Groups

Your groups and their chats, talking in them, starting a group, inviting people, joining by invitation, and the group's own votes.

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. Some groups hold Beans: a project or an enterprise (see "Projects and enterprises"). The others (a social circle, a working group, a guild) hold none. Being in a group does not change your trust or your vote.

The people who look after a chat group are its convenors; one of them is the lead convenor. They hold no Beans.

Your groups

Tap Talk, then Groups. Every group you are in is listed there, newest message first, with the projects you lead or work on (🎯), the enterprises you keep (🥖) and the events you host or 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. In an encrypted chat the row shows who wrote last and 🔒 Message, not the words.

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.

On the phone, Commons shows Yours at the top of Groups: the enterprises and projects you keep first (with a Manage button to run them), then the groups you are in, opening the same chats.

Starting a group

On the phone, in Talk, under Groups, tap New group. Or tap + on Commons, then Start something and pick Chat group. Both open the Create a Group form.
In the web app, open Commons, then Groups, and tap Start something and pick Chat group. You stay on Commons afterwards. To invite people, open the group and tap Invite people. You can also open Chat, tap Groups, then New group: that takes you straight into the new group's chat.
Every group has a picture: the one for its kind is already chosen, and it follows the Category until you choose one yourself. To pick another, tap Choose another. On the phone it offers your camera, your photos and the ready-made pictures. In the web app it shows the ready-made pictures, and Choose a photo picks one of your own.
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, General, Working Group or Guild. Social Circle is chosen for you.
Choose a Join Policy: Open, Request to Join or Invite Only.
Tap Create Group. You become its lead convenor. On the phone, the app takes you straight into the new group's chat.

You can start up to 5 groups in any 24 hours.

With Beans involved? Start a project or an enterprise instead: tap Start something (on the phone, the round + button) on Commons, then pick Project or Enterprise (or from the link at the bottom of the group form, Start a project or an enterprise →). See "Projects and enterprises".

Inviting people

You can invite people on the phone and in the web app. On the phone, 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). A short key prefix appears under each person's name so you can tell people with the same name apart.
Or tap Not now to skip it.

Later, a convenor can invite people from the chat's ⋮ menu, Invite people. In the web app, a convenor opens the group and taps Invite people, ticks the people, and taps the button at the bottom in the same way. Each person you invite is told: an alert on their phone, "You were invited to join a group.", and a line in Needs you on their Home (on the phone and in the web app, an icon at the top too). No one else gets an alert, not even the group's other members. They also see the group in Commons, under Groups, marked INVITED (on the phone, in a community with no Commons tab, under Find groups in Talk). When they join, the chat says so.

If you take an invitation back and invite the same person again, they get no second alert within the hour. Someone who has blocked you still gets the invitation, with no alert.

The group's chat

On the phone, tap the group's name at the top of the chat to see the group: its members, Leave Group, and for convenors, Convenor Tools. In the web app, tap the group's name at the top of its chat, or open the group from Commons, under Groups.
The ⋮ menu has Invite people (convenors), Mute notifications (or Unmute), Search this chat, Confirm new phone and Group info. The search runs on your phone, not on your community's server.
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 end-to-end encrypted: only the group's members can read it, not the people who run your community's server. Above the message box it says it is End-to-end encrypted. Your community's server still sees who wrote, when, who was mentioned, which message each line answers, the emoji reactions, and which lines are photos and how large each one is.

You see the chat only from the day you joined. Nothing written before is shown, and your phone never holds the key to it. You still see the grey lines from before, but nobody's words or photos.
When someone is removed, or leaves, the group makes a new key. In a group of 10 or more the chat says Securing the chat for N people… while your phone makes it.
A message that cannot be locked is not sent. It shows ! not delivered, and a line above the message box can say why. Tap it to Resend or Discard it.
A message that does not check out as written by a member shows as Unverified, as nobody's, with This message couldn't be verified. A message whose key has not reached your phone yet reads Waiting for the key to this message.
If your community's server is older and cannot lock group chats yet, the chat says the server can read it, and that it will be locked once the server is updated. When it is updated, the group's earlier messages, which the server could read, are removed, and a line in the chat says so. Each earlier message then reads An earlier message was removed when this chat was locked, and several in a row show as one line, such as 11 earlier messages removed when this chat was locked.

In the web app your group chats are in Chat, marked 👥. You can read and write there, end-to-end encrypted as on the phone: reply, react, edit for 15 minutes, delete, remove, mute notifications, search the chat and report someone's message (Report, under it). Tap the group's name at the top of its chat to open the group; a convenor can invite people from there. An enterprise's chat is not encrypted: see "Messages".

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. Photos cannot be 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.
Report (a flag), on anybody else's message. Choose a reason, add a few words if you like, and tap Submit report. Your community's moderators get that one message, with its photo if it has one, and who sent it, and nothing else in the chat. See "Reporting a problem".

Two or more messages in a row that their authors deleted show as one line, such as 3 messages were deleted. Two or more that a convenor removed show as 3 messages removed by a convenor.

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.

In a locked group chat, you can send one photo per message, with or without a caption, on the phone and the web. Photos are made at most 800 px on their longest side. Tap a photo to open it full screen, on the phone and the web. Photos in a group chat are encrypted like the words: only the group's members can open them, and only for the time they were in the group (a newcomer doesn't see photos from before they joined; a removed member sees none from after). A photo that can't be opened, such as one someone else swapped on the server, reads 🔒 Image unavailable. A photo message cannot be edited. It can be deleted like any message (the author; a convenor can remove it), on the phone and the web.

A deal cannot be started in a group's chat: deals belong in a chat between two people. See "Messages".

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

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.

Messages from before you changed phones

When your account moves to a new phone with a new key, the group messages from before were locked to your old phone's key. In each group's chat, a row reads 🔒 N messages from before you changed phones. Unlock →. Tap it:

I have my old phone or old 12 words: type your old 12 words on the new phone, and the earlier messages unlock. Your old phone shows This account moved to a new phone, with a button to show those words behind its lock. They are your own words: type them only into your own new phone, never into a phone someone else holds out.
Ask a member of the group to confirm this phone: your new phone shows a code. Meet a member of the group in person; they open the group's chat menu, tap Confirm new phone and scan it. Their phone hands yours the earlier keys it holds for the groups you share.
Keep them locked: nothing changes. Your own messages from then show under your name, without their words.

When you confirm someone else's new phone, your phone checks the code against what it remembers of that person's old key. Only confirm a new phone for someone you've chatted with in that group before, on this phone, and only with the phone in their hands: whoever holds it can read the earlier messages you can. If your phone says Don't continue; tell an owner, stop. It means what your phone saw before doesn't match what the server says now. It also says that, for good, about someone who changed their name after your phone had seen them: to a phone, a new name on their key looks just like a stranger's name put there, so a phone that saw both names can never confirm them in person again. Their own old 12 words still work, and so does a member whose phone only ever saw the new name. A phone that was just restored from its 12 words, or never opened that group, has seen too little to check: it says it never knew their old key, or it may believe what the server says. Let a member who has been chatting with them confirm instead.

At the end your phone says what happened: Done only when it handed every key across, Handed 3 of 5 when the server refused some. When the server says their new phone already holds some, your phone says the community says so, because it can't see into the other phone: if the new phone still can't read those messages, tell an owner.

Joining a group

In Commons, under Groups, the groups you are in are first under Yours. Below them, the list shows what you could join, with a heading that names what is shown (such as Groups, projects and enterprises here, changing with the chips All, Projects, Enterprises and Chat groups). 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.

On the phone, a group you asked to join is in neither list until a convenor lets you in. On the web it stays in the list marked Pending.

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

On the phone, a local community with no Beans and no Decisions 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 Decisions are on, the Commons tab stays for Decisions and groups. The global community has the Commons tab: its groups are there, under an example from a local community (see "Beans and the global community").

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

When someone invites you to a group, your phone gets an alert, "You were invited to join a group.", and Needs you shows the invitation, on Home and, on the phone and in the web app, as an icon at the top (an envelope). Tap the alert or the line to open the invitation. It stays in Needs you until you join or say no, or the convenor takes it back. The alert comes with your Direct Messages alerts (Chat Messages in the web app's settings), so it doesn't come if you switch those off.

A group you are invited to also shows in Commons, under Groups, marked INVITED. On the phone, in a community with no Commons tab, it is under Find groups in Talk. Tap it to see the invitation: who invited you, what the group is, who is in it (for an invite-only group, how many), and who can read its chat. On the phone:

Tap Join the group. You land in its chat.
Tap Not now to decide later. The invitation stays.
Tap Decline invitation to say no. The app asks once more, then the invitation goes, from Needs you too. Whoever invited you can invite you again.
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.

In the web app, tap the line in Needs you on Home, or the group marked INVITED in Commons, under Groups, and tap Accept invitation. You join it and stay on the group's page. To say no, tap Decline invitation under it.

Posting to a group

On the web, open the group in Commons, under Groups, and tap Post to and its name. The phone app cannot yet post to a group you are already in. 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.

Any convenor can change the group's picture: open the group (on the phone, Group info in its chat's ⋮ menu) and tap Change the picture (in the web app, also Choose a photo). A group always keeps a picture; it can be changed, never removed.

In Convenor Tools, any convenor can:

change the join policy;
Approve or Decline requests to join.

Beside a name in the Roster, any convenor can:

change a member's or an observer's role (Role on the phone, a drop-down in the web app), including making them a convenor;
remove a member or an observer (✕).

A convenor removes a post from the post itself, and a message in the chat. A group's name and description cannot be changed in the app yet.

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. Apart from the lead handing it over, only a vote of the group can choose a new lead. See "Votes in a group".

Handing the lead over. The lead can pass it on. On the phone, tap Hand over in Convenor Tools, or the shield button beside someone's name. In the web app, tap Make lead beside their 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 phone offers you that when you tap Leave Group, and the web app tells you to. 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. After 30 days with no activity from the lead, the group has a second way to vote a new lead in. (Its members can also vote for a new lead at any time, except on the global community: see "Votes in a group".) 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 it passes, the old lead stays a convenor when the other convenors voted, and becomes a member when the members voted. If the quiet lead comes back and does anything in the app, the vote closes at once. On the phone, with notifications allowed, just opening the app counts. 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".

While the group is voting on a new lead. Whether it is this vote or one of the group's own votes below, no convenor can remove the person it may make the lead, or lower their role, until the vote closes. The app says so in its own words. They can still leave by themselves, and a vote of the group can still remove them.

Votes in a group

A group's members can vote together on the group's own things. Open the group (on the phone, tap its name at the top of its chat; on the web, open it in Commons, under Groups): its votes are under Decisions, high on the page. Only the people in the group see them.

On the global community a group has no votes of its own and no Propose a vote; only the quiet-lead vote works there.

Tap Propose a vote and choose what should happen:

Choose a new lead convenor: anyone in the group but an observer, yourself included.
Make someone a convenor, or Make a convenor a member. A vote never changes the lead's role; to change the lead, vote for a new one.
Remove someone from the group. Not the lead, and not yourself: to go, leave the group.
Change who can join: open to anyone, people ask and a convenor lets them in, or by invitation only.
Close the group. Its chat stays to read, but it takes no new messages, posts or members, and its other open votes end. Its posts come down from the Market.

Give it a title and say why, then tap Open the vote. A vote never moves Beans: a group holds none. Nor can it change anyone's standing in the community; that takes a community Decision.

Who votes. Everyone who was a member or a convenor of the group when the vote opened, the lead and the person who proposed it included. Observers watch: they see the votes but have no Yes or No. Someone who joins after a vote opens is not on it. A group of one has nobody to vote with, so there is no Propose a vote button then. You can have one open vote of your own in a group at a time.

How it passes. More than half of those on the vote must vote. Removing someone and closing the group need 60% Yes; the rest need more than half. A vote runs 7 days, or ends sooner once the answer can't change. When it passes, the app carries it out by itself. A new lead, a role change, a removal or a closing shows in the chat as a small grey line; a new join rule shows on the group's page.

What you see. While a vote is open, everyone sees how many have voted, not how. Yes and No show once it closes. A vote can't be changed once cast. Nobody sees who voted how. In a very small group, though, the result and who has voted can show it: if three people all vote and it ends 3–0, everyone knows how everyone voted.

Being told. Everyone on the vote but the person who proposed it gets one notification when it opens, unless they muted the group's chat or turned chat notifications off. It names no person and no group: it says A vote opened in one of your groups. Tap it and the group opens on its Decisions. On Home, an open vote you haven't cast shows under Needs you and opens the group too.

When people come and go. Someone who leaves the group during a vote leaves the vote, and their vote goes with them. Someone a convenor removes, or makes an observer, during a vote stays on it: they keep the vote they cast, and can still vote if they haven't. Removing people is never a way to swing a vote. If fewer than two people are left on it, the vote ends without an answer.

A closed group says Closed on its page, with the line "The group was closed by its members' vote. Its chat stays to read." Its chat, its votes and who was in it stay there to read; nothing new can be added.

Coming soon

Removing a rogue lead convenor by a community Decision. Coming in a later update.
Marking invitations on the web list of groups.

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 162.