Running the group
When the office turns on a departure's group, a Group tile appears on your home screen. It opens the same thread your travelers read, with the tools to keep it civil: answer, pin, remove, pause someone's posting, and report to the office. It is not a second megaphone — the megaphone is still Message Group.
Message Group, or the group?
| Message Group | The group | |
|---|---|---|
| Who writes | You and the office | Everyone on the trip, you and the office |
| Who gets it | Everyone, some travelers, or a party — your choice | Everyone on the trip who has the app — someone who has left still reads it, but is not buzzed and cannot write |
| Receipts | Yes: "Phone offline", "not opened yet", "Seen", name by name | None. Nobody can tell you who has read a group message |
| Notification | Always, with the title; urgent rings through everything | A count — by default a few times a day at most, never at night, and only as often as the traveler allows |
| Where it lives | Each traveler's Inbox, for the whole trip | The Group tab, until 30 days after the trip |
The rule of thumb is at the bottom of the Group screen: "Need everyone to see it? Send it as a message." "Bus leaves at 2:00" is a message. "Yes, the pharmacy on the corner is open Sundays" is a group reply.
The screen
The Group tile's subtitle tells you what needs you before you open it — "2 unanswered questions", or "5 new messages", or just "What the group is saying". Inside, the top line reads "14 people · 2 unanswered questions · 1 reported", and three filters sit under it: All, Questions and Reported. The thread opens at the New messages line where you left off, and never jumps under you — new arrivals show as 3 new — tap to see. Your own announcements from Message Group are not shown here; travelers see them as "From your guide" cards in their group.
Writing as the guide
The box at the bottom says Write to the group as their guide…. What you write goes out under your name with a GUIDE badge, to everyone in the group, with no receipts. To answer one person's message, tap More under it and then Reply — your message quotes theirs. Up to 1,000 characters, and 60 messages an hour; the app tells you if you reach it and points you to Message Group.
Questions
A traveler can mark a message as a question; it carries a Question label, and the Questions filter lists the open ones. Answer it in the group, and then tap Mark answered under it — the label turns to Answered on every phone and the asker gets a heads-up. If the office has set the group to Travelers ask, guides answer, every traveler message is a question that only you and the office can see, marked Only guides see this; other travelers see your answer but never the question, with "In reply to a question only your guide can see" where the quote would be. A question like that cannot be pinned.
Pinning
Tap More, then Pin to the top. The pinned message sits in a strip above the thread on every phone, and yours has an Unpin button. One pin at a time; pinning another replaces it.
Removing a message
Tap More, then Remove this message. The app asks first: "Everyone will see 'Removed by your guide'. Cannot be undone." The words are gone from every phone at its next sync; the office keeps a record of which role removed it — the writer, a guide or the office — and when. Travelers can remove their own messages too ("Message removed").
Pausing someone's posting
Tap More under one of their messages, then Stop Robert from posting: "Stop Robert from posting for the next 24 hours? Robert can still read the group, and you can let them post again from this menu." Their box then says "Your guide has paused your posting in this group. If you need help, call your guide." The same menu offers Let Robert post again. The office can pause someone for longer, and is the only one who can remove a traveler from the group altogether.
Reports
When a traveler reports a message, your phone gets a notification — "A group message was reported" — with no words and no names, and the office and Cordelle are emailed the same way. A message that two different people report is hidden from the group at once and shows in your Reported filter as "Hidden after reports — the office is reviewing it". You can see it there, and that is all — a hidden message has no More button; the office decides from the dashboard within a day. You can also raise a report yourself: More, then Report to the office, with the same four reasons travelers see.
What you cannot do, and why
- Block anyone. Travelers can hide a person from their own view; you must see everything.
- Remove someone from the group, or turn the group on or off. Those are the office's, from the departure's Group tab on the dashboard — it has the roster in front of it.
- Change who can post. The office sets Everyone, Travelers ask, guides answer or Guides only from the dashboard. If the group needs locking down mid-stop, call the office.
- See who has read a group message. There are no receipts in the group. That is what Message Group is for.
With no signal
Every action here queues like a broadcast: a reply, a pin, a removal or a pause you tap offline shows an amber line and goes out by itself when the phone is back online. Your own post appears at once marked Will send when you're back online. What you are reading is as of the last sync — the "Updated" pill on your home screen says when.
After the trip
From the day after the trip's grace day the group is read-only for everyone: "This trip has ended, so the group is read-only. You can still remove messages and pin one." Thirty days after the trip ends, it is deleted.