Chat (BuddyPress)
Private conversations between your members, as a native chat screen.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”| Plugin | BuddyPress, with the Private Messages component enabled |
| Endpoint groups | BuddyPress Messages and BuddyPress Members |
| Plan | Every plan |
BuddyPress ships Private Messages switched off. Turn it on under Settings → BuddyPress → Components, or the card stays greyed out.
The BuddyPress Members group is needed too: starting a conversation begins by searching for people, and that search is the member directory’s.
What members can do
Section titled “What members can do”See their conversations, open one and reply, and start a new one — the + on
the list searches for people and drops them straight into the conversation once
the first message sends. Several people can be picked at once, because a
BuddyPress thread takes as many recipients as you give it.
Inside a conversation they can star it to find it again, mark it unread to keep it in view, and leave it. Leaving removes only them — everyone else keeps the thread, which is how BuddyPress itself behaves.
Emoji are in the composer, the same set the other chat screens use.
Live delivery
Section titled “Live delivery”With Realtime switched on for the site, new messages arrive without the member pulling to refresh, and a typing indicator shows when the other person is writing. Without Realtime the conversation still works exactly as it does — it never shows the typing line, and the list refreshes on its own timer instead.
Push notifies members of new messages when the app is closed. Tapping one opens that conversation rather than the list. Several messages from the same person collapse into one notification.
Settings
Section titled “Settings”Search box — let members search their conversations.
Starring — offer the star, and the starred filter on the list. It has an effect only where BuddyPress’s own Star feature is switched on; where it is not, the screen hides both rather than offering a control that does nothing.
Typing indicator — show when the other person is writing. Needs Realtime.
What it does not have
Section titled “What it does not have”No message reactions, read receipts, blocking or moderation. BuddyPress has no data model for any of them, so the screen does not draw a control that could not work. If you need those, Chat (Ultimate Member) has reactions and blocking, and Chat (Better Messages) adds group management and moderation on top.
Three chat features, one app
Section titled “Three chat features, one app”BuddyPress chat, Chat (Ultimate Member) and Chat (Better Messages) are three separate systems with separate data, and all three can be placed in the same app. Each has its own realtime channel and its own push, so they do not interfere.
Think before you do, though: a member with two chat tabs has two unrelated inboxes and no way to tell which one a message will arrive in. Place more than one only when the site genuinely runs the plugins for different audiences.