Some conversations have a finish line. The plan conversation for Easter weekend, the thread for the fall retreat, the sign-up push for a serve day. When it’s over, the conversation keeps sitting in everyone’s chat list, and until now the only way to clear it out was to delete it, which erases the history for everyone.

Now leaders can archive a conversation instead. It disappears from everyone’s chat list, and the full message history stays saved in case you need it again.

Archive a conversation when it wraps up

Three smartphone screens showing a group chat for a "Summer BBQ 2026", with messages discussing plans and an option to archive the conversation.

Group and team leaders can archive a conversation from its details. Select Archive conversation under Conversation details and confirm.

Find and restore archived conversations

Three smartphone screens showing chat filters, archived conversations, and a group chat about planning a summer BBQ event.

Leaders can also view archived conversations for their groups or teams by opening the filters menu, selecting More filters, then Archived conversations. Each one opens read-only with its full history and an Unarchive button. Unarchiving immediately restores it for everyone currently in the group or team.

A safety net for the 100-conversation limit

Each group is still limited to 100 conversations. Starting with this release, when a group starts its 101st conversation, the oldest one is archived instead of removed, so leaders can restore it. If restoring puts the group over 100, the oldest conversation (by activity) is archived to make room.

Archiving is available now on the web and in the latest versions of the Church Center app and the Services mobile app.

💙 The Chat Team