How chat groups work

The kinds of chat groups in OpenCourt, who can see and join each one, and the settings that shape what your customers see.

Chat groups let your customers talk to each other and to your club inside the OpenCourt app. This page explains the kinds of groups, who can see each one, and the settings you control. For the steps, see Create a group or announcement channel.

The Community Groups page in the admin panel: a Promotion Requests box for the customer group Thursday Night Crew with Approve and Deny buttons, and a table of four groups. Club News is an Announcement, Morning Drills, Beginners Corner and 4.0+ Ladder are Discussion groups, with their invite codes and Public or Private visibility.

The kinds of groups

Kind	Who makes it	Who can post	Where you manage it
Discussion group	Your club	Every member of the group	Chat Groups
Announcement channel	Your club	Only your club. Customers read and react.	Chat Groups
Customer group	A customer, in the app	Every member of the group	Not in your admin panel, until you approve a request to make it official
Direct message	A customer, in the app	The two people in the conversation	Not in your admin panel

When a customer asks to hand their own group to your club, the request shows in Promotion Requests at the top of the Community Groups page. See Review requests to make a customer group official.

Public and private groups

A public group shows to all customers on your club's Community Groups page in the app. Any customer can join it.
A private group is hidden. A customer joins with the group's six-character code, the invite link, or the QR code. You can also add customers yourself from the group's Members tab.

Each group's code is in the Invite Code column of your list. Customers find the same code, link and QR code on the group's details screen in the app.

Where your customers find groups

The Groups tab in the app's bottom bar lists every group a customer belongs to, at every club. At some clubs this tab has a different name.
The Community Groups card on your club's home page opens the list of your public groups. The card shows when Show Public Groups is on in Settings → Home Page Settings.
Customers can also create their own groups and message each other directly.

The order of your groups in the app follows the order of your Community Groups list. Drag a row by its handle to move it. Customers see the new order on the Community Groups page and the home page card.

What members get

Members get a push notification for new messages, unless they mute the group.
A member whose name is mentioned with @ gets a notification that names the group.
Only your club's admins can mention everyone in a group with @all.

How customer names show in groups

You choose how customer names appear to other customers in member lists and on messages. Go to Settings → General → Customer name display and set Groups & chat to one of these:

First & last name
First name + last initial
First name only
Initials only