About Chat

How to Use the Chat Feature

The Chat feature in Spark allows you to send quick, internal messages to others within your school community. Whether you're an admin, staff member, guardian, or student, Chat provides a convenient way to communicate based on your role and school settings.

• Admins and Staff: Can message any student, guardian, or fellow staff member.
• Guardians: Can communicate with their own students or any staff member at the school.
• Students: Can chat with their teachers, guardians, and, if allowed by school settings, other students.

Follow these steps to send a message:

1. Navigate to Chat in the menu.
2. Locate the person you want to message in your chat list.
3. Type your message in the text box.
4. Click Send to deliver your message.

Managing Chat

Chat Notifications

You’ll be notified of new messages with:

• A red dot on the Chat icon in the menu.
• An email alert sent to your registered email address.

To manage email notification settings, go to Chat, click the gear icon at the top of the chat list, and select Notification Settings. From there, choose whether to receive email notifications and set the preferred frequency.

Chat Settings

Various chat settings are available in School → Settings → Miscellaneous.

Settings include:

• Student and Guardian Portal Chat: turning this off will remove the chat feature from student and guardian portals.
• Student-to-student Chat: enabling this allows students to chat with one another.
• Guardian-to-student Chat: enabling allows guardians to chat with their students.

Editing and Deleting Messages

To edit or delete a chat message,

1. Hover over or tap the message you sent.
2. Click Edit or Delete.
3. If editing, make your changes and click Save.

Archived Conversations

To access chat conversations with archived students, guardians, or staff:

1. Click the gear icon at the top of your chat list.
2. Select Show Archived.

Archived users will appear in the chat list—locate the desired conversation from there.