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Chat in the Services mobile app

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Coordinate your services more effectively by using chat to communicate with your teams. Start a chat to stay in touch or communicate about specific plan details!

In addition to the Services mobile app, Services teams can chat using the Church Center mobile app or the toolbar in any Planning Center product they can access.

Who can chat

Services: Anyone with Services editor permissions 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.

Only team members scheduled for the plan date can see a team plan conversation.

Important

Children under 13 years old cannot see the chat icon or receive chat notifications. For more information, see the Planning Center privacy policy.

If a team has children 13 or under, conversation leaders will see a reminder that those children will not see the chat. They will see those names on the list for reference only. No one else will see the names or reminders about these children.

Start a new conversation

You can start a conversation in the Services mobile app from any screen or within a plan. 

Chat from any screen

  1. Select the 💬 chat icon at the top of the screen.

  2. If you have multiple accounts linked, tap the church's name at the top of the screen and select which church you want to chat with from the dropdown.

  3. Tap New Conversation to start a chat.

  4. Select which teams you want to converse with from the teams you lead. Tap Select teams to choose a team you don't lead.

  5. (Optional) If there are future plans for the team(s), use the toggle to filter by plan to choose a specific plan.

  6. Tap Start conversation.

Chat with scheduled team members

To start a chat with scheduled team members on a plan:

  1. Select a plan from your My Schedule page or from the Plans tab (if you have access).

  2. Select the Teams tab.

  3. Select the 💬 Chat button located beneath the tabs. 

  4. If you only lead one team on this plan, you'll go directly to an empty chat for that team. Type your message in the Send a message box and select the up arrow to send it.

    If you lead multiple teams on this plan, you'll go to the New Conversation page. You can adjust which teams to include by tapping on a team name and selecting the checkboxes on the next page. All of the teams you lead will be selected by default. 

  5. Once you've selected the team(s) you want to include, select Done in the top right.

  6. Select Start conversation.

Filter conversations

If you belong to multiple teams or groups, you can filter your conversation list to find and focus on specific conversations.

  1. Tap the Filter button in the top left of the Chat page.

  2. Choose one of the four filter options:

    • Select All my teams & plans to view conversations for all your Services teams and plans.

    • Select All my groups to view conversations for all your groups.

    • Select a team to view conversations for a specific team and its plans.

    • Select a group to view conversations for a specific group.

  3. Select the X next to a filter's name to remove it.

Manage chat conversations

  1. Select the 💬 chat icon.

  2. Select a conversation from the Conversations page.

  3. Select the conversation title to see the Conversation details.

All chat participants can manage their own conversation experience by muting conversations, viewing current members, and marking them as unread.

Users with editor permissions or higher can manage conversations by renaming them, muting them, viewing members, and marking them as unread.

Team leaders and conversation owners can manage conversations by renaming, muting, or deleting them, and viewing members. They can also restrict posting to leaders only while still allowing everyone to react to messages.

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.

  • Tap 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.