited in abilities to monitor other chats, block users, and archive chat rooms. Archiving a room requires an Admin role in addition to Chat Manager. Chat Managers also don't have access to the CMS Chats explorer by default. A main Site Admin can grant this access in CMS Permissions; see "Mobile App and Chat permissions" for details.
-
Chat Participant: Likely a parent, guardian, or student, Chat Participants are able to participate in chat conversations and chat directly with a Chat Manager if this is a part of their setup.
- Chat Participants can report messages, mute notifications in a chat, and reply in a thread where they are allowed to chat. There are different possibilities for limiting and restricting communication for Chat Participants. Finalsite Support or the implementation team can help adjust the access levels. For example, students can be limited from starting messages or sending direct messages. Submit a request to learn more and get help.
Review chat roles and permissions
This table helps make the best decision on what role each person will have in order to successfully participate in the communication process.
⚠️ Heads up: What "Your choice" means in the table
When "Your choice" appears in the table below, reach out to Finalsite Support to request an adjustment in the settings. If the Chat feature is not yet live and still in implementation, let the project team know about any desired adjustments.
| Permission | District admin | School admin | Chat manager | Chat participant: Parent or guardian | Chat participant: Student |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Can monitor all chat messages and rooms across multiple schools | Yes | Access to their location(s) | No | No | No |
| Can create chat rooms | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Can rename a chat room | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Can participate in chat rooms and direct messages | Yes | Yes | Yes | Your choice | Your choice |
| - Initiate DMs with students | Yes | Yes | Yes | Your choice | Your choice |
| - Initiate DMs with parents | Yes | Yes | Yes | Your choice | Your choice |
| - Initiate DMs with teachers | Yes | Yes | Your choice | Your choice | Your choice |
| - Chat in chat room with parents | Yes | Yes | Yes | Your choice | Your choice |
| - Chat in chat room with students | Yes | Yes | Yes | Your choice | Your choice |
| Can report messages | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Can temporarily block users | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Can block users | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Can mute users | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Can send documents and files | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Can mute notifications for chat messages or rooms | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Can reply in thread, pin a message, react to a message | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Can archive a chat room | Yes | Yes | No, unless also granted an Admin role | No | No |
⚠️ Important note: Location-filtering changes School Admin access
The School Admin row above only applies once location-filtering is turned on for a district. Location-filtering is a setting that limits what a district or school admin sees in the Chat module to a single school, instead of the whole district. Before it's turned on, School Admins see all schools by default, same as District Admin. If a School Admin needs to keep access to chats across every school after filtering is enabled, reassign them to the District Admin chat role. That adds no other CMS or site access beyond seeing chat for every school. See Configure location filtering in Finalsite Chat for full details.
⚠️ Important note: Chat Manager role alone does not include archive permissions
The Chat Manager row above reflects that Chat Manager is not, by itself, enough to archive a chat room. Archiving requires an Admin role (District Admin or School Admin) in addition to Chat Manager. If a Chat Manager needs to archive rooms they manage, they must also be assigned an Admin chat role. Reach out to Finalsite Support to request this adjustment.
Create chat rooms
Chat rooms can be created manually in two ways or dynamically via Academic Classes in Group Manager.
- For step-by-step instructions for all three methods, see "Create chat rooms in Finalsite Chat."
- Users of Athletics Manager and Finalsite Chat can also manage and streamline athletic team room creation. See "Set up athletic team Chat Rooms from Athletics Manager" for details.
Rename a chat room
Any user holding the Chat Manager role can rename a chat room directly from the mobile or web Chat feature, regardless of their Mobile Apps module permission level. A user with "Not Allowed" in the Mobile Apps module who has been assigned the Chat Manager role in Chat can still rename rooms, since the rename feature lives within the Chat interface itself.
The Rename chat room option appears in two cases:
- Manually created chat rooms
- Direct messages or Group DMs that include at least one Admin
This is by design. Requiring an Admin's presence in a DM prevents participants (such as students) from renaming a conversation to impersonate an official chat room name.
To rename a chat room:
- Step 1: Open the chat room and access its settings.
- Step 2: Tap or click Rename chat room.
-
Step 3: Enter the new name and confirm.
- Spaces are automatically replaced with hyphens (
-). - Name must contain at least one letter or number. A name of only spaces/symbols will be rejected.
- Spaces are automatically replaced with hyphens (
⚠️ Important note: If the option isn't visible
If the Rename chat room option is not visible, check the following:
- The room may be auto-created. Auto-created rooms cannot be renamed. The option will not appear for them.
- A DM or Group DM may not include an Admin. Direct messages and Group DMs can only be renamed if at least one Admin is present.
- The Chat Manager role may not be assigned within Chat.
Monitor all communication
It is helpful at this phase to understand how communication taking place in the assigned arena will be actively monitored and moderated.
- Configure the chat room settings via the CMS website desktop version.
- Depending on the Chat permissions level, some roles may assist with managing or moderating the chat.
- By default, anyone with Chat access can start direct messages, though this can be restricted for Chat Participants.
Manage room membership
Once the support or implementation team has added people into the system, membership can be managed from the Members tab. To view membership, open the Chat feature by first opening Mobile Apps from the module menu. Click the Members tab to see a list of all members.
Family members in a chat room appear with their specific relationship label (Mother, Father, Guardian) rather than a generic "Parent" label. Teachers and Chat Managers can also see which student a family member is connected to (for example, "Mother of Rebecca") when viewing the members list. This makes it easier to identify who belongs in a room and to manage membership accurately.
Here are all of the different tasks available from the Members tab:
- Filter by chat role and/or location to populate only that selection in the list.
- Add members manually to appear in the Members tab, or delete with the trash can icon.
- Adjust the chat role level of a member by expanding the dropdown and selecting a new role.
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