The Chat feature lets you, teachers, and/or guardians send and receive messages. You can message people individually or as a group and name groups to label your conversations easily. You can control who has permission to chat.
Set Chat Permissions
Chat settings can be customized to control whether admins, teachers, and guardians can communicate with each other in the app. Follow the steps below to update your settings:
From the Playground website, navigate to the Settings tab on the left side of your screen.
Scroll down to the Communication settings.
Toggle the chat option to allow families and teachers to use chat. You can further customize who teachers and guardians can begin conversations with. Select some or all of the options from the drop-down next to family and teacher permissions.
Family permissions: Families can chat with other families, teachers, and/or admins.
Teacher permission: Teachers can chat with other teachers, staff, and/or families.
💡 If you want to hide teachers' last names from guardians, scroll down to the teacher permissions on the settings page and toggle this setting on. If this setting is off, a teacher's first and last name will be visible when chatting.
View Chats
From the Chat screen, you can view all of the chats you've created (My Chats) and any chats your teachers and guardians have created (All Chats).
View Chats on Web
To view chats on web, navigate to the Chat tab on the left side of your screen. Click into any chat to view the conversation.
View Chats on Mobile
To view chats on mobile, click on the chat icon in the upper right corner of your screen. Click into any chat to view the conversation.
Create a New Chat
Create a New Chat on Web
On web, click the blue circle with a plus sign to create a new chat.
The Start New Chat window will open.
Use the search bar to search for the staff, guardian, families, classroom, or program you would like to chat with.
When you've added all your desired recipients, click the blue start chat button.
The chat will open, and you can send your first message. Select the paper clip icon from the conversation screen to attach files from your computer to the message.
Create a New Chat on Mobile
On mobile, click the message icon in the upper right corner.
The New Message screen will open.
Use the search bar to search for the staff, guardian, families, classroom, or program you would like to chat with.
When you've added all your desired recipients, click the blue chat text in the upper right corner.
A Conversation screen will open. From here, you can send messages, photos, videos, and voice memos.
Send a text: Type into the message field and send by tapping the arrow to the right of the field.
Send a photo or video: Tap the plus sign to the left of the text field. Then tap Take Photo to open your mobile device's camera or Media Library to open your device's photos and videos. (You'll have to give the app permission to access your camera and/or media library.)
Send a voice message: Tap the microphone icon to the right of the text bar to record a voice message.
See below for a screenshot of each step:
Add People to a Conversation
To add people to an existing conversation, open the Conversation.
Tap the info icon on the upper right of the screen. The Chat Settings screen will open.
From here, tap + Add people. Search teachers or parents by name, select as many names as you'd like, and tap Done.
You'll return to the Chat Settings screen, now updated with the new members. To return to the Conversation screen, tap Done in the upper right corner of the screen.
💡 The steps above apply to the Playground mobile app and website.
Remove People from a Conversation
🚨 Only administrators can remove chat members.
Open the chat you would like to remove someone from.
Tap the info icon on the upper right of the screen. The Chat Settings screen will open.
Tap the name of the person you would like to remove.
Then click Remove From Chat.
Name a Conversation
Open the chat you would like to name.
Tap the info icon on the upper right of the screen. The Chat Settings screen will open.
Tap the grey rectangle that says Group Name. Type in your desired name and tap Done in the upper right-hand corner.
The name is updated when you return to the Conversation screen; you'll receive a notification that says the group name has been changed.
💡 The steps above apply to the Playground mobile app and website.
💡 When you add a group name, the conversation will appear as the group name instead of a list of members in the conversation.
Leave a conversation
Open the chat you would like to leave.
Tap the info icon on the upper right of the screen. The Chat Settings screen will open.
Tap Leave this Conversation and then tap Leave Conversation to confirm the action or Cancel to remain in the conversation.
💡 The steps above apply to the Playground mobile app and website.
Archive and delete chats
Admins can archive or delete chats. See below for the differences between archiving and deleting a chat.
Archive a chat | Admins and chat members can no longer send messages. However, they will be able to view the chat content. |
Delete a chat | The chat will be permanently deleted. Admins and chat members can no longer send messages or view the chat content. |
Archive a chat
Click into the chat you would like to archive.
Click the blue information "i" icon, then click archive chat.
Text will appear on the chat screen: "This chat has been archived by [Your Name]"
Chat members will no longer be able to send messages, but they will be able to view the chat contents.
💡 After a chat has been archived, you can unarchive it by clicking unarchive chat. This will allow chat members to send messages again.
Delete a Chat
Click into the chat you would like to delete.
Click the blue information "i" icon, then click delete chat.
The delete chat window will appear. Click delete chat to confirm this action.
🚨 If a chat is deleted, the conversation will be removed from all members’ accounts. No one will have access to any messages, photos, or videos in the chat.
Mark all Chats as Read
Open the chat screen by clicking the chat icon in the upper right corner.
Click the black text at the top of your screen that says Chat.
A blue button at the bottom of your screen will appear that says Mark all chats as read. Tap this button to confirm the action.
🚨 This feature is only available on mobile. However, if you mark your chats as read on mobile, they will also be marked as read on the web version of Playground.
Download Chat Transcripts
Chat transcripts can be downloaded as .txt files.
💡 Chat transcripts can only be downloaded on the web version of Playground.
Click on the chat you would like to download the transcript of.
Click the blue information "i" icon, then click download chat transcript.
The transcript will be downloaded as .txt file on your computer.
🚨 Chat transcripts will not include any photos, videos, or voice memos from the chat.