Announcement & read-only groups
Run a group where only you (and admins) can post — perfect for broadcasts, cohorts, and announcements — by setting roles and per-person posting permission.
Advanced Sometimes you want a group everyone reads but only you post to — a challenge channel, a cohort announcement feed, a “house rules” board. That’s a read-only (announcement) group, and it’s built from two simple ideas: roles and posting permission.
Roles
Everyone in a conversation has a role:
| Role | Who | Can post? | Can manage the group? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner | The person who created it | Always | Yes |
| Admin | Promoted by the owner | Always | Yes |
| Member | Everyone else | Depends on permission ↓ | No |
Owners and admins can always post — being read-only never locks you out of your own announcement channel.
Posting permission (can post)
Independently of role, each member has a can-post switch:
- On (the default) — an ordinary two-way conversation; everyone chats.
- Off — that member can read but not send. Turn it off for all members and you’ve got a one-to-many announcement channel.
Setting it up
Make a whole group announcement-only when you create it — turn on the announcement / read-only option so new members join as read-only.
Change one person at any time from their entry in the conversation’s member list: flip their can-post switch, or use the make-admin control to promote them to admin so they can post and help manage (click it again to remove admin). The list shows each person’s role at a glance — an Owner tag on the creator and an Admin tag on admins. Changes apply immediately.
Finding one member in a big roster: once a group grows past a handful of members, a Find a member search box appears above the list. Type a few letters of the name and the list narrows as you type (accents don’t matter: “zeljko” finds Željko), with the header showing how many matched, like “Participants (1 of 1200)”. Handy when you need to remove one person from a broadcast with your whole roster in it.
Broadcast to all your active clients (one step)
Want a single channel that reaches your whole active roster — like a Telegram broadcast — without adding everyone by hand? Open the + menu at the top of the chat list and choose Broadcast to all active clients. Protocol creates a read-only announcement group called All clients, seeded with every active client, and opens it. Only you and your admins can post; clients read along.
Owners & admins only. Creating a tenant-wide broadcast is limited to the owner and admins.
It keeps itself up to date. This group is self-maintaining:
- New clients are added automatically when they become active — you don’t have to remember to add them to the broadcast.
- Clients who are deactivated are removed automatically, so the channel only ever reaches your current active roster.
Everyone is added read-only, exactly like any announcement group above — you can still promote someone to admin, or remove a person by hand, from the member list.
What a read-only member sees
Instead of a composer, a read-only member sees a quiet notice — “Only admins can post in this announcement group.” They can still read every message and tap the links, forms, and media you send. They simply can’t send messages into the channel.
Clients never see each other. A client in a group or broadcast doesn’t see the member list or the member count: from their side the group is just you (the coach) talking to them. Your roster stays private between you and each client, no matter how many people the broadcast reaches. You and your admins always see the full member list.
Owners and admins are never blocked. Read-only only affects members — you can always post to a group you own, and so can anyone you’ve made an admin.
Next: make sure people see what you send — Notifications →