Group Chat for Communities
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Daniel Fundi Ndaya
Hey GHL team — I wanted to share an idea that could seriously level up the Communities feature.
Right now, Communities is great for structured posts and announcements, but what it’s really missing is a real-time group chat option, like WhatsApp or Telegram groups. Posts are awesome for updates, but people crave fast, casual, and personal conversations too — and that’s where chat shines.
To give you some context, over 70% of WhatsApp users open the app daily, and group chats usually get replies in under 2 minutes. Compare that to post-based platforms where comments often come in hours later, if at all. When you’ve got people in a community, having both options — posts for announcements and a chat for conversations — keeps everyone way more active and connected.
Use cases would be things like quick class coordination, real-time Q&As, live event chats, polls, or just letting members casually bond. I’ve seen this work wonders in education groups, coaching programs, and membership sites. Fun fact — communities with real-time chats see twice the daily active users compared to those with just posts
Adding chat inside Communities would give GHL users a full package — organized content through posts and instant, lively engagement through chats — making it super easy to build tight-knit, responsive, and profitable communities.
Would love to see this happen!
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Laurie Miggins
Yesssssssa a dynamic multiple person DM chat would be HUGE for my clients!
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Akinlolu Abdulmuqeet
This is a very solid idea. Communities would be far more engaging with a real-time chat layer alongside posts. Posts work well for announcements, but chat is what drives daily interaction, faster replies, and stronger member relationships. Having both in one place would make Communities feel complete and significantly increase retention and daily activity.
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Courtney Waters
Yessss we really really need this. It would be a game changer and such a level up on Skool. We're using patreon right now because of the chat functions. If GHL had group chats, we'd be on GHL with over 1,000 members...
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Keith Besherse
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Keith Besherse
Why is Facebook removing this function? If their data indicates it isn't valuable/healthy then why should we ask HighLevel to create it? https://ideas.gohighlevel.com/communities/p/live-chat-for-communities
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Dhavalkumar Rana
yes Please if you created the group chat in the Community that will be perfect.
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Orinthia Duncan
This would be great... I have a VIP group chat on FB messenger I would love to transition over to HL Communities.
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Keith Besherse
Orinthia Duncan How is this change by Meta affecting you?
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Kristine L'Estrange
Orinthia Duncan Me too!
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Saif Al Azawi
we are using telegram but it is not something that i would recommend, hopefully GHL team create group chat for community
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Keith Besherse
I am not visualizing what this would look like. Do you have an image or example? How would this be different than the channels we currently have?
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Daniel Fundi Ndaya
Keith Besherse There are two options: Either we add a button up top or they give us the ability to create sub channels where we can choose the channel type, like Circle
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Keith Besherse
Daniel Fundi Ndaya, Thank you for the interface suggestions. And, what is different in a Channel Chat / Group Chat? Please expain it like I’m 50! I remember the chaos of “chat rooms.” I can imagine the value of the engagement in your description. I am concerned about the ability to moderate the discussion. Especially since the suggestions that we need a third tier group member (below community admin but higher than collaborator/contributor) don’t seem to be getting traction.
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Keith Besherse
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Keith Besherse
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Keith Besherse
I am convinced that until this issue with the Kollab app is resolved nothing else in Communities matters: https://ideas.gohighlevel.com/communities/p/switch-between-communities-and-courses-on-mobile-site
Shivam HighLevel Core Platform Sales & Marketing Nilasish Pal
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Daniel Fundi Ndaya
Keith Besherse Channel Chat and Group Chats are just suggestions. But the main diffrenece would be:
Channel Chat: A Group Chat for that particular channel. Everything that is spoken in that channel is about that channel
A Group chat (I assume you are reffering to the one under a channel, as a sub-channel) is just a type of sub-channel...There could be a post type sub-channel, or group chat type sub-channel or a poll sub-channel
Both are just suggested views
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Keith Besherse
Daniel Fundi Ndaya, I don’t understand your suggestion. I am not a WhatsApp user. So maybe I simply don’t have the frame of reference for what you are suggesting. If you are suggesting what I think you are suggesting, and if it would have the effect you expect, it is something I would agree to. You showed a couple ways to make the user interface. Can you show me what it would look like once someone opens that interface? What does it look like inside a “group chat”?
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Daniel Fundi Ndaya
Keith Besherse Here is an example of the whatsapp UI on dektop, green is you, white is everyone else
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Keith Besherse
Daniel Fundi Ndaya, okay. You are showing a one2one chat.
They already gave that to us! But only in Client Club & branded Communities, not in the public Kollab mode.
If it is multiple people in the same chat, would it have threaded comments? How many levels?
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Daniel Fundi Ndaya
Keith Besherse No the one above is a whatsapp group, not one on one...And yes it has a threaded comment, rather "reply"
Whatsapp's UI is the best chat platform UI there is out there, there is nothing that compares, not even slack can compare, that's why it's the world's most used chat platform
You should try downloading it
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Keith Besherse
Daniel Fundi Ndaya I am not giving people my real phone number!
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Daniel Fundi Ndaya
Keith Besherse You can use a GHL phone number. But even so, that's more the reason why we need communities Group chat, it just gets higher engagements than the current forum based chat
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Kristine L'Estrange
Keith Besherse It's for group chat rather than discussion board channels.
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Keith Besherse
Private Chat is now available on Kollab too!
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Keith Besherse
Kristine L'Estrange Why does everyone use circular descriptions? Would you please teach me what "group chat" means to you? I only think I understand. I am asking someone to clarify how it will be different than the current post and comments format. In what way does it change the nature of what is still an asynchronous conversation?
Here is the important question: How does the chaos of a chat room help your use case?
HighLevel has already given us WhatsApp in the Conversation tab. So, this isn't a request for a WhatsApp replacement; WhatsApp is being used as an example. I understand that. What I see is the introduction of chaos. I am asking why you all want it. How does it improve participation in your community?
Daniel Fundi Ndaya showed two interface options (sub-channel for each channel if enabled by group admin or a separate master chat channel). But I am still not visualizing what it would look like or how you would moderate it in your community. (After it is active either as a sub-channel or as a master chat channel which seems like it is simply a less structured version of what we already have).
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Kristine L'Estrange
Keith Besherse end result is a HUGE increase in engagement.
What is a group chat?
It's simply a chat with more than one person, just like a DM but with multiple people. I'm in a lot of HighLevel ones on Facebook and What's app, and we often engage in there more than in our communitites regardless to wether the community sits on gokollab or facebook. Its a really great way to connect. Must be a melenial thing. It's very powerful if you run communitites for yourself of clients.