3. Group chats

Tact has group chats, or groups, which are a way for more than one person to communicate with each other.

A group chat always has an owner–the person who creates the chat.

Creating a group chat

To create a group chat, select “New Chat”, and then “Create Group Chat”. You just need to give the chat a name, and tap “Create Chat”. You have then created a fresh new group chat, with just yourself as a member.

There’s nothing wrong with having a group chat where you are the only person. Feel free to use it as a scratchpad, and drop your notes and memories there. Often, though, you want to have other people in the group. How you add others depends on the kind of group. There are two kinds of groups in Tact: private, and joinable by link.

Private groups

All groups start out as private groups. They truly are private, and visible only to the members of the group.

The only way to join a private group is by the owner adding you to the group. This means you either already have a 1:1 chat with the owner, or are together in some other group.

To add someone to a private group as an owner, see the current group members by tapping on three dots in top right of the group. You then see the current members, and can tap “Add People” to add people to the group. Tact shows you of all people you known on Tact who are not yet in this group, and you can send an invitation to someone to join the private group. When they receive the invitation, they then need to accept it on their end, and Tact then adds them to the private group.

Joinable groups

When you own a private group, you can convert it to a joinable group by tapping “More”, “Create Group Link” when looking at the group members. Tact then creates a link to join this group, and shows it to you along group members.

The owner can not add people directly to joinable group. Instead, the owner can share the group link with anyone they choose, who can then use the link to directly join the group, without any further approval from the owner.

What you can do in a group

Change group name

Anyone can change the group name. Just long-press (iOS) or right-click (macOS) on the group in the list and select “Rename…”

Change group icon

Groups have an icon that all members see. To change the group icon, just tap on the group title (iOS) or on the dedicated icon button on the toolbar (macOS).

Leave group (member only)

You can always leave a group you don’t wish to be in. Just open group participants and tap “Leave”.

It does not make sense for an owner to leave the group, since a group must always have an owner. The owner can leave the group by deleting the whole group.

Remove a member (owner only)

An owner can remove a member from the group for any reason at any time. Just open the group participants, tap ona participants, and select “Remove from group”.

Delete group (owner only)

An owner can delete the whole group, which permanently deletes it from all members of the group. To delete a group, long-press (iOS) or right-click (macOS) on the group in the chat list, and select “Delete…”