If your company includes multiple roles, teams, or departments, you may want to control who users can start chat conversations with. For example, in a restaurant, you might want waiters to chat only with other waiters, and cooks to chat only with other cooks.
Using Private Chat Settings, you can restrict users from starting new chats unless they share the same Dropdown Custom Field option. Owners can also choose whether this restriction applies only to regular users or to both regular users and admins, giving you tighter control over who can create new chat conversations.
What are Custom Fields and How to Set Them Up?
Custom Fields are a smart way to identify and group your workforce. Custom Fields can be anything from T-shirt size to position, department, or birthday.
Please note: Only Dropdown Custom Fields apply to Chat settings.
To set up a Dropdown Custom Field
Navigate to a user’s profile.
Click the Settings icon in the top-right corner.
In the Employee details menu, click + Add Field.
Select Dropdown.
Enter the field name and create the options you want this field to include.
Once you have created a custom field for one user that custom field will be added to every one of your user's profiles. You will only need to update it. Take a look at how this looks below!
💡Tip: If you are still unsure how to set up drop-down custom fields, have a look here.
Now that you know what the Custom Fields are and how to set them, let's get started on setting up your chat settings!
Activating the Chat and Finding the Chat Settings
To activate Chat
Navigate to the left sidebar.
Enter Company Chat.
Click Activate Chat.
4. In Company Chat, click the three dots in the top-left corner.
5. Click Chat settings.
In Chat settings, you’ll see multiple options. To limit who users can start conversations with, use:
Users can’t start chat conversations with other users unless they have the same option
When this setting is enabled, users can only start chats with other users who share the same Custom Field option (for example, the same Position). Owners can also restrict admins from creating new conversations when this option is enabled, so only permitted users can initiate chats.
To limit chat creation using a Custom Field
Open Company Chat.
Click the three dots (top-left).
Select Chat settings.
Under Private Chat Settings, enable Users can’t start chat conversations with other users unless they have the same option.
In the dropdown, select the Custom Field you want to use (for example, Position).
(Optional) If available in your account, choose whether this restriction applies to admins as well.
Once enabled, users can only start chats with other users who match the selected Custom Field option. For example, bartenders can chat only with bartenders, and waiters only with waiters.
Take a look at the example below where I set my chat settings to be Users can’t start chat conversations with other users unless they have the same Position.
Pro Tip: To learn more about the different chat settings check out this article.
Use Case Examples
Now that you have the idea, let's go over a few examples you may want to use in your company.
Example 1: Allow only users from the same branch.
To set this up we will first need to make sure we create a drop-down Custom Field called Branch, and that each user profile has this Custom Field filled out. We will set this up the same way we did above with our Position Custom Field only this time it will be called Branch and contain branch options.
Then we will go to our chat settings, to the private chat settings, and set them to be Users can’t start chat conversations with other users unless they have the same Branch.
Example 2: Allowing only those with the same position and branch to chat.
First, we will make sure we have created two drop-down Custom Fields named Position and Branch as we did above. Then we will make sure both of these fields are set inside the with the relevant options.
We will then go to our chat settings, to the private chat settings, and set them to be Users can’t start chat conversations with other users unless they have the same, Position and Branch Custom Field options.
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