Groups

Your groups and their chats, talking in them, starting a group, inviting people, and joining by invitation.

What a group is

A group is a place for some people rather than everyone: your street, a garden crew, a choir, a guild. Every group has its own chat. Groups do not hold beans. Being in one does not change your trust or your vote.

Your groups

Tap Talk, then Groups. Every group you are in is listed there, newest message first, with the enterprises you keep (🥖) and the events you are going to (📅). An enterprise's chat is its public discussion: any member of your community can read it. See "Messages". Each shows its latest message and how many you have not read.

The number on Groups at the top adds up your unread messages, except in chats you have muted.
Tap a group to open its chat. That marks it read.
Pull the list down to refresh it.

The same list is in Commons, under Groups, as Your groups, without the unread numbers. It opens the same chats.

Starting a group

In Talk, under Groups, tap New group. Or in Commons, under Groups, tap the round + button. Both open the same Create a Group form.
Give it a Group Name, up to 60 characters, and, if you like, a Purpose / Description, up to 300: what the group is for and who it is for.
Choose a Category: Social Circle is chosen for you; the others are General, Working Group, Project Team and Guild.
Choose a Join Policy: Open, Request to Join or Invite Only.
Tap Create Group. You become its lead convenor, and the app takes you straight into the new group's chat.

Running something together, with beans involved? Tap Start an enterprise at the bottom of the categories instead. See "Enterprises".

Inviting people

A new group's chat asks Who do you want to invite?

Tap Invite people, tick the people you want, and tap the button at the bottom (for example Invite 2 people).
Or tap Not now to skip it.

Later, a convenor can invite people from the chat's ⋮ menu, Invite people. Each person you invite sees the group in Commons, under Groups, marked INVITED (on the global community, under Find groups in Talk). When they join, the chat says so.

The group's chat

Tap the group's name at the top of the chat to see the group: its members, Leave Group, and for convenors, Convenor Tools.
The ⋮ menu has Invite people (convenors), Mute notifications and Group info.
Joins, leaves and role changes show in the chat as small grey lines.
Write @ and someone's name to alert them. See "Mentions".
The newest message sits just above the message box, and stays there when the keyboard opens. Scroll up to read back; a new message arriving then waits for you rather than dragging you down.

A group's chat is not end-to-end encrypted. Its members and the people who run your community's server can read it. The chat says so above the message box. Private things belong in a chat between two people.

Talking in a group's chat

A group's chat works exactly like a chat with one person. Tap a message and small round buttons appear beside it:

Reply quotes it above what you write next. Tap the quote to jump back to what it answers.
React opens seven emojis. One each; tap it again to take it back. The reactions show as a badge under the message.
Edit, on your own messages, for 15 minutes. The message then shows edited.
Delete, on your own messages, at any time. It asks Delete for everyone? once, and the message then reads This message was deleted to everyone in the group.
Remove, for convenors, on anybody else's message. It asks once, and the message then reads Removed by a convenor. Your own message is a Delete, not a Remove.

Under your own message: a clock while it is sending, a tick once the group's server has it, or ! not delivered if it could not be sent — tap that to Resend or Discard it. There are no blue double ticks in a group: a group has no single reader.

Photos cannot be sent in a group's chat, and a deal cannot be started in one. Both belong in a chat between two people. See "Messages".

An observer can read the chat but not write in it, react or reply.

Your community's server needs to be up to date for reply, reactions, edit and delete. Only if yours is not does the app say Not available on this community yet — that one is worth taking to whoever looks after the server.

Anything else the server turns down, it turns down in its own words, and the app shows you those words rather than that line. "A removed message cannot be edited" means a convenor removed it while you were typing, not that your server is behind.

Joining a group

In Commons, under Groups, Groups you could join lists the groups you are not in. Filter them by kind with the buttons above the list. Each one shows the start of its description. Open a group to read all of it, then:

Join Group if it is open to anyone;
Request to Join if a convenor approves members. You see Request Pending Approval until they do.

An Invite Only group is hidden from everyone who is not in it or invited to it.

The global community has no Commons tab. There, tap Talk, then Groups, then Find groups: it opens the same list. Before you are in any group, the link is Find a group to join.

If a convenor removed you from a group, you cannot join it again by yourself.

While your account is suspended, you cannot start a group, join one, ask to join one, or accept an invitation, and a convenor cannot approve a request you made before. The groups you are already in stay yours. When the suspension ends, you can start or join groups again.

Joining by invitation

A group you are invited to shows in Commons, under Groups, marked INVITED. On the global community it is under Find groups in Talk. Tap it to see the invitation: who invited you, what the group is, who is in it, and that its chat is not private.

Tap Join the group. You land in its chat.
Tap Not now to decide later. The invitation stays.
If it says This invitation is no longer open, it was withdrawn. Ask whoever invited you to invite you again.
If it says Couldn't open this group, your phone could not reach your community's server. Tap Try again.

Posting to a group

Tap the group's name at the top of its chat, then Post to and its name. Only the group's members see the post. It shows in the Market with a lock and the group's name.

Convenors and the lead convenor

A convenor looks after the group. Whoever created it is its lead convenor, and the group's card names them, as Lead convenor: Ali. In the members list their row is marked LEAD.

Under Convenor Tools, any convenor can:

change the join policy;
Approve or Decline requests to join;
change a member's or an observer's role — including making them a convenor;
remove a member or an observer;
remove a post or a message;
edit the group.

Only the lead convenor can remove a convenor, or take the convenor role off someone. Beside a row you cannot act on, no Role or ✕ is shown at all — that is the app telling you it is not yours to do.

Nobody can remove the lead convenor, or take the lead off them. Not another convenor, and not a community admin.

Handing the lead over. The lead can pass it on: Hand over in Convenor Tools, or the shield button beside someone's name. Choose another convenor, or a member — a member becomes a convenor at the same time. An observer cannot be the lead; make them a member or a convenor first. Once it is done, you cannot take the lead back.

Leaving as the lead. Hand the lead over first; the app offers you that when you tap Leave Group. If nobody else is in the group, you can simply leave.

The last convenor cannot step down or leave while anyone else is still in the group.

While a convenor is suspended. If your community suspends a convenor's account, none of the convenor tools work for them until the suspension ends: approving, inviting, changing roles, removing people, posts or messages, editing the group, handing the lead over. The app says their account is suspended and that they are still a convenor. Nothing is taken from them: they stay a convenor, the lead stays the lead, and it all works again the moment the suspension ends. They can still leave the group, unless they lead it and anyone else is still in it.

The group carries on meanwhile. Its members keep chatting and posting, and people can still join an open group. Any other convenor can still do everything above; only the lead's own powers wait. Requests to join and new invitations wait for a convenor. Anyone can still report a post or a person to your community's moderators. If the suspended convenor is the group's only convenor, they are its lead, and nothing they do while suspended counts as activity: 30 days after they were last active, the group can vote a new lead in, as below.

When the lead goes quiet. Nobody can take the lead off the lead, so a lead who stops using the app would leave the group stuck. After 30 days with no activity from them, the group can vote a new lead in instead. Open the group and look just above the Roster: a panel appears there naming the lead and how long they have been away. Nothing shows while a group's lead is active — apart from one line saying how the last vote ended, which stays for two weeks after it closes.

Who votes is the group's other convenors — or its members, when none of the other convenors was made a convenor by the day the lead was last active. Anyone who joined the group, or was made a convenor, after that day has no part in the vote. Any of those who vote can tap Propose beside a name in that panel, including their own; proposing counts as that person's Yes. Everyone who can vote then sees Yes and No. You are asked to confirm, because a vote cannot be changed, and you only ever see the totals — never who voted which way. The vote runs for 14 days and passes when more than half of those who answer say Yes. If the quiet lead comes back and does anything in the app, the vote closes at once. While the lead's account is suspended, nothing they do counts. Observers can see the panel but have no vote, and neither does the quiet lead.

The full rules are in "Rules and how decisions work", under "A quiet lead convenor".

Coming soon

Removing a rogue lead convenor by a community Decision. Coming in a later update.
Groups in the web app. Today the new Groups list, chats and invitations are in the phone app.

The same guide is in the BeanPool app, and works there without a connection: open Settings, then "Help & how it works" under BeanPool. Every other rule, guide and manual is in the Help Centre. Guide version 112.