Chat in Planning Center
Use chat to coordinate plan changes with your Services team or share prayer requests and other life updates with your group members. You can start, participate in, and manage conversations from the toolbar on any product page in Planning Center.
In addition to using chat in the toolbar, team or group members can access their conversations in the Services mobile app or Church Center.
Who can chat
Groups: Depending on a group's settings, either only leaders or both leaders and members can start a group-wide conversation.
Services: Anyone with Services editor permission level or higher, or a team leader, can start a conversation with everyone on the team or only with team members scheduled for a specific plan date.
Important
Children under 13 cannot read or participate in conversations. For more information, see Planning Center's privacy policy.
Start a new conversation with your group
Select the 💬 chat icon in the toolbar on the right side of the page.
Select the ✏️ pencil icon in the top right.
Select Group from the dropdown.
Select the group to start the conversation with.
Add a title for the conversation.
Select the 👤 person icon.
Choose an icon or emoji, or upload an image to set as a custom avatar for the conversation. Once set, this avatar appears for everyone in the conversation.
Select Done in the bottom right.
(Optional) Toggle on the gender filter to make the conversation only include members whose gender matches yours.
Tip
Since gender-specific conversations are based on your own profile, you can only create ones that match your gender. If you're a group leader who needs to create multiple gender-specific conversations, you can either edit your group's settings to allow all members to create conversations or have an administrator add leaders with other genders to start those conversations.
Select Start conversation.
Type your message.
Select the up arrow icon to send your message.
Warning
Each group can have up to 100 conversations. When the 101st conversation starts, the oldest conversation is removed and cannot be recovered.
Start a new conversation with your team
Select the 💬 chat icon.
Select the ✏️ pencil icon in the top right.
Choose Team.
Select which team you want to chat with from the teams you lead or select Select teams to choose a team you don't lead.
(Optional) Use the Filter by plan toggle and select the date from the dropdown to include only team members scheduled for that specific date.
Select Start conversation.
Type your message.
Select the up arrow icon to send your message.
Tip
You can set a custom avatar for a conversation by selecting the ⚙️ settings icon, selecting the existing avatar, then choosing an icon or emoji, or uploading an image. Once set, this avatar appears for everyone in the conversation.
Filter conversations
If you belong to multiple teams or groups, you can filter your conversation list to find and focus on specific conversations. The filter options you see depend on the types of conversations you’re a part of.
From any product page, select the 💬 chat icon in the toolbar on the right side of the page.
The blue filter buttons appear at the top of the Conversations list.
Choose one of the four options:
Select All to remove any filters and view all group and team conversations.
Select Groups to only view group conversations.
Select Teams to only view team and plan conversations.
Select More to only view a specific team or group's conversations.
Filters will remain selected unless you select All or a new filter or select the X next to a filter.
Respond to messages
You can reply to, report, or react to other people's messages, as well as edit or delete your own messages.
Tip
Share the Manage chat messages article with your congregants who use chat!
Select the three dots icon next to someone else's message to reply to or report the message.
Select the three dots icon next to your own message to edit or delete the message.
Select the 🙂 emoji icon next to a message to add an emoji reaction.
Select the 📎 attachment icon to use your device's camera or to select an image from your photo library.
Select the ⚡️ lightning bolt icon to search for a GIF to share in your chat.
Manage conversations
Role | Abilities |
|---|---|
Everyone |
|
Leaders and Conversation owners |
|
Supported attachment types
The following file types can be added as attachments when chatting on web or mobile:
Attachment | File type |
|---|---|
Image | .bmp, .gif, .heic, .heif, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .webp |
Video | .3gp, .avi, .h263, .h264, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .mp4, .mpeg, .mpeg4, .mpg, .webm, .wmv |
Audio | 3ga, .aac, .amr, .m4a, .m4b, .m4p, .m4r, .mp3, .mp4-latm, .ogg, .wav |
Document | .doc, .docx, .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, .rtf, .txt, .xls, .xlsx |
Apple iWork | .key, .numbers, .pages |
Contacts | .vcf |
Troubleshooting common chat issues
Here are some common chat issues and their fixes. If none of these address your issue, reach out to the Planning Center support team — they're happy to help!
Ask a group leader if they've enabled chat for your group. If chat is enabled for your group but you can't start a conversation, your group leader may have chosen to only allow group leaders to start conversations.
For Services teams, only a team leader or administrator can start the team/plan conversation.
Non-chat notifications are also included in your Church Center app notification badge — open the app, tap the 🔔 notification bell icon, and select Mark all read to clear those notifications.
Here's how to update your notification preferences.
You can only delete messages you've created, unless you're a group or team leader.
If a message is harmful, you can report it by pressing and holding it in the mobile app or by selecting the three dots next to the message on a web browser.
Press and hold a message in the mobile app to see additional options, or select the three dots next to a message in a web browser.
Here are all the ways you can respond and react to messages.