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Chat in Church Center

In this section:

Use chat in Church Center to discuss changes to events, prayer requests, and personal updates with your groups or service teams!

You can set your chat notification preferences in the Church Center mobile app.

Tip

Service team members can participate in both group and service team chat conversations using the Services mobile app.

Start a new conversation with your group

Your church administrators must enable chat for your group. They can allow either the group leaders or both leaders and members to begin a new conversation. 

  1. Select the 💬 chat icon.

  2. Select the ✏️ pencil icon in the top right.

  3. Choose Group.

  4. Select the group to start the conversation with.

  5. Add a title for the conversation.

  6. Select Customize avatar.

  7. 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.

  8. (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.

  9. Select Done in the top right.

  10. Select Start Conversation.

  11. Type your message.

  12. Select the up arrow icon to send your message.

  1. Select the 💬 chat icon. 

  2. Select the ✏️ pencil icon in the top right.

  3. Choose Group.

  4. Select the group to start the conversation with.

  5. Add a title for the conversation.

  6. Select the 👤 person icon.

  7. 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.

  8. Select Done in the bottom right.

  9. (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.

  10. Select Start conversation.

  11. Type your message.

  12. 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

If you are a service team leader or administrator, you can start a team or plan-specific conversation in Church Center. To start a conversation:

  1. Select the 💬 chat icon.

  2. Select the ✏️ pencil icon in the top right.

  3. Choose Team.

  4. Select which team you want to chat with from the teams you lead or tap Select teams to choose a team you don't lead.

  5. (Optional) Use the Filter by plan toggle and select the date from the dropdown to include only team members scheduled for that date.

  6. Select Done in the top right.

  7. Select Start conversation.

Tip

You can set a custom avatar for a conversation by tapping the conversation's title, selecting Update avatar, then choosing an icon or emoji, or uploading an image. Once set, this avatar appears for everyone in the conversation.

  1. Select the 💬 chat icon.

  2. Select the ✏️ pencil icon in the top right.

  3. Choose Team.

  4. 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.

  5. (Optional) Use the Filter by plan toggle and select the date from the dropdown to include only team members scheduled for that date.

  6. Select Start conversation.

  7. Type your message.

  8. 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.

Respond to messages

You can reply to, copy, report, or react to other people's messages, as well as edit or delete your own messages.

  • Press and hold someone else's message to select a reaction emoji, reply to, copy, or report the message.

  • Press and hold your own message to select a reaction emoji, reply to, copy, edit, view read receipts, or delete the message.

  • 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.

  • 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.

Filter conversations

If you belong to multiple teams or groups, you may want to filter your view to find and focus on particular conversations. The filter options you see depend on the types of conversations you’re a part of.

Tip

You can also view all conversations for a specific group by selecting the 💬 chat icon at the top of the page while viewing the group.

Safety and security

Church Center has several features built-in to ensure everyone's safety while chatting.

  • Anyone in a chat can report a message, image, or GIF for spam, harassment, or inappropriate content. Group and team leaders are notified by email with the message details and suggested next steps. If the reported person is a leader, the notification is sent to organization administrators.

  • There must always be at least two adults in any chat that includes a teenager. Congregants without a birthdate on file must verify their age before accessing chat, and anyone who indicates they are under 13 will be blocked from chatting.

  • Chat is encrypted when it’s sent and when it’s stored, but it is not end-to-end encrypted. For a full breakdown of what that means, check out the full chat safety and security help article.

Manage conversations

Role

Abilities

Everyone

  • Mute chat conversation for themselves.

  • View the list of conversation members.

  • React to conversations that have been set to leader messages only.

  • Delete their own messages.

Leaders and

Conversation owners

  • Edit a conversation title.

  • Set a conversation to leader messages only.

  • Send messages and reactions in conversations set to leader messages only.

  • Set a custom avatar for the conversation.

  • Delete all messages.

  • Delete a conversation.

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!

You can't start a conversation in a group

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.

In Services, only a team leader or administrator can start the team/plan conversation.

You still have an app notification badge after selecting Mark all read

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't delete a message

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.

You're looking for additional ways to respond or react to a message

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.