This article walks through the chat environment settings in the Finalsite Mobile Apps module, including how to configure chat room names, posting permissions, direct message access by role, and contact visibility across campuses.
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💡Quick answers
- Where are these settings located? Navigate to Mobile Apps > Chat > Settings in the CMS module menu.
- Can chat room names be customized? Yes. Room names can be built from up to three components (that can be in any order): class name (from SIS), grade level, and school name. Contact Finalsite Support to apply changes.
- Which roles sync into academic class chat rooms? Controlled by the "Create chat rooms with..." setting. Each role (Chat managers, Students, and Parents) can be toggled independently. Contact Finalsite Support to adjust.
- Can parents and students be prevented from seeing other member names in a chat room? Yes. Under Configure Members visibility, uncheck Student and/or Parent to restrict those roles to seeing only Teacher, School Admin, and District Admin names in the member list. This does not make participants anonymous — names still appear on any messages they send.
- How is posting in a room restricted to admins and teachers only? Under Set posting permissions, select Admins and teachers only. This turns the room into a one-way announcement channel where students and parents can read but not post.
- Can students be prevented from messaging parents directly? Yes. Under Direct message settings, deselect Students → Initiate conversation with parent. The scenarios section in this article provides several common configuration examples.
- Can file sharing be restricted for specific roles? Yes. Under Allow for attachments, enable or disable photo and file sharing separately for students, parents, and teachers/Chat managers.
- Can users from different schools in a district see each other? This is controlled by the campus visibility setting. Toggle it on to restrict users to contacts within their own school, or off to allow cross-school contact visibility.
Important Note
- Are there options in this article that are not yet on your view? Thanks for your patience as these are being rolled out in an upcoming release!
- Do you see an option in the Settings tab that you want to change but it is greyed out? Reach out to Finalsite Support for assistance!
In this article
- Navigate to Chats settings
- Configure Chat room names
- Configure "Create chat rooms with..." setting
- Configure Members visibility
- Set Posting permissions
- Configure Direct message settings
- Allow for attachments
- Configure Chat rooms and Direct messages settings
- Configure Chat reminders via text messages
- Configure Unread chat messages digest
- Configure roles
Navigate to Chats settings
To locate your settings, navigate to the module menu > Mobile Apps module then click on Chats. Tap to open the Settings tab where you can configure the settings in this article.
Configure Chat room names
Select and adjust how chat room names appear to users.
- Chat room names can be built from up to three components:
- Class name (from SIS)
- Grade level
- School name
- These components can be arranged in any order or omitted as needed. For example, you might use Class + Grade but exclude School name.
- Finalsite Support can help you make any adjustments to Chat room names.
Configure "Create chat rooms with..." setting
Here you can manage which roles automatically sync into chat rooms created from Academic Classes groups in Group Manager. Navigate to Mobile Apps > Chat > Settings to view the configurations. This setting is completely greyed out. Please contact Finalsite Support to make adjustments on your behalf.
⚠️ Important Note on academically synced rooms
The "Create chat rooms with" setting only applies to academically synced rooms.
Rooms created manually using the "Group" option in the Mobile Apps module are static. This means that members are added once at creation and will not update if the group changes later. Only rooms created from Academic Classes groups with a dynamic filter stay in sync automatically.
| When checked | When unchecked | |
|---|---|---|
| Group admins | Members marked as Admin in the Academic Classes group in Group Manager are added as Chat Managers when the room is created. In most cases this will be the assigned teacher(s). | This option is always on and cannot be unchecked. At least one group member must be marked as Admin in Group Manager for a room to sync. |
| Students | Students from the class roster sync into the room automatically. | Students are not added, even if they are members of the group in Group Manager. |
| Parents/Guardians | Parents sync in based on their relationship to enrolled students in the class. | Parents are not added, even if linked to students in the room. |
⚠️ Rooms not syncing?
Check Group Manager first. If no member in the Academic Classes group is marked as Admin, the chat room will not be created nor will it sync to the current membership. This is the most common reason rooms do not appear after setup.
Configure Members visibility
This setting controls which roles can see the full member list in a chat room. Teacher, School Admin, and District Admin names are always visible to everyone regardless of this setting.
| When checked | When unchecked | |
|---|---|---|
| Students | Students can see all member names in the room's member list. | Students see only Teachers, School Admins, and District Admins in the member list. |
| Parents/Guardians | Parents can see all member names in the room's member list. | Parents see only Teachers, School Admins, and District Admins in the member list. |
⚠️ Important Note on restricting visibility
Restricting visibility does not make participants anonymous.
If a parent or student sends a message in the chat room, their name still appears on that message. This setting only affects the member list, not the conversation itself. It is designed to protect privacy in large class rooms where schools may prefer that parents not see the names of other parents in the room.
Set Posting permissions
Control who can post messages in chat rooms.
- Everyone: All participants can post messages.
- Admins and teachers only: Limits posting to the admin and teacher (chat manager) roles. Students and parents will not be able to post. This is great for announcement-type rooms.
- Chat room moderators can change posting permissions: Toggle this off or on to allow for moderators to change posting permissions between two-way and one-way chat environments at the chat room level from a device.
Configure Direct message settings
Enable or restrict direct conversations between participant types. This allows for a wide variety of granular combinations of who can and cannot send direct messages.
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Students can participate in direct messages:
- Initiate conversation with student
- Initiate conversation with parent
- Initiate conversation with teacher
-
Parents can participate in direct messages:
- Initiate conversation with student
- Initiate conversation with parent
- Initiate conversation with teacher
-
Teachers can participate in direct messages:
- Initiate conversation with student
- Initiate conversation with parent
- Initiate conversation with teacher
Real-world scenarios
Scenario 1: Teacher-only messaging for parents
A school wants to limit parent messaging so that:
- Parents can only message teachers
- Parents cannot message students or other parents
Recommended settings:
- ✅ Parents → Initiate conversation with teacher
- ❌ Parents → Initiate conversation with student
- ❌ Parents → Initiate conversation with parent
Scenario 2: Student-to-teacher messaging only
A district wants to ensure students can only message teachers—not parents or peers.
Recommended settings:
- ✅ Students → Initiate conversation with teacher
- ❌ Students → Initiate conversation with parent
- ❌ Students → Initiate conversation with student
Scenario 3: Open messaging within roles, restricted cross-role
A school allows:
- Students to message other students
- Parents to message other parents
- Teachers to message anyone But restricts cross-role messaging between students and parents.
Recommended settings:
- ✅ Students → Initiate conversation with student
- ❌ Students → Initiate conversation with parent
- ✅ Parents → Initiate conversation with parent
- ❌ Parents → Initiate conversation with student
- ✅ Teachers → Initiate conversation with student, parent, and teacher
Allow for attachments
Allow selected users to send photos and files in chat rooms and direct messages.
- Students
- Parents
- Teachers/Chat managers
Configure Chat rooms and Direct messages settings
This setting allows district managers to have the option of maintaining a global overview of all users within the district.
- Toggle on if you want Chat participants to only see contacts within their own school for chats and messaging.
Configure Chat reminders via text messages
Here you will configure the settings for sending text messages to boost parent engagement and mobile app usage. This includes the following messaging: Welcome message, Unread messages reminder, and Dormant re-engagement.
Configure a Welcome message
US only. A one-time automated SMS sent to newly added users on weekdays. It includes a direct login link and is never repeated. Navigate to Mobile Apps > Chats > Settings tab > Chat reminders via text messages and toggle on Welcome message to expand configuration options.
For a full overview of the Settings tab, see Chat environment settings: Configure Chat reminders via text messages >
- Start date: The date the system begins checking for newly added users.
- End date: The final date of the campaign. The system stops sending welcome messages after this date.
- Select time: The time of day (in the user's local time zone) the message is delivered.
- Message box: Custom message text, limited to 60 characters. The system appends a deep link automatically.
Use the preview panel on the right to verify how the message and link will appear on a parent's lock screen before saving. Click Save in the bottom right to apply changes.
What families see: A single text from the district's dedicated school number with a link to get started. The message is never repeated. Families can reply STOP at any time to opt out of all future SMS, or reply START to resume.
Configure Unread messages reminders
US only. Sent when a user has unread content and has not opened the app for a configurable number of days. At most two reminders send per week, only between 8 AM and 9 PM local time. Navigate to Mobile Apps > Chats > Settings > Chat reminders via text messages and toggle on Unread message reminder to expand options.
- Send X days after last active (minimum 3 days): The number of inactive days required before the reminder triggers. This is the district-wide default; users can set their own threshold in Profile > Notifications > Chat reminders, and personal settings are never overwritten by admin changes.
- 1 unread message: Message text shown when a user has exactly one unread item. Use a direct call to action.
- Several unread messages: Message text for users with multiple unread items. Keep this general; the system does not specify the type of content waiting.
Sample message texts
- 1 unread: "Your school sent a message! Tap to read it now!"
- Several unread: "New school updates are waiting in the app!"
- 1 unread: "New message from [School Name]. Tap to reply."
- Several unread: "Several unread school updates are waiting. Tap to view."
What families see: A text from the district number with a deep link. Tapping it opens the app (if installed), a branded school page with download links (if not installed), or web chat on desktop. Families can reply STOP to opt out immediately, or adjust their personal inactivity threshold in the app.
Configure Dormant re-engagement reminders
US only. Targets users who have been inactive for an extended period and have unread messages pending. The minimum configurable threshold is 30 days. Navigate to Mobile Apps > Chats > Settings > Chat reminders via text messages and toggle on Dormant re-engagement to expand options.
- Inactivity threshold: The number of days a user must be inactive before the message sends.
- Unread message threshold: The minimum number of unread messages required for the nudge to trigger.
Consider the district's typical communication cadence when setting thresholds. Highly active communities may benefit from a lower inactivity threshold; quieter districts may prefer a longer window.
What families see: A text bundling a summary of missed content with a deep link to catch up. As with all SMS, families can reply STOP at any time.
Configure Unread chat messages digest
All regions. Bundles unread chat conversations into a single email sent at each user's preferred cadence. Each digest includes up to 10 channels with the two most recent messages from each, plus deep links that open directly in the app, mobile browser, or desktop web chat. Navigate to Mobile Apps > Chats > Settings > Unread chat messages digest and toggle on Enable email digest to make this feature available to users.
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Default cadence: Choose how often users receive digests by default.
- Options are Daily (previous 24 hours), Every 3 days (mid-period catch-up), or Weekly (full-week summary).
- Users can override this in their own notification settings at any time.
- Inactivity threshold: The number of days a user must be inactive before a digest is triggered. Users who are actively reading messages will not receive one.
- Send time: The time of day the digest sends, applied to the district's time zone setting.
- Branding: Digests automatically use the school's logo and primary color from the Mobile Apps CMS setup page. No additional configuration is needed.
- Click Send test digest to send a sample to the admin email address and verify branding, layout, and deep links before enabling for families.
What families see: An email summary of unread conversations and links to open each thread directly.
- A digest only sends when there are unread messages.
- Families can unsubscribe by clicking the link in any digest footer, or by toggling off Unread messages digest in their app profile.
- User-level overrides are preserved when district-wide defaults change.
Configure roles
Finalsite Support can help you with any adjustments you'd like to make to your Chat roles. For a full overview of what each role can do, and how to change an individual user's role using the Members tab, check out the article, "Chat for school leaders: Assign chat roles, create rooms, and manage members."
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