Visual Space manual, Chat, Start And Manage A Group Conversation

Use this walkthrough to start a one-to-one conversation, expand it into a group when appropriate, and manage the group without losing sight of who can read its history. The most important decision comes before you add anyone: confirm that every new participant should be able to see the conversation's retained messages and attachments.

Before You Start

You need to be signed in and able to find at least one eligible participant. Messages is not an unrestricted people directory. Search results are limited to people you are allowed to contact through your shared chat participation, and blocking rules can prevent a conversation from starting or expanding.

Decide whether you want a one-to-one conversation or a group. If the discussion may become a group, consider the material that could already exist between you and the first person:

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Earlier messages, replies, links, and topic names.

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Images, videos, and other attachments.

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Space invitations or other context that was meant for the original audience.

Adding a participant can expose retained history. Starting a one-to-one conversation with someone normally reuses the existing conversation between you. Selecting several people in Start private conversation opens or reuses a one-to-one conversation with one selected person, then adds the others to it. Adding someone from an open conversation expands that same conversation. Neither path guarantees a separate, empty group.

If any existing one-to-one history might be sensitive, use the staged path in this guide: open the one-to-one conversation first, inspect its history, and only then use Add participant. Do not multi-select people until you are confident that any retained history is suitable for the whole intended group.

Open Or Start The One-To-One Conversation

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Open Messages - Go to Messages and look for the person in your existing conversations first.

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Start a private conversation - If you do not see the conversation, choose Start private conversation.

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Search by name - Enter the person's name. Select them from the eligible results. If the search shows No users found, the person may not meet the shared-chat eligibility boundary or a block may prevent contact.

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Choose Start chat - With one person selected, choose Start chat. Messages opens the conversation and reuses your existing one-to-one history when one is available.

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Check the audience - Confirm that the participant stack shows the person you intended. Do not assume that an empty-looking area means a new conversation was created; inspect the topics and retained history before expanding it.

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Review what would be shared - Read the relevant earlier messages and open any attachments whose audience matters. Files, Links, and Previews explains how private conversation attachments appear.

At this checkpoint, stop if any existing content should remain one-to-one. There is no clean-group option in this flow that can safely bypass retained history.

Prepare The Conversation

Direct Messages organize messages into topics. A conversation commonly opens with a topic ready, but if the composer says Create a topic first. Then you can type messages, create one before continuing.

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Create a topic when prompted - Open the composer actions, choose Start New Topic, enter a clear title in Create topic, and choose Create.

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Send only when ready - Once a topic is active, use the composer for the first message. See Messages and Replies for sending, replying, editing, and mentioning people.

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Verify the context - Confirm that the topic title and conversation history are appropriate for everyone you plan to add.

You do not need to send a message just to prove that the selected audience is correct. The participant stack is the more useful check before changing membership.

Add People Safely

The staged path gives you a chance to inspect the reused conversation before its audience grows.

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Open Add participant - In the selected conversation's top bar, choose Add participant.

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Search for an eligible person - Enter their name. Existing participants are left out of the results, and people who are ineligible or blocked cannot be added.

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Check the choice one last time - Before selecting the result, make sure this person should be able to read the retained topics, messages, links, and attachments.

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Add the participant - Select the person. The conversation refreshes with the expanded audience.

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Verify the participant stack - Check the top-bar avatars and participant names against the audience you intended. Repeat Add participant only after the current membership is correct.

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Look for the participant notice - The conversation records an in-thread notice when a participant is added. This gives existing participants a visible indication that the audience changed.

After an addition, the displayed conversation title resets to Group DM. Add everyone who belongs first, then rename the group; adding another person later can reset the title again.

You can also select several eligible people in Start private conversation and choose Start chat. Use that faster path only when you already know that any reused one-to-one history and attachments are safe for every selected person. Multi-select is not a separate clean-group creation flow.

Verify the participant stack and retained conversation together before changing who can read the group.

Rename The Group

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Open the conversation menu - Find the group in the Messages conversation panel and open its row menu.

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Choose Rename - The Rename group dialog opens with the current display name for context.

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Enter a useful name - Replace Group DM with a non-empty name that helps participants recognize the group's purpose.

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Save the name - Choose Save, then verify that the conversation row shows the new title. The updated group name is shared with the other participants.

Use a name that describes the shared outcome rather than a temporary aside. This makes the conversation easier to recognize after newer activity changes its position in the list.

The group row menu exposes title and membership controls without requiring either action during capture.

Leave Or Restore Membership

Leaving removes the conversation from your available Messages list, but it does not delete the conversation or its history for the remaining participants.

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Choose Leave conversation - Use Leave conversation from the conversation row menu or the selected conversation controls.

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Review the confirmation - Check the displayed conversation name, then choose Leave only if you are ready to leave the active participant set.

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Verify the result - Confirm that the conversation is no longer available in your list. The other participants can continue using it.

If a remaining participant later uses Add participant to add you again, the same retained conversation becomes available to you again. Its earlier topics, messages, and attachments are not replaced with a fresh history, and the conversation records another participant-add notice. Treat leaving as a membership change, not a way to erase or restart a group.

If A Person Cannot Be Added

Participant search and membership changes must satisfy the same eligibility and blocking boundaries used when starting a conversation.

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Check the name - Search by the person's current display name and confirm that you selected the intended account.

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Check shared eligibility - The person must be eligible to communicate with you through shared chat participation. Direct Message controls do not bypass that boundary.

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Check blocks - Block user is available for one-to-one conversations. A block prevents the pair from starting or sending Direct Messages and prevents a group addition that would combine the blocked pair. The person who set the block must remove it before that communication can resume.

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Check the refreshed audience - After an addition, confirm the participant stack and in-thread notice rather than relying only on the selection dialog closing.

Blocking does not promise that earlier messages or attachments have been erased. For the broader privacy and access boundaries, see Direct Messages.

Confirm Success

The group is ready when the participant stack matches the intended audience, the retained history is appropriate for everyone shown, and the conversation has a useful topic and title. A participant-add notice should mark each audience change in the conversation.

From here, you can organize the Direct Message with favorites, mute, and read controls. When you are working from a space, a conversation may also offer Invite to space; that invitation still follows the space's normal access rules. If meetings are available, the group can start or join a meeting from the conversation without moving the discussion into a space activity.