A channel is a chat for a whole group, such as a team, an age group or the entire club, where the admin decides who can send. Members are added and removed automatically as people join and leave the group, so a channel stays up to date without anyone managing it.
Which communication type is best?
360Player includes a few ways to handle club communications:
Use chats for private and group messaging where everyone can interact
Admins: use channels (this page) if you want to restrict who is allowed to send messages, and to automatically sync channel members based on roles and groups (e.g. "U10s parents and players")
Admins: use posts for static announcements everyone needs to read, like a schedule change or a season plan posted to a group's Wall and the people in the group.
Before you start
Who can create a channel: admins and staff. You'll see New channel next to New chat at the top of your chat list. If you don't, ask a club admin.
Which groups: you can only make a channel for groups you're allowed to add members to.
Size: a channel can have up to 5,000 members.
Create a channel
Navigate to Chat and click New channel.
Under Who it reaches, choose:
This group only, for one team or group.
This group and everything under it, for a group and every group below it, such as the whole club or an academy. Groups added later are included too.
Under Group, tick the group. The channel's Name fills in with the group's name; you can change it.
Under Who is in it, choose Parents, Players and/or Staff and admins. All three are ticked to start with.
Under Who can send messages, turn on the roles that can post. Only Staff and admins is on to start with.
Check the count, for example Adds 48 people, then click Create channel.
The channel opens straight away. Everyone it adds can see it in their chat list, but they aren't notified until the first message is sent.
Note: if you pick This group only and let every role send, you end up with a chat kept in sync with a group, not a channel, and some details are different. Read a note on channels where everyone can send.
Choose who can send
Chat admins can always send. Everyone else can send only if their role is turned on under Who can send messages.
To change it later, open Settings in the channel, choose Who can send messages, change the switches and click Save.
People who can't send see a bar where the message box would be, saying who can, for example Only staff and admins can send messages.
Note: If you add someone by hand whose role on the linked team isn't allowed to send, they can read the channel but not send.
What members can do
Everyone can read, react to messages and vote in polls, even if they can't send.
People who can send can also reply, send photos, files, voice messages and polls, and edit their messages.
Notifications: members are notified of new messages unless they mute the channel. Mentions get through even when it's muted.
Leaving: members can mute the channel or choose Leave chat.
See who has seen your message
Channels don't show ticks. Instead, your latest message shows Seen by how many people out of everyone in the channel, for example Seen by 31 of 48. Click it to see who.
The number updates when you open the channel, not while you're watching it.
Manage members
Anyone can see who's in a channel by clicking the group picture at the top of it. The top also shows how many members it has and which group it's Synced with.
Admins can open Settings > Members and click ... next to a person to Make admin, Remove as admin or Remove from chat. Admins can also Rename the channel and Add members by hand.
People added by the group can't be removed from the channel. Their row says Added by a rule. To take them out, remove them from the group instead.
Organisation admins always stay admins of a channel.
Leave or archive a channel
If you're the only admin and you leave, the channel is archived: everyone can still read it, but nobody can send, and it can't be unarchived. To hand it over, make someone else an admin under Members first.
A note on channels where everyone can send
If you choose This group only and turn on every role under Who can send messages, there's nothing to restrict, so you get a group chat kept in sync with the team instead of a channel. It still adds and removes people automatically, but:
it can have up to 300 members, not 5,000
it has read receipts (ticks) instead of Seen by
it has no Who can send messages setting, so you can't limit sending later
if the last admin leaves, the longest-standing member becomes admin rather than the chat being archived
If you might want to limit who can send later, leave at least one role switched off when you create it.
Troubleshooting
No New channel button. Only admins and staff can create channels. Check you're in the right group (top left), or ask a club admin.
"You can't add members to any group, so there is no group to make a channel for." Your role doesn't let you add members to any group. Ask a club admin to create the channel or change your role.
"Over the limit of X members". The group, roles and reach you chose added too many people. Pick a smaller group, fewer roles, or This group only.
A member can't see the channel. Check they're in the group with one of the roles under Who is in it. Channels only appear in the new chat.
iPhones on iOS 15.4 or newer see the new chat (15.3.1 or older keep the old chat)