# Chat Configuration

Source: https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/chat/chat-configuration

> Configure how Chat behaves across your organisation (admin).

> **Enabling Chat**
>
> Chat is an optional feature. The Account Owner can turn it on from the [Optional Features](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/settings/optional-features#chat) page.

Use Chat Settings to control how Chat behaves across your organisation.

## Accessing Chat Settings

Open **Settings** in the left-hand menu, then select [Chat](https://app.astalty.com.au/settings/chat).

![The Chat Settings page, reached by selecting Settings (1) under Configure in the left menu and then Chat (2), showing the Who Can Message Who, Members, Messages and Hidden System Messages sections with an Edit button.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-settings-1.png)

## Available Settings

### Allow Message Editing

When enabled, users can edit their own messages after they have been sent. Edited messages will display an "edited" indicator.

When disabled, no one can edit messages.

![Chat Settings with Message Editing highlighted under Messages, set to Enabled.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/message-editing-1.png)

### Allow Message Deletion

When enabled, users can delete their own messages. Admins can delete any message.

When disabled, only people who can delete any message, which by default means Admins, can delete messages.

![Chat Settings with Message Deletion highlighted under Messages, set to Enabled.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/message-deletion-1.png)

### Show Message History to New Members

This setting controls whether new members added to a group channel can see messages sent before they joined.

- **Enabled**: New members can see the full conversation history
- **Disabled**: New members will only see messages sent after they were added

Pinned messages are an exception. Current members can see every pinned message and its attachments, including pins sent before they joined. See [Pinned Messages](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/chat/messaging#pinned-messages).

![Chat Settings with the Members section highlighted, showing Show Message History to New Members set to Disabled.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/show-messages-1.png)

## Hiding System Messages

System messages are the automatic notices in a chat, such as "Jane Doe removed John Smith from the group". You can stop any of them being posted.

1. Navigate to **Settings** in the left-hand menu, then select [Chat](https://app.astalty.com.au/settings/chat)
2. Click **Edit**
3. Under **System Messages**, tick each notice you want hidden
4. Click **Save**

![The System Messages section of Chat Settings, with all fourteen notices left unticked](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-settings-system-messages.png)

Nothing is hidden until you tick it, so chats you already have keep behaving exactly as before.

Hiding is organisation-wide and applies to every conversation. A hidden notice is never posted at all, so no one sees it - Admins included - and it never reaches a conversation export. Hiding affects new notices only: anything already in a chat history stays. The change applies to both the browser and the Astalty app as soon as you save.

The action itself still happens. Hiding **Member removed from group** removes the member as normal, it just does not announce it. That is the usual reason to use this setting: when someone is removed from a group channel during a termination, or because they have moved off a SIL house, the removal is no longer announced to everyone left in the chat.

The Chat Settings page lists whatever you have hidden under **Hidden System Messages**, or **None** if you have hidden nothing.

> **System Messages can only be changed in the browser**
>
> The Chat Settings screen in the Astalty app does not include the **System Messages** section. Set it from the browser; what you hide there applies in the app too.

### Notices You Can Hide

- Group created
- Group renamed
- Members added to group
- Member removed from group
- Member allowed to post
- Member posting access removed
- User groups added
- User groups removed
- Message pinned
- Message unpinned
- Read-only mode enabled
- Read-only mode disabled
- Posts for approval enabled
- Posts for approval disabled

## Conversation Permissions

Chat Settings also controls who can start new conversations with whom. These rules apply when someone creates a new chat; once a person is already in a channel, they can continue messaging in that channel.

- **Managers**
- **Team Members**
- **Support Workers**

Admins are not listed as a source role because they can always start a conversation with anyone. Admin remains a target column, so the matrix can control whether Managers, Team Members, and Support Workers can start a conversation with an Admin.

### Who Can Message Who

Use the **Who Can Message Who** matrix to choose which roles Managers, Team Members, and Support Workers can start conversations with.

### Allowed Recipients (Exceptions)

Use **Allowed Recipients (Exceptions)** to choose specific people each role can always direct message, even if the matrix would otherwise block that conversation.

### Allowed User Groups (Exceptions)

Use **Allowed User Groups (Exceptions)** to choose which User Groups each role can start chats with.

When a role is allowed to start chats with a User Group, users in that role can select the group when creating a new conversation. Everyone in the selected User Group is added to the chat automatically, even if the role-to-role matrix would otherwise block messaging some members of that group.

![Chat Settings with the Who Can Message Who role matrix highlighted, showing which of Admin, Manager, Team Member and Support Worker each role can start conversations with.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/manage-settings-1.png)

## Viewing other people's conversations

The normal Chat list and Chat search only show conversations the signed-in user has joined. There is no organisation-wide browsing screen in Chat.

By default, only Admins can open a conversation they have not joined, from a direct link, and read or export it.

Use group channels when a wider team needs to find and continue a conversation in their normal Chat list. [Chat Privacy and Visibility](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/chat/chat-privacy) explains membership, account-wide Admin access and conversation exports.

## Managing Chat in the App

In addition to the standard actions available to Support Workers in the [Chat in the App](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/scheduling/support-worker-app/chat-in-the-app) guide, Admin users have access to additional functions within the app.

### Chat Settings

To adjust settings within the app, tap the Settings icon in the top-right corner of the screen.

From here, you can update your settings in the same way as in the browser-based version of Astalty. Be sure to tap the tick icon to apply any changes.

The exceptions are **Allowed User Groups (Exceptions)** and [Hiding System Messages](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/chat/chat-configuration#hiding-system-messages), which the app does not offer. What you set for them in the browser still applies in the app.

![The Chat screen in the mobile app, with an arrow pointing to the highlighted Settings icon in the top-right corner, beside the search, new conversation and status icons.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-16.png)

![The Chat Settings screen in the mobile app, with the Who Can Message Who toggles for Manager, Team Member and Support Worker highlighted, the Allowed Recipients (Exceptions) section below, and an arrow pointing to the tick at the top right.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-15.png)

### Editing Groups

Within the app, Admin users can update Group Chats, including the group name and members.

Tap the three-dot icon at the top right of the conversation, then **View members**. From here, you can:

- Tap the **Edit** icon to update the group name
- Tap the **Add Member** icon to include additional members
- Tap the three-dot icon next to a member's name, then **Remove from channel**, to remove them from the group

![A group conversation in the mobile app with the three-dot menu open from the top-right corner, listing Mute, Pin for me, Pin for everyone, Archive and View members, with View members highlighted.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-17.png)

![The Members (6) screen for a group in the mobile app, with an arrow pointing to the highlighted pencil Edit icon beside the Group name.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-18.png)

![The Members screen in the mobile app with the Group name field open for editing and highlighted, and an arrow pointing to the tick beside it.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-20.png)

![The Members (6) screen for a group in the mobile app, with an arrow pointing to the Add Member icon in the top-right corner, and a three-dot icon beside every member except the group's creator and you.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-19.png)

![The Add Members screen in the mobile app, with a Search users field above a list of users showing each one's user groups, such as Qld Team and Support Worker.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-21.png)

![The Members (6) screen in the app for a group chat, with an arrow pointing to the three-dot icon beside a member. The Edit icon for the Group name and the Add Member icon sit above the Linked User Groups.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-22.png)

![The Remove member confirmation over the app's Members screen, highlighted, asking whether to remove Stella Lesch from this group, with Cancel and Remove buttons.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-23.png)

### Creating Chats

Tap the **+** icon in the top-right corner of the screen to create a new Chat Group. You can then choose to add User Groups within Astalty as well as individual users.

![The Chat screen in the app, with an arrow pointing to the highlighted + icon at the top right between the search and status icons, above a list of direct messages and group chats.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-25.png)

![The New Conversation screen in the app, with the User Groups chips such as Admin, All Users, Manager and Nsw Team and the Search users field highlighted.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/chat-24.png)