Message your clients in chat

Yes, you can message clients in TrainerStack. You write from the web dashboard or the trainer app, and the client reads and replies in the TrainerStack client app. Chat is not a page in the menu: on the web it is the round chat bubble in the bottom-right corner of every dashboard page, and in the trainer app it is the speech-bubble icon in the top bar. A number on it shows your unread messages.

There is no Message button on a client's row or profile. Every conversation starts from the chat bubble.

Direct chat can be switched off for a client or a group (members have it off by default). Their conversation then shows Chat off in your list with the history kept and no composer, and the client cannot open it in their app. See Client groups and app features to turn it on or off; group chats are not affected.

Message a client on the web

1. Click the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner. The Messages panel opens with your conversations, the most recent first.
2. To carry on a conversation, click it.
3. To message someone you have not messaged yet, click New message, type their name in Search clients… and click them. If a conversation with that client already exists, it opens instead of starting a second one.
4. Type in the box at the bottom. Enter sends; Shift + Enter starts a new line. The arrow button sends too.

Point at a message to show its Reply button (your reply quotes it) and its React button for an emoji. Links in messages are clickable.

Message a group

1. Open the chat bubble and click New group.
2. Enter a Group name.
3. Under Who can post, choose Everyone (members can post and see who else is in the group) or Trainer only (only you post, and clients cannot see each other).
4. Tick the clients, or use Select all shown after searching, and click Create group.

To change the name, who can post or the members later, open the group and click the pencil (Edit group) at the top.

Message a client in the trainer app

1. Tap the speech-bubble icon in the top bar, beside the megaphone and the bell.
2. Tap a conversation to open it, or tap New message, search for the client and tap them. New group works the same way as on the web.
3. Type your message and send.

With notifications on, a new message from a client arrives as a push on your phone, and tapping it opens that conversation. See Install the TrainerStack trainer app to get the app and turn notifications on.

Where clients see it

Clients open chat from the chat icon at the top of the Dashboard in their client app. They can reply, or message you first; a client can only ever message you, never another client outside a group.

Who you cannot message, and how to fix it

New message only lists clients who are Active and have accepted their app invite. "No linked active clients" or a client missing from the search means one of these:

• They have not accepted their invite yet. A client only joins chat once they have an app account. Open the client's Profile tab and look at the App access card: Not invited yet means click Send invite; Invite pending means they have the code but have not used it; Invite expired means click Resend. When the card says App account active, they appear under New message. See Add a client and invite them to the app.
• Their status is Away. You cannot start a new chat with an Away client, but a conversation you already have with them carries on. To start one, set them back to Active with Update status.
• Their status is Cancelled. Cancelled clients drop out of chat. Use Reactivate Client if they are coming back.
• Their app has closed. A client with no running plan and no session on the calendar for 30 days loses app access, and chat with it. Adding a plan or booking a session reopens it within a day.

If the App access card says App account active and they are still missing, work through When a client cannot sign in.

If it is not working

• "Messages are unavailable". Check your connection and click Refresh. The panel also says when you are offline and catches up when you reconnect.
• "Message not sent". The message did not reach TrainerStack. Check your connection, then click Not sent · Retry under the message.
• The client says they cannot see my message. They read chat in the client app, so they need an active app account. Check the App access card on their Profile tab.