Chat has always been all or nothing. If a volunteer had a question for their leader, they could either post it to the whole group or take the conversation somewhere else. Most people chose somewhere else, which is why so many churches are running multiple tools for instant communication.

Direct messages close that gap. This has been the most requested addition to chat, and it's finally here!

First, turn on direct messages for your church

We know that not every church wants to use direct messages in chat, so they stay off until an organization administrator turns them on. To enable it for your church, navigate to Accounts > Organization > Chat and click the toggle to enable direct messages. Until you do, no one at your church will see the option.

Message the people in your groups and teams

Once DMs are on, anyone using chat can start one by selecting Direct message from the Create conversation menu. Search results only include people they share a group or team with, and each result shows the group or team they have in common. To keep congregants safe, people can't search the entire church directory to direct message.

A few details worth knowing:

  • You can include up to nine people in a single direct message, so small side conversations work without building a whole new group.

  • DMs take their name and avatar from the people in them, so there are no conversation settings to set up.

  • The chat inbox has a new DMs filter for when you want to see only those conversations.

  • You can choose a preferred app for your DM notifications, the same way you already can for groups and teams.

  • If someone would rather not receive direct messages, they can turn them off for their own account, and they'll show as unavailable when others search.

Safeguards

Smaller conversations need stronger protections, so we’ve been slowly building out additional safety features over the last several months.

  • Two adults, always. Any conversation that includes a teen has to have at least two adults in it. If it ever drops below that, the conversation is disabled, and no additional messages can be sent until another adult is added.

  • Teens can't start direct messages. An adult has to open the conversation.

  • Ages are verified. A one-time age check on every account is what makes the rules above enforceable.

  • Explicit images and video are removed automatically. Our automated moderation system handles this without waiting for someone to report it.

  • Anyone can report a message. Reported messages go to your group/team leaders (when applicable) and chat moderators, who can delete a message or disable a conversation entirely.

This one took longer than most, and that was on purpose. We wanted the protections in place before the feature, not after. Thank you for being patient with us, and for telling us clearly what your churches needed.

Although this brings a lot of new functionality, we know there is still many refinements we can add. As always, let us know what you’d like to see and we’ll continue releasing improvements to direct messages over the coming months.

💙 The Chat Team