Group chats

Group chats are invite-only chats for up to 20 people, invites included. They live in Messages next to your private chats.

Start a group

You need a verified ID to start a group (see Verify your ID).

1. In Messages, tap ✎ New message, then New group.
2. Give the group a name (up to 60 characters).
3. Tick the people you want to invite. Search by name or @username to find someone.
4. Tap Start group.

You can invite people your messages already reach: your keyholder, the people you hold, your family, people who follow you, and anyone who has accepted your messages. You can't invite someone you've blocked or who has blocked you. You can start up to 10 groups a day.

Group invites

An invite goes to your Requests tab, and you get a notification: @riley invited you to “Locked in”. Open it to see the group's name, who invited you and who's in it. You don't see any messages until you join.

• Tap Accept to join. Everyone sees You joined, and you see the messages sent from then on (not the ones from before you joined).
• Tap Decline to remove the invite. Nobody is told, and that group can't invite you again for a week.
• Tap Report if the invite is unwanted.

In a group

• Write as in a private chat. Other people's messages show their name and picture.
• Send photos and video messages with the buttons next to the message box. Both need a verified ID. Photos are kept as long as your plan keeps them, and video messages for 7 days. Someone without a verified ID verifies before they can watch a video message.
• Tap a message to react (🔒 ❤️ 💪 🔥 😂), Copy it, or Unsend one of yours. Unsending removes it for everyone.
• Groups don't have snaps, calls or voice messages, and there's no Seen.

For how photos, video messages and disappearing messages work, see Photos, snaps and video messages.

Group info

Tap the group's name at the top of the chat (or •••) to open Group info:

• Members, with an Admin chip next to the group's admins, and anyone still Invited.
• Mute this group: no notifications or emails from it.
• Disappearing messages: Off, 24 hours or 7 days. Admins choose this for everyone.
• Leave group

Tap a member to View profile or 🚩 Report them.

For admins

Whoever starts a group is its first admin. Admins can:

• ＋ Add people: pick from the people your messages reach, as when you start a group. They get an invite in their Requests.
• Remove from group, or Cancel invite for someone who hasn't joined yet. They aren't sent anything; the group just leaves their inbox.
• Make admin or Remove as admin. A group always keeps at least one admin.
• Rename the group.
• Turn disappearing messages on or off.

Everyone in the group sees a line in the chat when someone joins, leaves or is removed, is made an admin, or when the name or disappearing messages change.

Leave a group

Open Group info and tap Leave group, then Leave group again. The group leaves your inbox and you stop getting its messages. What you wrote stays in the group. That group can't invite you again for a week.

• If you're the only admin, the person who's been in the group longest becomes admin.
• If you're the last one in it, the group and its messages are deleted.

Blocking and reporting

If you block someone who's in one of your groups (or they block you), you don't see each other's messages or reactions in it, and the group carries on for everyone else. Your member list marks the people you've blocked. Block someone from their profile; see Block and report.

To report someone, tap them in Group info, then 🚩 Report. Moderators see the latest 50 messages of the group since you joined (marking which are theirs), and copies of the photos and video messages they sent. The copies are deleted 90 days after the report is closed.

Notifications and emails

• Push notifications say New message in “Locked in” and who wrote, never what they wrote. You get one notification per group on your phone, and none from groups you've muted.
• Unread group messages count in your Messages badge and in the unread-messages email, which says who wrote, never what. See Private messages.