Community chats (Closed beta)

What is a community chat?

A community chat is a space for group conversation among your Patreon community, helping you foster deeper connections among your members beyond the comment section. These improved chat features make it easier than ever to connect with your members and allow them to build relationships with one another.

Community chats availability

Community chats are in early testing and are expected to be rolled out to creators on an ongoing basis. These features are available on the mobile app only!

You can download the latest version of the Patreon app below:

To access community chats, the following requirements must be met:

• Creators whose work is categorized as Adult content must complete ID verification
• Creators must have a paid membership tier (Community chats are not yet available if you let your members join for free)

Community chats are still in early testing. Meeting the requirements mentioned above does not guarantee immediate access to community chats. Instead, it ensures they can be enabled on your page when they are gradually introduced. There is no need to take any action at this time to access community chats.

Using community chats

Get started

If you have access to community features (early access), you can enable community chats by following the steps below:

1. Go to the Patreon mobile app (Android or IOS) and tap the Chat/Messaging icon from the bottom app menu
2. You’ll find an existing default chat for your creator page. Tap on the chat to write your first message to your members
3. Click the Continue button to agree with the chat guidelines

Create a chat

You can create up to 4 chat spaces, customizing them by name, topic, emoji, and they can even be gated to specific tiers.

1. Go to the Patreon mobile app (Android or IOS) and tap the Chat/Messaging icon from the bottom app menu
2. Select the New chat (+) button to create a new chat space
3. Customize your chat! Pick an emoji, choose a name, and select who can access that chat

Your new chat will show up on your Chats tab.

Chat with your members

There are several ways you and your members can interact with each other through chats:

• Start/reply to a thread – Both you and your members can start and reply to a thread. To do this, simply press and hold the message you want and click on Reply in thread
  
  
• React to messages – You and your members can react to chat messages by pressing and holding a message until you see the option to add a reaction with an emoji
  
  
• Share photos directly from your device – You and your members can share photos directly from your device by clicking on the image icon at the bottom left corner when writing a message
  
  
• Share previews of your Patreon posts – Whenever you share a direct link to a Patreon post, it will automatically generate a preview, giving your members a glimpse of the post

Some ideas on how you can use your chats

• Let your audience get to know you: Enjoy direct, immediate communication with your community! Offer a Q+A or AMA to share more about yourself and your work
• Get to know your audience: Ask questions about your audience… likes, dislikes, content recommendations! Try an icebreaker like
  • If you could have dinner with 3 people living or dead, who would you choose?
  • What’s one thing you want to accomplish in your lifetime?
  • What’s one great piece of advice you’ve gotten, and who gave it to you?
  • What’s something you hope to get out of this community?
• Let your audience get to know each other: Encourage patrons to introduce themselves to one another so that they can connect and engage!
• Share content: Promote new and upcoming content! Generate audience excitement for what is to come and receive feedback on the latest
• Develop a routine: Spark a weekly trend! For example, ask your community to share something they’re grateful for on Wednesdays

Managing community chats

Edit your chat

1. Go to the Patreon mobile app (Android or IOS) and click the Chat/Messaging icon from the bottom app menu
2. From this page, click on the chat you want to edit
3. Click on the chat name at the top, which will take you to that chat’s settings page
4. Select the three dots button (...) at the top right corner and click on Edit chat – You can edit:
   • The chat emoji
   • The chat name
   • Who can access that chat
5. When you’re done, don’t forget to click on Save at the top right corner

Disable notifications

You can disable all notifications for a particular chat. Note that this will disable the notifications for you and not for your members.

Here’s how:

1. Go to the Patreon mobile app (Android or IOS) and click the Chat/Messaging icon from the bottom app menu
2. IOS: You can mute/unmute by swiping left on a chat
   Android: You can mute/unmute by pressing and holding the chat

Your Moderation Hub

Chat guidelines

Chat guidelines are rules for the community space and are distinct from Patreon’s Community Guidelines. They keep your community safe. As a creator, you should feel comfortable enforcing these rules by removing messages or members from the chat that do not abide by them.

Reported messages

Your members can report messages that they feel are violating the lounge guidelines directly to you. When a member reports a message, you’ll receive a notification letting you know that a message has been reported, and you can choose to keep or delete that message from your moderation hub.

How to access your reported messages:

1. Go to the Patreon mobile app (Android or IOS) and click the Chat/Messaging icon from the bottom app menu
2. At the top right corner, select the Moderation icon next to your profile
3. Select Moderation to access your reporting inbox.
4. Tap on Reported messages, and you’ll find a list of all the messages reported from that chat and the reason for the report. You can choose to keep or delete the reported messages

When you delete a message, the person who sent the message won’t know you deleted it, but everyone in the chat will see it as a deleted message.

FAQ

• You can create up to 4 chat spaces, customizing them by name, topic, emoji, and they can even be locked by different membership options (tiers).

• When you create a chat, you can control which members can access it. Choose between giving access to All paying members or Selecting a specific membership(s).

  If a member switches to a different membership option than the one they are currently in, this might mean losing access/gaining access to some or all chats, depending on what chats are part of their new membership — Access to chats is based on the membership tier you select for each individual chat

  At this moment, it is not yet possible to give access to chats to free members

• As a creator, you can share photos directly from your device by clicking on the photo icon at the bottom left corner when sending a message.
  At this moment, it is not possible to share videos directly from your device through chats, but you can share video links with members instead. If the link is from a Patreon post, the message will generate a preview of the content.
• You can see a list of members that are active in a chat by following these steps:
  1. Go to the mobile app (Android or IOS) and click the Chat/Messaging icon from the bottom app menu
  2. From this page, choose the chat you want to see the members of
  3. Click on the chat name at the top, which will take you to that chat’s settings page You’ll find a list of members who joined that chat. Clicking on a member’s picture will take you to that member's profile.
• If a member cancels their membership, they will lose access to any chats they joined. When they lose access will depend on the billing model you chose for your page:
  • If they cancel a monthly (non-charge upfront) or per-creation membership, members will immediately lose access to the chats
  • If they cancel a charge upfront or subscription billing membership, access to chats will be revoked at the end of the member’s final billing cycle
  • When they cancel an annual membership, access to chats will be revoked when the member’s yearly membership ends
• The only way to remove a member from a chat is to block them. Blocking a member will remove their membership to you and, consequently, remove them from any chats they have access to as part of their membership.
• At the moment, it’s not possible to delete or archive a chat. You can, however, edit that chat instead to give it a different purpose.