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 another user from the list. Your own account is not shown in the normal direct-chat picker. 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:
- Name your group — enter a group name (required), then click Continue. This is visible to all members.
- Add members — select users to add. You can go Back to edit the name, or create an empty group and add members later.
Once created, you are automatically the group's creator.
New chat and new group dialogs keep keyboard focus inside the dialog while open. Press Escape or use the close button to return focus to the button that opened the dialog.
Dialog and Panel Behavior
New chat, New group, profile, and group panel overlays keep focus inside the active overlay. Press Escape or use the visible close/cancel control to close the top one; focus returns to the button or item that opened it.
Managing a Group
Group settings are accessed through four controls in the chat header:
- Use the group avatar button — to upload a new group photo (a camera icon appears on hover)
- Use the group name button — to rename it inline (a pencil icon appears on hover)
- Click the bell icon — to set message, task, call, and preview notification rules for this chat
- Click the people icon (Members button) — to open Group settings with Overview, Actions, Notifications, Members, and Danger zone sections
Group Avatar
Hover over or focus the group avatar button in the chat header — a camera icon appears. Activate 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
Activate the group name button 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 Group settings (people icon). In the Overview section, use the explicit Edit button next to Description, then Save or Cancel. This is useful for explaining the group's purpose to new members.
Adding Members
In the Members section, click "Add member" (+ icon). A user list appears — click a user to add them to the group. The member search field is always visible and filters by display name or username.
Removing Members
In the Members section, each member row is a keyboard-accessible profile button. Group creators and admins also see a remove button for other members; click it and confirm to remove them.
Leaving a Group
In the Danger zone section, click "Leave group". A confirmation dialog appears. Your previous messages remain visible to other members.
Muting, Pinning, Archiving
The Actions section has buttons for mute, pin, archive, and the group task toggle — same chat-list actions plus the task control.
Enabling Tasks
In Group settings, use the Actions section to enable or disable the Tasks tab. Set your task notification level from the header bell menu, or from the "Notification settings" button in the Notifications section. See Tasks for details.
Chat Notification Controls
Use the bell icon in the chat header, or the "Notification settings" button in Group settings, to open one labeled notification menu. It controls whether messages notify for all messages, mentions only, or none; whether task notifications are all, assigned only, or none in group chats; whether calls are allowed or muted; and whether notification previews inherit your global setting, stay private, show only the sender, or show full content. Changes save immediately.
The notification menu and group panel do not stay open together. Opening the group panel closes the notification menu, Escape closes the top open menu or panel, and focus returns to the header control you used.
Organizing Your Chat List
Each chat row has a more-actions button. It appears on hover or keyboard focus on desktop, and stays visible on touch-sized screens. Right-click still works. Keyboard users can also focus a chat and press the Context Menu key or Shift+F10.
Pin a Chat
Open chat actions from the more-actions button, right-click, or keyboard shortcut and select "Pin". Pinned chats always appear at the top, sorted by when they were pinned.
Mute a Chat
Open chat actions and select "Mute" to silence normal message and task notifications from a chat without leaving it. You will still see unread badges. Mentions and incoming calls use their own urgent rules, which you can fine-tune from the bell menu.
Archive and Unarchive a Chat
Open chat actions and select "Archive" to hide it from the main Chats view. Use the "Archived" toggle beside chat search to switch to archived chats. From there, open the same chat actions and choose "Unarchive" to return it to Chats. Archived chats are hidden, not deleted.
Chat and message context menus can be opened by mouse, touch, or keyboard context-menu shortcuts. While a menu is open, arrow keys move through its actions and Escape closes only the top open menu.
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 only; use the search icon inside a chat to search message content.
Chat Sorting
Your chat list is sorted automatically:
- Pinned chats — always at the top, ordered by pin date
- 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