Here’s how to create and manage your group chat on Twitter.
How to Create a Group Chat on Twitter
To create a group chat, simply create a DM with multiple recipients. Click the Messages tab, and then the Write a Message button or icon. Select multiple users from the list of suggested recipients, or by typing their username in the search bar. Once you send the first message to this list of people, your group chat will be created!
You can add anyone who follows you and has DMs enabled. Adding a new member won’t work if that person has anyone in the group chat blocked, or if any existing participants have the new potential member blocked. Once added, anyone in the group can add an account that follows them, even if they aren’t the creator or administrator of the group.
Groups can grow exponentially this way with very little input or effort from the original creator—a small family or friend group chat can become a fast-paced chatroom with up to 50 people almost overnight.
It’s polite to ask people in an individual DM if they’d like to be included in your group chat before adding them. Being thrown in a group chat unexpectedly, especially a busy one with a lot of messages posted each day, can feel a little overwhelming.
Group chats function in the same way as classic DMs, giving you the ability to share photos, videos, GIFs, and voice messages to a more private audience. You can use reactions to your heart’s content within the confines of a private conversation, and you’ll have the thumbs up, thumbs down, heart, sad, laugh, surprise, and fire emojis to choose from.
Customizing Your Twitter Group Chat
You can add a name to your group as well as a profile picture to act as an icon for the chat in your inbox. While viewing your chat, click the information symbol in the top right corner. You’ll be taken to a group info page where you can add more members, snooze notifications, or leave the group. Clicking the Edit button will allow you to rename your group or change the group photo.
Any member of the group can change the name or group photo at any time, which can sometimes be a humorous way to reference the daily topic of conversation or debate. Remember that this image will represent the group chat in each member’s inbox, so it’s best to keep it something easily identifiable.
How to Remove Members From Twitter Group Chats
Currently, you are only able to remove members from your group chat on the mobile app. On both iOS and Android, tap the Info icon in the top-right corner of the group chat to open the Info page. Under the People section, select People, then tap the three-dot icon in the top corner and select Remove People. Simply tap the X next to a member’s name to remove them from the chat.
If you find there is an account spamming or sending inappropriate messages, there is a way to remove members without having administrative rights to the group chat. Blocking or soft blocking a Twitter account will remove it from any shared group chats, leaving a message behind in the chat that reads that they have left. It’s a bit sneaky, but a very handy tool for removing spammers and hacked accounts.
Leaving or Deleting a Twitter Group Chat
Just like how deleting a Twitter DM will not delete the chat history from the recipient’s device, truly deleting a Twitter group chat is not an option. Any participant can leave the group chat at any time, including the group chat creator or administrator, but the group chat will stay active for all remaining members and the chat history will remain visible to them.
If you’d like the chat history to be cleared from other devices, you can add encourage all members to leave the group chat—or remove them manually. Of course, you can never be sure what was saved or captured in a screenshot, so it’s always best to assume what you say in private group chats could be made public at any time.
How to Disable Twitter Group Chat Notifications
Group chats with a lot of participants can see messages posted almost constantly, day or night. Leaving notifications on for a busy group chat could mean a buzzing phone all day, every day. To preserve your sanity and stay focused, it’s a good idea to pause group notifications or mute them indefinitely.
On the group chat information page, you’ll see the option to snooze notifications and mentions. Toggling either option will give you the ability to snooze notifications for one hour, eight hours, one week, or forever. Keep in mind that your friends may leave their notifications off but mentions on, so it’s polite to reserve mentions for when you really need their attention!
A More Responsive Way to Interact on Twitter
Group chats are an easy, responsive way to interact with your followers on Twitter. For people who use Twitter as their primary social media or news aggregator, it can be extremely helpful to be able to consolidate group chats for friends and family in one simple app.
As Twitter seems to move toward more social community building with new features like Twitter Circle and Spaces, group chats may take on a larger role for people looking to really connect with others in a more organic conversational style. With no character limit, a bit of privacy, and the ability to share tweets and other media, it’s easy to get distracted chatting with friends and forget to scroll your Twitter timeline at all.
