Messaging and safeguarding

The chats you are in

The Messages tab groups conversations under Club, Grades, Squads, Groups and Direct messages, unread first. You are placed in the right ones automatically, from your role, grade and side — there is nothing to join.

Messages never leave your club: there is no way for a member of one club to see or message another club’s conversations.

Starting a group chat

1. On Messages tap Group.

2. Give it a Chat name, then under Who’s in it type names and tap each to add them. Coaches and administrators on the Championship plan can add A whole squad at once.

3. Tap Start the chat. Add or remove people later from the people icon in the chat header — the person who started the group, and administrators, can do that.

Anyone except a parent or guardian can start a group chat. A group can be closed by whoever started it, or by an administrator, with CLOSE then SURE?; the messages are kept.

Private messages Club plan

Tap + on Messages, find the member and tap their name. Each person’s row shows their role and squad — and, for a young member, that a guardian will be copied in. Under your own messages you will see Sent, Read or Read by everyone.

If a conversation will not open, the card Can’t open that chat names the reason: one of you has blocked the other; the person is under 18 with no parent linked and there is no administrator to copy in; or your club is on the Starter plan, where Club Chat and the grade chats are the club’s rooms.

Under-18 protection

One rule, enforced by the app rather than by convention: an adult and a member under 18 are never alone in a conversation.

• A private message between an adult and an under-18 always includes the young member’s linked parent or guardian — or a club administrator if no parent is linked — and a banner in the thread says who is there.
• If nobody can be included, the conversation does not open at all.
• The same applies in group chats: never fewer than two adults where a young member is present.
• Two members under 18 messaging each other is ordinary.
• Nobody is hidden. Everyone in a conversation can see everyone else in it, from the people icon in the header.

The app knows who is under 18 from the Year of birth on a member’s profile, which is why joining asks for it. Administrators link guardians under Admin→Members & roles→Link a guardian, and the screen names any young member with nobody linked.

The protection is on by default, at Admin→Club settings→Under-18 messaging protection. The app explains the safeguarding guidance before letting anyone switch it off — the club, not the app, owns that decision, and it is not a decision to take quietly.

Reporting and blocking

1. Tap someone else’s message and choose Report this message.

2. Pick a reason: bullying or harassment, inappropriate for young members, spam, or something else. Reports go to the club’s administrators only.

3. The same sheet has Block {name}, which stops that person messaging you privately. In a direct message, BLOCK in the header does the same and UNBLOCK undoes it.

What administrators see

Administrators see reported messages, and nothing else that is private. Admin→Reported messages shows the message, who sent it, who reported it and why, with Dealt with and No action. A coach or administrator can close a grade or squad chat, and removing a member ends their access to every channel immediately.

Notifications

Three switches under More→Your profile→Notifications: Messages, Schedule and Club updates. Tap a notification and it opens the chat, activity or boat it is about. Notifications are delivered by the phone app — the browser version saves the switches but does not deliver them.

Messages in the full guide

Common questions