Chat for community members: Connect and collaborate

This article is for parents, guardians, students, and teachers participating as community members. For teacher-specific management tools (muting users, moderation), see Chat for community members: Manage your chat room participants.

Communicate in chat rooms

Chat rooms appear in the top half of the Chat home screen. These are group conversations assigned by the school based on rosters, classes, teams, or clubs. A chat manager (typically a teacher or staff member) moderates each room.

Send a message in a chat room

• Tap a room name to open the conversation.
• Enter text in the message area. Use the formatting toolbar to apply bold, italic, or strikethrough.
• Tap the paper clip icon to attach images or files (up to 30 per message).
• Tap the paper airplane icon to send.

Edit, copy, or delete a message

Long-press any message to reveal options to edit the text, copy it to share elsewhere, or delete it. Administrators retain an archive of all edited and deleted messages for safety and compliance.

View read receipts

A check mark icon appears next to sent messages. The number next to it shows how many participants have read that specific message.

Mute or unmute a chat room

Long-press the room name on the home screen and select Mute to stop receiving push notifications for that room without leaving it. An unread count still appears on the home screen. To unmute, long-press the room again and select Unmute.

Pin a chat room

Keep frequently used rooms at the top of the chat room list by pinning them for quick access.

Pin a conversation within a room

Long-press any message inside a room and select Pin to keep it visible at the top of that room's settings screen for easy reference.

Join a room via QR code

If the school shares a QR code for a chat room, scan it with a mobile device to join the room instantly.

Send and receive direct messages

Direct messages (DMs) appear in the bottom half of the Chat home screen. Use DMs for private one-to-one or small group conversations outside of a shared chat room.

Start a new direct message

• Tap the + or Compose icon in the Direct messages section.
• Select one or more recipients to start the conversation.
• Type a message, attach files if needed, and tap the paper airplane to send.

React to a message

Tap and hold a message to react with an emoji — a quick way to acknowledge a message without typing a full reply.

Pin a DM conversation

Long-press a DM thread in the list and select Pin to keep it at the top of the Direct messages section.

Mute or unmute a DM

Open a DM or long-press the participant names and select Mute to silence push notifications for that thread while still receiving messages.

Report a message

To report inappropriate communication, long-press the message, tap Report, and select a reason. School administrators are notified and can take immediate action. Learn more about how content is moderated in Chat for community members: Security and privacy.

View family relationships

Open any user's profile and scroll to the Relationship section to see linked family members and their roles. This helps confirm the right family member is being contacted within a room or DM.

Next: Manage notifications

To configure when and how the app sends alerts for chat messages, see Mobile App for community members: Manage your subscriptions and notifications.