Messages

Turning Messages on

1. 1

   Open Studio settings → the Messages tab.

2. 2

   Flip the Messages switch on.

3. 3

   Messages appears in the sidebar for your team and your families, plus the header shortcut with your unread count.

Direct messages and group chats

Every conversation is one of two kinds. A direct message is a private thread between your studio and one family — any staff member can take part, and the family sees it simply as chatting with the studio. A group chat reaches a set of people at once, and you choose who that is: every family in the studio, families of dancers on a recurring program, families with an active dancer on one of your dance levels, only the families you pick, families in a saved Comms group, or just your staff. Program and level group chats keep their own rosters: a program chat follows the program — a family sees it while they have a dancer on the program, and loses it when they don't — and a level chat follows the level, so a Level 4 chat picks up a family the day their dancer moves up to Level 4 and lets them go when no dancer of theirs is on it anymore. Only active dancers count for a level chat — trial dancers don't bring their family in — and while you're choosing the level, Ida shows exactly which families it reaches.

Group chats also set how posting works: a discussion lets everyone in the chat reply, while an announcement-only chat is one-way — staff post, families read. Each group can wear its own square icon — upload one when you create the chat, or later by clicking the conversation title at the top of the thread, or from Manage → Name and description — so the list is easy to scan. Without one, it stays a letter circle. The first time your studio uses Messages, three group chats are created to start you off: Community (announcements every family can see), Members (a discussion for families you add), and Staff Internal (private to your team).

Starting a conversation

1. 1

   Open Messages and click the + button.

2. 2

   Search for a family, pick them, and press Message — that opens (or reopens) your direct message with that family.

3. 3

   Pick several families instead and, as an admin, press Start group chat — a name is suggested, or type your own.

4. 4

   For the full setup, admins can choose 'Create group chat…' instead: add a description, upload a square icon, make it announcement-only, and decide who can see it — every family, a recurring program, a dance level, a saved Comms group, selected families, or staff only. Change or remove that icon later by clicking the conversation title at the top of the thread, or from Manage → Name and description. Without one, the group keeps its letter circle.

Writing messages

Type and press Enter to send. Hover a message to reply to it, copy it, edit your own, or delete it — staff can remove any message, and an edited message is marked 'edited' so nobody is confused. Deleting a message takes its photos, videos, and files with it: they are removed for good, and nobody in the conversation can open them again — on the web or in the app. The + button beside the message box opens the attach menu: take a photo, record a video, choose from your photos and videos, or attach a file such as a PDF or Word document. Videos play right in the conversation — tap to watch, the same way they do in iMessage. The clip shows up right away; if it came from an iPhone or Chrome, Ida prepares it so it plays on phones and computers. Finished clips can be up to 64MB (a short clip). On the web you can attach several at once — up to ten photos, videos, and files in a single message — or skip the menu entirely: drag files onto the conversation or the message box, or paste a screenshot straight into the box. Click a photo in a thread and it opens full screen, with arrows to flip through the conversation's other photos and videos.

Share a link and a small preview card appears under your message — the page's title, description, and picture — so the person on the other end sees what they are opening before they tap. And a message you started but didn't send stays in the box for that conversation: leave, come back later, even reload the page or reopen the app, and your draft is right where you left it.

Each conversation's ⋯ menu can mute its notifications or mark it unread so you remember to come back, and a 'new messages' line marks where you left off in a thread. Unread conversations count up on the Messages icon in the header.

What you send appears in the thread the moment you send it, on the web and in the iPhone app alike. If a message can't go out — a dropped connection, say — it stays in the thread marked 'Not delivered · Tap to retry', with your words kept safe; tap it to send it again, and retrying can never post the same message twice.

Chat messages by email

Email backs up the conversation, your way. The 'Chat messages by email' switch — on the Notifications page on the web (user menu → Notifications) and under More → Notifications in the app — decides what chat sends to your inbox. Until you choose, Ida plays it safe: when a new message can't reach you as a push notification, an email lets you know you have unread messages — at most one every few hours — with a button that opens the conversation so you can reply. So nothing is missed without the app, and a lively chat never floods your inbox.

Prefer email for everything? Choose 'Email me every message' and every chat message reaches your inbox, whether or not the app already notified you. Messages that arrive close together come as one email per conversation — never one email per message — listing what arrived, and anything you have already read, in the app or on the web, is left out, so an email never repeats what you have seen. Or turn the switch off and chat stays in Messages alone, with no chat emails at all. Whatever you choose, muted conversations stay silent.

Mention someone with @

Type @ in the message box and a list of the people in the conversation appears — your staff with their roles, and the families in the chat. In the founders thread and Help from Ida, @Ida AI is at the top of that list when Ida is answering there. Keep typing to narrow it down, then pick a name (arrow keys and Enter on the web, a tap in the app) and it lands in your message as a highlighted @name everyone can see.

A mention is a tap on the shoulder: instead of the ordinary new-message alert, the person you name gets their own — '… mentioned you' — and it reaches them even if they have muted the conversation. Mentions work anywhere you can write, for staff and families alike — direct messages, group chats, and your thread with the Ida founders, where you can @ the founders themselves. It works the same on the web and in the iPhone app.

React with an emoji

Not every message needs a reply. Point at a message on the web — or press and hold it in the app — and pick one of six quick reactions: 👍 ❤️ 😂 😮 😢 🎉. Reactions gather under the message as little chips, with a count when several people choose the same one, and they appear for everyone in the conversation the moment they are added. Every reaction has names attached: rest your pointer on a chip on the web — or press and hold a chip in the app — to see exactly who reacted, with your own name shown first as 'You'. Tap a chip you added to take it back, or tap someone else's to join in.

Typing, delivered, read

Messages tells you what is happening at both ends of a conversation. While someone is writing to you, a typing indicator with their name appears at the bottom of the thread. Your own newest message carries its status underneath: Sending… while it goes out, Delivered once it is safely in the conversation, and — in a direct message — Read, with the time the other side saw it. Staff see when the family has read their message; a family sees when the studio has.

In group chats, staff see who has caught up ('Read by Sarah and James'); hover or tap the line to see everyone and when they first read. Families see their message as delivered, without read receipts.

Find any message

The search box above your conversations — at the top of Messages in the app — finds more than conversation names: type a couple of characters and it also searches the words inside every message in every conversation you are part of. Matches appear beneath the conversation list as snippets with your search highlighted; choose one and the conversation opens right at that message, however far back it was, with a Jump to latest button to bring you back to the newest messages.

See who's in a chat

A conversation can always tell you who it reaches. Click the chat's name at the top of the thread — or tap it in the iPhone app — and its details open: what the chat is for, who can see it, and how posting works. Group chats show the people themselves: for staff on the web, that is every household in a studio-wide chat, the families currently on a program or level chat's roster, or exactly the families that were picked for a smaller one, each with their photo, and a staff-only chat lists your team with each person's role. In the app the same view belongs to families too, so a parent can always see who is reading along — and it gathers the conversation's shared photos and videos in the same place.

Running a group chat

Admins manage a group chat from the ⋮ menu inside the thread: edit its name, its square icon, and the description people see when they open its details, change who can see it, switch between open discussion and announcement-only, or close replies to keep the chat readable while stopping new posts. Archiving hides a chat from the active list — it waits under Archived and can be restored anytime — while deleting permanently removes the chat and its messages.

Adding a family to a chat of picked families never buries them in history: they join caught up, so the chat's earlier messages don't arrive as a pile of unread — only what is posted after they join counts as new. And joining isn't reading: the 'Read by' line under a post names them only once they have actually opened the chat. This holds however the family is added — on the web, in the iPhone app, or through Ida.

Ask Ida

Messages answers to Ida, too. Ask Ida to catch you up — what a family has been asking about, or a summary of a busy group chat — and Ida reading a thread never marks it read. At studios with Ida's studio-wide change cards, Ida can also act in Messages: send a message to a family's thread or a group chat, edit or delete one, add a reaction, or set up and run a group chat — its members, whether it's announcement-only, archiving or deleting it. Nothing is posted on Ida's say-so alone: a message only goes out after you've said who it's for in your own words, and the card shows the conversation and the exact text before you apply. The Ida AI assistant page of this guide covers how the cards work.

Your direct line to the Ida founders

Alongside your own conversations, every studio's Messages includes a group chat with the Ida team (Ida Founders) — a private, staff-only thread straight to the people who build Ida. Ask a question, report something that looks off, or tell us what you wish Ida did next; the founders reply right in the thread — under their own name, or sometimes simply as 'Ida', the team speaking with one voice — and their answers count toward your unread badge like any other conversation. Either way a real person is writing, with one exception: at studios where Ida follows this thread, a question about a family member getting into the app can get an answer signed '— Ida' that Ida looked up in your studio's own records and posted herself — the 'Issues and Ida in the founders thread' part of this page explains exactly when. Answers from the assistant always come from 'Ida AI'. It works the same on the web and in the iPhone app.

Because this chat is looked after by Ida, it has no manage menu on your side — it can't be renamed, archived, or deleted, and its name is reserved so no other group chat can take it. Families never see this thread; it is for your team only. Ordinarily every staff member is part of it, but a studio that prefers to keep this line private can ask the Ida team to limit it to the studio's owners — the chat's details always show exactly who it reaches.

Issues and Ida in the founders thread

The founders thread keeps track of itself. An Issues line sits at the top of the thread — on the web and in the app — counting what is open, what is waiting on the founders, and what has been resolved. Open it and every question, bug report, and request raised in the thread is there, each with its own ticket number, sorted into Open and Done tabs you can search — on the web, laid out as the same table the Ida team itself works from. Each one carries its number, its status in plain words — 'Up next', 'On the list', 'We're on it', 'Waiting on Ida', or 'Done' — along with its kind (bug, question, or feature), how long ago it was raised, and whether a photo went with it. A Priority column shows how the Ida team has ranked the work — Urgent, High, Medium, or Low — and a Bucket column shows how they have sized each issue up — 'Blocks studio' for something stopping your studio, 'Broken for someone' when a thing misbehaves for one person, or 'Wanted / labeling' for improvements you'd like — so you can see at a glance which of your reports are being treated as blocking and which are queued for later (an issue not yet sorted simply shows none). In the app, the same number, priority, and bucket lead each issue's card and show again when you open it. Open an issue to see the details and jump back to the message where it started. The list is kept for you — you can't edit it — and it updates on its own as things move. And when the founders finish something, you find out where the conversation lives: the moment an issue is marked done — or set aside — a line from Ida appears right in the thread naming the issue and how it ended, with no refresh needed, and the list updates itself. When the Ida team attaches something to that note — a screenshot of the fix, say — it shows right under the line: pictures appear in the thread and open full screen with a click or tap, and files open when you choose them, on the web and in the iPhone app alike. When the team includes a few words about what was actually done, they appear right beneath that line, so you can read the outcome without opening the issue. And the line itself is a doorway: click it on the web — or tap it in the app — and the issue it names opens straight from the thread, details and all, wherever the line appears, in the conversation or inside an Ida thread.

Some studios also have Ida answering in this thread. When the Ida team has turned it on for your studio, write the whole issue in one message and @Ida AI — that message stays in the channel as a Slack-style thread. Ida replies in that thread, and follow-ups you type there keep the same ticket — you do not need to @Ida AI again. A new @Ida AI in the channel starts a new thread and a new ticket. Ordinary messages without @Ida AI stay in the channel for the founders. Replies appear from 'Ida AI', drawn from this guide and, when the question is about your own studio, from your studio's records, with the same role boundaries as everywhere else — an instructor never sees money. If the message is too thin — 'this doesn't work' with no page — Ida asks which page, then files. Attach a screenshot of an error and Ida reads it. A question Ida answers completely is marked resolved on the issue list; a bug or anything Ida isn't sure about stays open for the Ida team. After Ida files, it says the Ida team has it and gives you the ticket number plus a link — tap the link and that issue opens in the Issues list. Ida does not mention the founders.

At some studios, Ida also keeps the issue list without being asked. When the Ida team has turned this on for your studio, Ida quietly follows the founders thread as it happens: mention something broken, something you wish the app did, or something you need the team to look into — in plain messages, no @Ida AI needed — and shortly after the conversation goes quiet, the ticket is filed, or the one that already covers it is brought up to date with your new details and screenshots. A small 'Ida filed' or 'Ida updated' line appears in the thread with the ticket's number and title (just the number when the title is about money, a complaint or an ask for a person) — click it on the web, or tap it in the app, and the issue opens; a ticket that gathers several updates in quick succession gets one line rather than a pile, with the ticket itself always kept current. Ida mostly keeps out of the conversation itself — its only words in the thread are one short follow-up question, described below, and the getting-in answers described next — and it never closes a ticket except one it has just answered completely; finishing every other issue stays with the founders. But it does keep tickets honest: edit or delete a message behind a ticket and the ticket follows, tell the thread something works now and the ticket is flagged for the founders, and say a finished issue is happening again and it reopens. You can take a message back, too: say never mind, ignore that, or sent by mistake right after a report — before anyone else has written — and it is never filed; when a ticket was already raised from it, Ida adds a quiet note with your words and leaves the ticket exactly as it was, because taking something back is not the same as it being fixed — whether to close it stays with the founders. And when several reports are open, a bare 'works now' that could mean any of them marks none — name the one you mean, by its number or its problem, and that is the ticket that gets flagged. One problem is always one ticket: more messages about the same thing update it rather than filing it twice. Greetings, thanks, check-ins on where things stand, asking for a call, and questions the founders answer right in the chat — how-tos and the like — never become tickets, and never touch an existing one either: a 'thanks, got it' after a report is read as politeness, not new detail. When in doubt, Ida leaves the message for the founders to read. And a message that @mentions Ida AI keeps working exactly as above.

One kind of question Ida answers on the spot: whether someone can get into the app. At studios where Ida follows the thread, ask about a family member who can't log in — 'jane@example.com never got her invite', 'can the Smiths sign in? their email is…' — naming the email address (up to three in one message) and keeping the message to that one question, and Ida looks each address up in your studio's own records, the same places your Families page reads. When the records state the cause plainly, the answer lands in the thread shortly after, signed '— Ida', with the fix spelled out: the address isn't on your roster yet, so add it to the right family and choose Give login; it's on a family but no login has been made yet — including when an invite went out and was never finished; the login just isn't connected to the family, so Link their account signs them in with nothing re-sent; or emails to that address bounce, so a setup link sent there never arrives and the fix is copying the link and sharing it another way. A question Ida has answered this way is marked done on the issue list. Everything else waits for a person, exactly as before: Ida answers only when the cause is truly in the data, never a guess, and holds back whenever the message touches money, reads like a complaint, asks for a person, is about a staff member's login, or asks for anything else alongside — and once a founder has replied, the conversation is theirs. What Ida posts only ever contains what your own studio can see: never another studio's details, and never an email address you didn't write yourself.

The follow-up question is the other time Ida speaks up in the thread. When a report is too thin for the founders to act on — 'payments are weird' with no example — Ida asks for the missing piece right in the chat: one short message from Ida AI, @mentioning whoever reported it, asking only what the team truly needs. For something broken, that is where it happened (which screen, and web or the app), what happened, and one concrete example — which family, class, or payment, or roughly when; for a request, what you're trying to get done and who it's for; for a question about your numbers, which record you're looking at, what you see, and what you expected. The ticket is filed either way — the question never holds it up — and Ida waits a couple of minutes after your last message so it never interrupts you mid-story. Answer however feels natural — in the thread under Ida's question, with Reply on the message, or just in the chat — and anyone on your team can answer; what you say is added to the ticket for the founders. Ida asks at most once per issue, ever. If a couple of business days pass with no answer, it checks back once, gently; after another quiet stretch it lets the matter rest and notes on the ticket what is still unknown. Say never mind, that it works now, or that you're not sure, and Ida stops right away — and the moment a founder replies, Ida stands down and the conversation is theirs. Replying under Ida's question doesn't start an @Ida AI conversation; it simply counts as your answer. And Ida never asks for a password, a one-time sign-in code, a card number, or bank details — paste one into the chat and it is blanked out before Ida reads it or anything lands on a ticket.

The issue list isn't limited to the founders thread, either. When your studio shares another conversation with the Ida team — a group chat for a project you're working on together, say — the Ida team can switch the same Issues line on for that thread. Everyone in the conversation sees the same list, kept up to date the same way, with each issue linking back to the message where it started. Ida's answers stay in the founders thread.

App Support — a family chat where Ida tracks app problems

The founders thread is for your staff — but families hit app problems too. If your studio keeps a group chat where families can flag them — a screen that won't load, a class missing from their calendar, a payment button that does nothing — ask the Ida team to make that chat your studio's App Support thread (a studio has one at most). The chat itself doesn't change for anyone in it: same name, same people, same conversation. What changes is that Ida starts listening.

From that moment, when a family describes an app problem in the chat, Ida quietly turns it into an issue for the Ida team — a plain message is enough, with no @mention and no special wording. Ida mostly stays out of the conversation itself: a plain how-do-I question gets one short answer from Ida right in the chat, a thin report may get the one follow-up question described below, and that is all. Anything about money, a complaint, or a message asking for a person, Ida never answers on its own — it goes straight to a person, with a short line in the thread saying one will reply, and the Ida team is alerted until someone has it. A small 'Ida filed' or 'Ida updated' line appears in the thread with the issue's number — click it on the web, or tap it in the app, and the issue opens. One problem is always one issue: follow-ups, screenshots, and other families running into the same thing bring the existing issue up to date rather than filing a copy, and when someone says it works now, the Ida team sees that on the issue. A message sent by mistake is easy to take back, too — say never mind or ignore that right after it and no issue is filed, and one already filed simply gets a quiet note for the team, with nothing closed. Only what families report is filed — staff answers and ordinary studio talk are read as context, never turned into issues, and thanks and hellos never touch an issue — and Ida only listens from the moment the chat becomes App Support, so nothing said earlier is ever filed.

When a report is missing something the Ida team needs to act — which screen it was, what happened, or one concrete example — Ida may ask for it right in the chat: a single short question from Ida AI that @mentions the person who reported it, sent a couple of minutes after their last message. Only that person is notified — the rest of the chat isn't pinged. Just answer in the chat, or reply to the question, and the answer goes onto the issue for the team. Ida asks at most once per issue; if a couple of business days pass quietly it checks back once, then lets it rest, and the moment the studio's staff or the Ida team answer that family, Ida steps back. It never asks for a password, a one-time sign-in code, a card number, or bank details — and one pasted into the chat is blanked out before Ida reads it or anything lands on an issue.

And when the Ida team finishes a report, whoever raised it hears back: a line from Ida lands right under their message saying it is done, mentioning them by name. They alone are notified — the rest of the chat isn't pinged — and tapping the notification opens the conversation at that thread.

An App Support chat carries the same Issues line at the top as the founders thread, on the web and in the app, and everyone in the conversation sees the same list: each report with its number, its status in plain words, and a link back to the message where it started. Even before anything is filed, the list says so — tell us about any problem in the chat and it will be tracked.

On the iPhone appiPhone app

Messages opens from the Messages icon at the top of the app, with your unread count on it — and that count carries through to the app icon's badge on your home screen, with muted conversations left out. The badge is the same number wherever you look, and it keeps itself honest: every message notification carries the up-to-date count, so the number on the icon stays right even while the app is closed — and once you catch up on a conversation anywhere (in the app, on the web, on another device), your phone's badge and any waiting message notifications clear on their own, right away while you're in the app or the next time you open it. Tapping a message notification takes you straight into that conversation. At studios on Ida's newest look, the newest version of the app also makes those notifications feel like the conversation they came from: a new message arrives wearing the sender's face — their profile photo, or their initials — with the group chat's name alongside, and a message that @mentions you says so on the notification itself. On an Android phone the notification holds the conversation as it grows — earlier messages stay above the new one, with your unread count — even while the phone is locked, and Reply and Mark as read buttons ride on the notification, so you can answer or clear it right from there. Staff tap the compose button to pick a family and message them directly — or select several families to start a group chat on the spot (admins). Admins can also switch New message to Level or Program and start a group chat for the families on a dance level or a recurring program — each shows which families it reaches as you pick, and follows its level or program roster from then on. While setting either kind up, tap the letter circle to give the new group its own square icon from your photos. Families tap Message studio to reach you.

The + beside the message box opens the attach tray — Camera to take a photo, Video to record a clip, Photos and Choose video for your library, or Files — and a long-press on it jumps straight to your photo library. A message that arrives with several photos, videos, or files — sent from the web, where up to ten go in one message — shows every one of them in the bubble; tap any to open that one. Press and hold any message to react with an emoji, reply, copy, edit, or delete it. Tap the conversation's name at the top of a thread and its details slide up: who's in the chat — with staff roles shown — what it's for, and the photos and videos shared there, the most recent in a grid with See all opening the full Shared media collection, newest first, where a long-press jumps back to the moment something was sent. Admins manage a group chat from that same details view: the group's icon sits at the top — tap it to pick a square photo from your library, or press Remove to go back to the letter circle — and Manage group chat covers the icon too, along with the chat's name and description, posting rules, who can see it, and — tucked under 'Archive and delete', each with a confirmation — archiving or permanently deleting it. Setting up a group chat for every family, a Comms group, or staff only is done on the web dashboard.

No signal? Send anyway: the message stays in the thread marked 'Waiting to send…' and goes out on its own the moment your connection returns — even if you left the conversation or closed the app in between. Tap it to try right away, or press and hold it to send now or remove it; a message the studio's settings turned away (a closed announcement chat, say) shows 'Not delivered · Tap to retry' instead. And when the keyboard is in the way, swipe down over the conversation to tuck it away.