The group

If your tour company turns it on, your trip gets a fifth tab called Group: one place where everyone on your trip — and your guide — can write to each other. There is nothing extra to install, no phone numbers to hand out, and nobody outside your trip can read it. If you do not see a Group tab, your tour company has not turned it on, and that is all it means.

What it is, and what it is not

• Everyone on your trip can read it — the other travelers who have the app, your guides, and your tour company's office. The line under the heading says so: "Everyone on Highlights of Portugal. 14 people. Your guide reads this too."
• Words only. No photos, no voice messages, no reactions. A message can be up to 1,000 characters.
• Your guide's own announcements do not move here. They still arrive in the Inbox tab, with a notification, and the Inbox is still the record. They also appear in the group as "From your guide" cards, at their place in the conversation, so the day reads as one story — tapping one opens the message in the Inbox. The newest announcement also sits in a strip at the top of the group. You cannot reply to those cards in the group.
• It is not an emergency line. Anything urgent comes from your guide in the Inbox. If you need someone now, call your guide from the Emergency page.
• It ends with the trip. The day after the trip's last day (plus one grace day) the group becomes read-only, and 30 days after the trip ends it is deleted.

Before you write: the rules

The first time you go to write, a card called Before you join in shows four lines:

• Be kind. No selling.
• Your guide can remove a message or stop someone from posting.
• Anything urgent comes from your guide in the Inbox.
• Everyone on your trip can read this. Please don't post medical details — call your guide.

Tap I agree — open the group to start writing, or Not now to keep reading without writing. The full rules are on Group rules (the card's "Read the full rules" link opens the same page in your web browser). You agree once per trip.

Writing a message

1. Open the Group tab. The box at the bottom says Write to the group…
2. Type your message. If it is a question for your guide or the group, tap the This is a question chip first — the message gets a Question label so your guide can find it, and when your guide marks it answered the label changes to Answered.
3. Tap Send.

Your own messages sit on the right, marked You, with Sent and the time under them. Other people's sit on the left with their name — you appear to them as your first name and last initial, "Margaret H." Your guide's messages carry a GUIDE badge and the office's an OFFICE badge.

• To reply to someone, tap More under their message, then Reply. Your message will quote theirs.
• To delete one of your own messages, tap Delete under it and confirm. Everyone then sees "Message removed" in its place. That cannot be undone, and there is no edit — delete it and write it again.
• Some words are not allowed. If a message has one, it is not sent and the app says: "That message has a word this group does not allow. Please reword it."
• There is a limit of 20 messages an hour and 100 a day for each person. Very few people ever meet it.

With no signal

The group is the one part of the app that needs a connection to bring you what other people wrote. Everything already on your phone stays readable, and the "Updated" pill at the top says when your phone last checked.

• You can still write. Your message appears at once marked Will send when you're back online, and goes the moment your phone has internet again. Nobody sees it until then. You can delete it before it goes.
• Other people's messages arrive when your phone next syncs. After half an hour without a connection, a card says so: "You're offline. What you see here is as of 3 hours ago. New replies will appear when you're back online. Need someone now? Your guide's number is on the Emergency card."
• A message written offline goes to the end of the thread when it lands — below anything other people wrote while you were away — and keeps the time you wrote it, so its time can read earlier than the messages above it. That is the order the group received it in, not the order you wrote it.

New messages

The Group tab shows a badge with how many messages you have not seen. When you open it, the screen starts at a New messages line — where you left off. If more arrive while you are reading, the screen does not jump; a button says 3 new — tap to see instead.

How much it buzzes

The group never sends you the words of a message as a notification — only a count: "Group: 3 new messages. Open Group to read them." Out of the box your phone gets at most one of those every two hours, and never between 9 pm and 7 am, trip time. A reply to your own message, or your question being answered, gets its own heads-up — still never at night.

• Quiet, for now. The Quiet button at the top of the group offers Until tomorrow morning, For the rest of the trip, and Keep buzzing (which reads Back on once the group is quiet). "You will still see every message here, your phone just won't buzz." Messages from your guide still come through.
• How often, for the trip. Under the Info tab, tap Settings and find the Group card: "How often should your phone buzz for the group?" — Every message, A few times a day (the default: at most one heads-up every two hours, and never 9 pm–7 am, trip time), Only when someone answers me, or Never. "Messages from your guide and tour company are not affected."

If a message is unkind, or someone is selling something

• Report it. Tap More under the message, then Report this message. Tap one reason — Rude or abusive, Selling something, Not about the trip, Something else — and Send report. "Your tour company will look within a day. Robert will not be told who reported it." Your guide's phone is told at once, with no names and no words. A message that two different people report is hidden from the group until the office decides.
• Block the person, for yourself. Tap More, then Block Robert. "You stop seeing Robert's messages here. Robert will not be told. If something is wrong, report the message or call your guide." Blocking only changes what you see: their messages collapse to one line, with Show Robert's messages again under it. Nobody else is affected, and nobody — not Robert, not your guide, not the office — is told.

What your guide and your tour company can do

• Remove a message. It is replaced with "Removed by your guide" or "Removed by your tour company" for everyone.
• Pin a message to the top of the group, so it is the first thing everyone sees.
• Pause someone's posting. Your guide can do this for a day from their phone; the office for longer. The person can still read; their box says "Your guide has paused your posting in this group. If you need help, call your guide."
• Let only guides post. The box then says "Right now only your guide can post here. You can still read everything."
• Turn the group into "ask your guide". The box says Ask your guide a question… and "Only your guide and the tour office will see what you write here." Other travelers never see your question; your guide's answer may appear in the group, and other people then see "In reply to a question only your guide can see."
• Remove someone from the group. Only the office can. That person's app says "Your tour company has removed you from this group. If you have a question, call your guide."
• Switch the group off. The tab disappears at your phone's next sync; the office keeps the messages.

Leaving the group

You can stop taking part without leaving the trip. Open the Info tab, tap Settings, and find Leave the group: "You stop writing in the group and your phone stops buzzing for it. You can still read it. Nobody is told, and you can rejoin here any time." The group tab itself also offers Rejoin the group.

Who keeps what, and for how long

• Who can read your messages: everyone on your trip who has the app, your guides, and your tour company's office — and, if your tour company connects its own booking system to Cordelle, that system. Not other trips, not other tour companies. Cordelle's own staff read a message only when a report or a support request needs it.
• The group is deleted 30 days after your trip ends — messages, reports and who was in it. It is never printed in the paper packet and never part of the trip download.
• A message you delete is removed from every phone at its next sync. If someone reported it first, the report keeps a copy for the office until the same 30-day deletion.
• The full detail — including the backup window — is under Group messages in the Privacy notice.