Building Community with Chats

A 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.

Accessing Chats

Chats are available to all creators on Patreon. If your work is categorized as Adult content, you must complete ID verification before you have access to chats.

Using Chats

Create a chat

You can create up to 10 chat spaces, customizing them by name, topic, and emoji. Access to a chat space can be granted to all members (free and paid), all paid members, or selected tiers.

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  1. Select Chats from the left side menu

  2. If this is your first time creating a chat: Click on the Create a group chat button — Your chat will only be visible once you send your first message

     If you have existing chats: Click the New Chat option — This chat will be visible immediately

  3. Customize your chat by picking an emoji and choosing a name. You can also change the default access for All members, Paid members only, or Selected tiers
  4. Once you send your first message in the first chat you create, you’ll see the chat guidelines
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  1. Tap Chats from the bottom menu

  2. If this is your first time creating a group chat: Tap on the Start a group chat button — Your chat will only be visible once you send your first message

     If you have existing chats: Tap the New Chat option at the top right corner — This chat will be visible immediately

  3. Customize your chat by picking an emoji and choosing a name. You can also change the default access for All members to Paid members only or Selected tiers
  4. Once you send your first message in the first chat you create, you’ll see the chat guidelines

Your new chat will show up on your creator page on the mobile app, as well as your Chats on both desktop and the mobile app.

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

• Desktop: Click on the message you want to reply to and type your message on the right-hand side of the page
• App: Tap on the message you want to reply to, or Press and hold the message and select Reply in thread

React to messages. Both you and your members can react to chat messages

• Desktop: Hover over the message, then choose an emoji from the emoji picker, or click on the message and select Add emoji
• App: Tap on the message you want to react to, then select Add emoji , or Press and hold the message and choose an emoji from the emoji picker

Share photos directly from your device. You and your members can share photos directly from your device by clicking on Image .

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 their likes, dislikes, and content recommendations. Try an icebreaker, such as:

• 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 members 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.

Want community-building inspo? Check out “How Jessica Lanyadoo set the tone for her community” on Patreon for Creators. Currently, Patreon for Creators is only available in English.

Managing Chats

Edit your chat

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  1. Click on Chats from the left side menu
  2. Click on the chat you want to edit
  3. Below the chat's name, click Edit chat settings
  4. On the right-hand side, click on Edit
  5. You can edit:
     • The chat emoji
     • The chat name
     • Who can access that chat
  6. When you're done, click on Save
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  1. Tap Your profile in the right corner of the bottom menu
  2. From this screen, tap on the chat you want to edit
  3. Tap on Edit chat settings below the chat name
  4. Tap More in the top right corner and tap on Edit chat
  5. You can edit:
     • The chat emoji
     • The chat name
     • Who can access that chat
  6. When you're done, don't forget to tap on Save at the top right corner

Delete a chat

Deleting a chat will permanently remove it from your members' chats. This action can’t be undone.

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  1. Click on Chats from the left side menu if you aren't already there
  2. Click on the chat you want to delete
  3. Below the chat’s name, select Edit chat settings
  4. On the right-hand side, click the Delete option
  5. Confirm you want to delete the chat — this action can’t be undone
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  1. Tap Chats from the bottom menu
  2. Tap on the chat you want to delete
  3. Below the chat's name, tap Edit chat settings
  4. Tap More at the top right corner
  5. Select Delete chat to confirm you want to delete the chat — this action can't be undone

Disable notifications

You can disable all notifications for a particular chat. Note that this will disable notifications for you, not for your members. See below for details on how:

1. Go to the Patreon mobile app and tap Chats in the bottom menu
2. IOS: You can mute/unmute by swiping left on a chat
   Android: You can mute/unmute by pressing and holding the chat

Alternatively, you can manage your notifications by selecting Home from the bottom menu. There, you'll find the Notifications in the top-right corner. On the notifications screen, select Settings to enable or disable email and push notifications for your chats.

Moderating your chats

Chat guidelines

There are guidelines specifically designed for Chats, which members are presented with any time they choose to join a chat. These are separate from Patreon’s Community Guidelines, which serve as guardrails detailing the behaviors permitted and prohibited on Patreon. We encourage you to review, uphold, and enforce both sets of guidelines to keep your community safe.

Your members can report messages they believe violate these guidelines. Once you create a chat space, you can access a Moderation Hub to choose whether to keep or delete the reported messages.

Reported messages

Your members can report messages they believe violate the chat 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:

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  1. Select the Creator studio in the left-side navigation menu
  2. Click on Moderation Hub from the sub-menu
  3. You'll automatically land in the Reported Content tab
  4. You'll find a list of all messages reported in the chat, along with the reason for each report. You can choose to keep or delete the reported messages

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  1. Tap Chats from the bottom menu
  2. At the top right, tap Moderation
  3. You'll automatically land in the Reported Content tab
  4. You'll find a list of all messages reported in the chat, along with the reason for each report. You can choose to keep or delete the reported messages

  Alternatively, you can access Moderation by selecting your Profile from the bottom menu. There, you'll find the Profile menu in the top-right corner. Then select Moderation from the list to review reported content.

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

Moderators

You can assign a teammate or a trusted community fan as a Moderator for all your chats. This means they can see messages that community members have flagged for review.

These Moderators have access to reported messages through the Moderation Hub in the Patreon app, and their profiles will appear with a Moderator tag. Once a message is reported, Moderators can decide whether to keep or delete that message.

Note that Moderators must be members of tiers with access to chats to view chats gated to paid tiers.

Here’s how to nominate moderators for your chats:

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  1. Select the Creator studio in the left-side navigation menu
  2. Click on Moderation Hub from the sub-menu
  3. You'll automatically land in the Reported Content tab
  4. Select the Moderators tab
  5. Use the search bar to find a user, and once you have found them, click on their name — the invite will be sent, and the user will be added to the moderators list
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  1. Tap Chats from the bottom menu
  2. At the top right, tap Moderation
  3. You'll automatically land in the Reported Content tab
  4. Select the Moderators tab
  5. Use the search bar to find a user, and once you have found them, click on their name — the invite will be sent, and the user will be added to the moderators list

Temporarily mute a chat member

You can mute a person in a specific chat for 24 hours if they are not following chat guidelines or are going off-topic. Muting is a great way to issue a warning without removing members from the chat or blocking their membership.

How to mute a person for 24 hours:

1. Visit the specific chat you'd like to mute the member in
2. Find the member's most recent message

3. Desktop: Hover over the message, then choose More from the actions menu

   App: Tap and hold the message

4. Select Mute person
5. Confirm you'd like to mute them — The member will be muted for 24 hours

Tips for temporarily muting:

• Only the creator and moderators can mute a member
• You can mute members for 24 hours at a time

Members will see that they’ve been temporarily muted:

If a muted member visits the chat space, they’ll see that they’ve been temporarily muted and won’t have the option to message or comment on a message until the mute period has ended. Whenever a muted member visits the chat space, they’ll see how many hours are left before they can message again. During the muted period, a muted member won’t be able to message or thread in the chat or react to existing messages with an emoji.