The Live Chat module lets you talk in real time with parents, teachers and school staff. You can have one-to-one conversations or create groups, for example by class or by school level, and send messages, emojis, files and polls. Messages can be sent right away or scheduled for later.
Contents
1. How do I open Live Chat?
In the left menu, click Live Chat.
The Live Chat page has three areas:
On the left, conversations grouped by category: All, Unread, Favorites, Groups and Archived. Your own lists appear below them, under Your lists. At the bottom are New list and Settings.
In the middle, the Search people, chats and messages field and the Recent chats list.
On the right, the selected conversation.
2. How do I start a new conversation or create a group?
Click the green New button, next to Recent chats.
The Select recipients window opens. You can choose the recipients in three ways.
a) A whole audience, in one click
Tick one of the options at the top: All staff, Whole school, All parents, All teachers or All admins. On the right you see Everyone in the ticked audience will be included.
b) People chosen one by one
Under Users, click Children, Parents, Teachers or Admins. The list of people appears on the right; click the ones you want.
For Parents, you can filter the list by class from the All classes field or search by name. Under each parent you see their role and child (for example “Mother · Matei Ambrozie”).
The other lists work the same way. Select all ticks everyone in the list at once, and Deselect all clears the selection.
c) Whole classes
Under Groups, click Classes · parents (the parents of the selected classes) or Classes · children (the students of the selected classes), then click the classes you want. Selected classes are marked with a green tick, and the number of selected classes appears next to the option. This way you can create, for example, a group with the parents of all primary classes.
Group name
Once you've chosen the recipients, the required Group name field appears. Below it, Recipients resolved shows how many people will be in the group. Type the name and click Create.
Tip: choose names that are easy to recognise, for example “Primary school parents” or “Class 2 · parents”. This way you'll find the group quickly with the search.
3. How do I send a message, an emoji or a file?
Open the conversation, type your message in the field at the bottom and click the green send button. Use Shift + Enter to start a new line.
On the left of the message field:
the first icon opens the emojis, grouped into Smileys, Celebrations, Objects and Symbols;
the second icon lets you attach a file.
On the right, next to the send button, the microphone icon is for voice messages.
4. How do I create a poll or send an urgent message?
Click … on the right of the message field. The menu has five options:
Create poll: ask the group a question with several answers;
Video: send a video;
Schedule message: send the message later (section 5);
Mark as urgent: the message is highlighted as urgent;
Request acknowledgement: recipients are asked to confirm they've read the message.
Poll
In the Create poll window, type the Question and the answers (Option 1, Option 2). Add more answers with Add option, or delete one with the bin icon. Turn on Allow multiple answers if people can choose more than one answer. Then click Create poll.
Urgent message and acknowledgement
When you choose Mark as urgent or Request acknowledgement, a tag appears above the message field: Urgent or Acknowledgement required. You can use both on the same message. Remove a tag with ×. Then type the message and send it.
Tip: keep Mark as urgent for really important messages (for example a schedule change for the same day), so parents don't get used to ignoring it.
5. How do I schedule a message?
Click … next to the message field and choose Schedule message. You can also open it from the conversation menu (the three dots at the top right) › Scheduled messages.
In the Schedule a message window, type the text in the Message field. If you had already typed it in the message field, it's filled in for you. In Deliver at, choose the day, month, year and time when it should be sent. Then click Schedule.
6. How do I reply to, forward or delete a message?
Hover over a message. Three icons appear next to it: … (more actions), reply and react with an emoji. Click … to see all the options:
Reply: reply to that specific message;
Forward: send the message to another conversation;
Select messages: select several messages at once (see below);
Copy text;
Pin: pin the message in the conversation;
Message info: see who has seen the message;
Delete.
Message info shows how many recipients have seen the message (for example Seen by 0 of 12) and the people it hasn't been delivered to yet.
Several messages at once
Choose Select messages. A circle appears next to each message. Click the messages you want, then Delete or Forward. At the bottom left you see how many messages are selected. Cancel exits selection mode.
7. How do I see and manage the members of a group?
Click the icon with the number of members, next to the group name. The list of members opens, with each person's role (for example Mother, Father, Director). The group administrator is marked Group admin.
Add people adds new members to the group.
Search members finds a person quickly.
The chat icon next to a person opens a private conversation with them.
× next to a person removes them from the group.
8. How do I personalise the conversation background?
Click the first icon at the top right of the conversation. In the Personalize Live Chat window you can choose:
Pattern themes: backgrounds with drawings, in different colours;
Photo themes: ready-made photos as background;
Message background: No tint, Light tint or Deeper tint;
My colours: the colour of the message cards, unread badges, mentions and urgent messages. The Send and New buttons always stay green.
Note! Everyone in the conversation sees these choices. Only teachers and admins can change them.
9. How do I organise my conversations (favorites, lists, pinning, archiving)?
Click the three dots at the top right of the conversation. The menu with its options opens:
Add to favorites: the conversation appears under Favorites;
Add to list: group the conversation in a list (see below);
Pin conversation: the conversation always stays at the top;
Mark as unread;
Mute notifications: see section 10;
Archive conversation: the conversation moves to Archived.
The second part of the menu (Select messages, Media, Scheduled messages, Edit group, Close group) is described in the other sections.
Conversation lists
If you have many conversations (with primary parents, secondary parents, teachers and so on), you can group them in lists, so you find them more easily. Lists are private: only you see them.
Click New list at the bottom left (or Add to list › New list in the conversation menu). Type the List name, tick the conversations you want in the list and click Create list.
The list appears on the left, under Your lists. Click it to see only its conversations.
10. How do I mute a conversation?
In the conversation menu, choose Mute notifications. Choose how long you don't want notifications: For 8 hours, Until tomorrow or Forever. Then click Mute.
Tip: unread badges don't change. You still see how many new messages you have.
11. Where do I find the files and images that were sent?
In the conversation menu, choose Media. You see everything sent in the conversation, in the All, Images and Files tabs. Search for a file by name in the Search files… field. Back to messages takes you back to the conversation.
12. How do I search a conversation?
To find a message in the open conversation, click the magnifying glass at the top right. Type a word in the Search messages… field and move between the results with the arrows. Close the search with ×.
To find a person or a conversation, use the Search people, chats and messages field above Recent chats.
13. How do I edit or close a group?
In the group's menu, choose Edit group. In the Edit group window you can change:
Group name and Description. Don't forget to click Save;
the group photo, with Add photo;
Group color: the colour of the group's circle when it has no photo;
Allow members to leave this group: when it's off, the group is managed by staff and members can't leave it themselves;
Show earlier messages to new members: when it's off, people added later start with an empty conversation and can't read the messages from before they joined.
Note! Everything you change here applies to the whole group and is visible to all members.
Closing a group
When a group is no longer needed (for example at the end of a trip or of the school year), choose Close group in the group's menu and confirm with Close group. Members can still read the messages, but nobody can send new ones. A group admin can reopen it.
14. Who can start conversations?
Click Settings at the bottom left of Live Chat. In the Who can start conversations window you choose whether parents and students can talk to each other:
Parents can message the parents of their child's class;
Parents can create groups with their child's teachers, the admins and the parents of their child's class;
Students can message the students of their class;
Students can create groups with their teachers, the admins and the students of their class.
A parent can only reach parents whose child is in the same class, and a student only students of the same class. Click Save.
Note! If you turn an option off, the chats it allowed are closed, but their history stays readable.