Chat needs almost no setup, because it works from the groups you already have. The trick is not to switch it on everywhere at once. This is the six-step route that gets one group chatting well, which tells you far more than twenty groups chatting badly.
The six steps
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Read what it does. Two minutes on what Chat is and what your church controls. See What you can do with Chat.
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Pick one group to start with. A team or small group who will actually use it, with a leader who will champion it. Not the whole congregation.
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Switch chat on for that group. Choose one-to-one, group, or both, and think about quiet hours if it is a lively group. See How to turn on chat for a group.
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Tell the group. Send them the guide to getting the app and finding Chat. Ask them to allow notifications when prompted, because that is where most first-week problems come from. See How to start using Chat in the app.
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Answer the privacy question before it is asked. Adult conversations are private to the people in them, and nobody at your church can read them from the web office. Saying so up front is what makes people willing to use it. See Who can see chat messages?
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After a fortnight, review and expand. Ask the group what worked. Then add the next group, and switch on polls and announcement-only where they fit.
If your group includes children
Children are not part of group chats, by design. If the group you pick has children in it, the adults get their conversation and the children simply do not see it. Reaching children is Safe Messaging, which is a separate setup with parental approval built in. See Setting up Safe Messaging, start to finish.
Tick list
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One group chosen, with a leader who will champion it
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Chat switched on for that group, with sensible quiet hours
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Group sent the app guide and told to allow notifications
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Privacy answer shared before anyone asks
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Review date in the diary, two weeks out
Still stuck? We’re real people.
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