Managing a Group Chat You Started

When you start a group chat yourself with the New Chat button, you become its chat manager. Everything about the chat lives in one place, Chat Info, where you can rename it, pin a message, choose what members can do, and manage who's in it.

👥 Who Can Manage the Chat

• Chat managers: the person who started the chat, plus anyone a manager makes a chat manager. Managers have a Manager label next to their name.
• School admins with the All Members permission.

Everyone else in the chat is a member. Members can see the chat's name, pinned message, and member list, and they can leave the chat.

📍 How to Open Chat Info

1. Open the group chat.
2. Tap the ⓘ info icon in the top right.

Everyone sees the chat's name, who created it, the member list, and a Leave chat button. Chat managers see more options, covered below.

✏️ How to Rename the Chat or Pin a Message

At the top of Chat Info:

• Rename: tap the pencil icon next to the chat's name, type a new name, and save. Everyone in the chat will see it.
• Pin a message: tap Add a pinned message to set a note that stays at the top of the chat for everyone.

Chats without a name

If a chat doesn't have a name, Onespot names it after the people in it, the way most messaging apps do:

• One other person: their full name, like "Jane Doe"
• Two or three others: first names, like "Jane, Tom & Priya"
• Four or more: "Jane, Tom & 3 others"

The name never includes you, so the same chat can look a little different to each person. To go back to an automatic name after renaming, clear the name so it's blank and save.

⚙️ How to Choose What Members Can Do

Scroll down in Chat Info to What members can do. There are three switches, all on by default:

• Send messages
• Reply in threads
• React to messages

Turn one off to limit that action to chat managers. Members can still read everything. Managers can always send messages, reply, and react, no matter how these are set.

➕ How to Add or Remove Members

To add someone: tap Add members in Chat Info, then search for the person or use the filters.

To manage one person: tap the ••• next to their name. You can:

• Make a chat manager, or Remove as manager if they already are one
• Remove from chat

School admins also see View profile here.

To remove several people at once: tap Remove members next to the member count. Tap each person, or tap select all to choose everyone shown (this follows any search or filters you've used), then tap Remove. If anyone you remove was a chat manager, they stop being a manager too.

🚪 Leaving or Archiving the Chat

At the bottom of Chat Info, under Danger Zone:

• Leave chat: anyone can leave. Since these chats are members-only, a chat manager or admin would need to add you back.
• Archive chat: chat managers can archive the chat when it's no longer needed. This removes everyone and stops new messages, but nothing is deleted, and a school admin can bring it back. See How to Archive or Unarchive a Group Chat.

❓ Good to Know

• Members-only: there's no public "subscribe" option for these chats. People join when a chat manager or admin adds them.
• Older chats: if a chat created before this update had reactions turned off, React to messages starts switched off until you change it.
• Automatic names update the next time you go back to your Messages screen, not while you're inside the chat. Long names are shortened in the Messages list but show in full at the top of the chat.
• If you're the only person in the chat, it shows a generic name until someone else joins.
• Seeing who has read messages: chat managers can see who has read each message and how caught up each member is. Members see a short note in Chat Info letting them know. See Seeing Who Has Read a Message in a Group Chat.