Managing Your Parent Group Chat

Welcome! You've been set up as the editor/moderator of your school's parent group chat. That means this chat is yours to run — you can manage who's in it and adjust how it works, all from your own app. No admin or teacher needs to be involved.

Here's a quick guide to everything you can do.

⚠️ For admins: Setting up a parent-run chat? See Creating a Parent-Run Group Chat (No Admin Access). Need to make a parent the editor? See How to Make Someone an Editor of a Specific Screen or Chat.

💡 Started a group chat yourself with the New Chat button? That kind of chat works a little differently. See Managing a Group Chat You Started.

Finding your chat

Once you've been given editor access, you'll need to add the parent group chat to your home screen so you can get to it.

Here's how: How to add a screen to your home screen.

Once it's on your home screen, just tap it to open it like any other chat.

When you're inside the chat, tap the ⓘ info icon in the top right corner. This opens Chat Info, where you can manage everything about your chat.

Changing the chat's settings

At the top of Chat Info, you'll see the chat's name, how many members it has, and the pinned message. The pinned message comes from the Discussion topic in the chat's settings, so you'll change it there, not in Chat Info. To change the settings, tap Open Settings in the Settings box.

From there you can update things like:

Title: rename the chat if you'd like.
Icon: change the picture that represents the chat.
Display Style: choose the chat bubble look or the feed look.
Discussion topic: set a focus for the conversation. This shows as the pinned message at the top of the chat.
Reaction type: choose how members can react to messages.
Replies: turn replies on or off.

One thing to leave alone: please don't change the permissions settings. These are set up so the chat stays private and exclusive to your members, and changing them could accidentally open the chat up or lock people out. If you ever need a permissions change, reach out and we'll help.

Adding and removing members

You can manage who's in the chat right from Chat Info.

To add someone: tap Add members, then search by name or email, or use the filters to find the right person. You'll only be able to select actual accounts in your school's app, so you don't have to worry about adding the wrong kind of contact. Members' email addresses are only shown to school admins, so you may not see them in the members list.

To remove one person: tap the ••• next to their name, then choose Remove from chat.

To remove several people at once: tap Remove members next to the member count. Tap each person you'd like to take out, or tap select all to choose everyone shown. This includes only the people that match your search or filters, if you used any. Then tap Remove at the bottom.

Seeing who has read messages

As the chat's editor, you can see who has read each message and how caught up each member is.

See Seeing Who Has Read a Message in a Group Chat.

Leaving the chat

If you ever need to step away, scroll to the bottom of Chat Info. You'll see Leave chat if the chat is members-only, or Unsubscribe from chat if it's open to everyone.