Chats & Groups

How to create conversations, manage groups, add members, and keep your chat list organized.

Types of Chats

Freedom Messenger has two types of conversations:

  • Direct chats — private one-on-one conversations between two people
  • Group chats — conversations with multiple members, with a name, avatar, and optional features like tasks

Starting a Direct Chat

At the top of the chat list, you will see two buttons:

  • "New chat" — opens a user list to start a direct conversation
  • "New group" — creates a group chat (see below)

Click "New chat", then select a user from the list. If a direct chat with that person already exists, it will open instead of creating a duplicate.

Creating a Group

Click the "New group" button at the top of the chat list. The process has two steps:

  1. Name your group — enter a group name (required). This is visible to all members.
  2. Add members — select users to add. You can skip this and add members later.

Once created, you are automatically the group's creator.

Managing a Group

Group settings are accessed through three controls in the chat header:

  • Click the group avatar — to upload a new group photo (a camera icon appears on hover)
  • Click the group name — to rename it inline (a pencil icon appears on hover)
  • Click the people icon (Members button) — to open the group panel with members, description, mute, pin, archive, tasks, and leave

Group Avatar

Hover over the group avatar in the chat header — a camera icon appears. Click it to upload a new image. The image is automatically resized to 256 pixels. If no avatar is uploaded, the group shows colored initials.

Renaming a Group

Click the group name directly in the chat header. It becomes an editable text field. Type the new name and press Enter (or click away) to save.

Group Description

Open the group panel (people icon) and click the description area or pencil icon to edit it. Useful for explaining the group's purpose to new members.

Adding Members

In the group panel, click the "Add member" button (+ icon). A searchable user list appears — click a user to add them to the group.

Removing Members

In the group panel member list, hover over a member — a remove button (X) appears. Click it and confirm to remove them. Only the group creator and admins can remove members.

Leaving a Group

At the bottom of the group panel, click the "Leave group" button. A confirmation dialog appears. Your previous messages remain visible to other members.

Muting, Pinning, Archiving

The group panel has toggle buttons for mute, pin, and archive — same actions as right-clicking a chat in the list (see below).

Enabling Tasks

In the group panel, toggle the "Tasks" switch to enable or disable the Tasks tab. You can also set your task notification level: all, assigned only, or none. See Tasks for details.

Organizing Your Chat List

Pin a Chat

Right-click a chat in the list (or long-press on mobile) and select "Pin". Pinned chats always appear at the top, sorted by when they were pinned.

Mute a Chat

Right-click and select "Mute" to silence notifications from a chat without leaving it. You will still see unread badges, but no sound or push notifications.

Archive a Chat

Right-click and select "Archive" to hide a chat from your main list. Archived chats are not deleted — you can find them later and unarchive them.

Search Chats

Use the search field at the top of the chat list to filter by chat name. This searches display names of direct chats and group names.

Chat Sorting

Your chat list is sorted automatically:

  1. Pinned chats — always at the top, ordered by pin date
  2. Other chats — ordered by last activity (most recent first)

Next Steps

  • Messaging — send messages, files, reactions, and more
  • Voice Calls — call someone from a direct chat
  • Tasks — manage tasks inside group chats