Direct Messages allows your community members to chat privately with each other and with admins, fostering deeper connections and more personalized engagement.
This feature helps build meaningful relationships within your community while giving you control over who can message whom.
📝 NOTE: Direct Messages is currently in Beta. As a Beta feature, you may encounter occasional issues as we continue to improve the experience.
Enable Direct Messages
Navigate to Community > Settings
Scroll down to the Direct Messages card
Toggle the feature to Active to enable it
Configure your preferences:
Members can message other members
Allow any logged-in user to use direct messages
Members can message admins
Only active subscribers can chat with admins
Subscription plans
Select which plans can message admins
ℹ️ INFO: The Direct Messages feature inherits your Community Engagement Settings. If you set Community Engagement to Subscribers Only, other users who do not have active subscriptions will not be able to send direct messages and will be redirected to subscribe if they try.
Send a Direct Message
For Admins
Navigate to People
Find the member you want to message
Click the ellipsis (...) menu next to their name
Select Send Direct Message
💡 TIP: Admins can always message members, and members can reply if admins initiated the conversation.
For All Community Members
On the Website
Navigate to your Community page (
/community)Find the member in the Community page
Click the name or avatar to access their Profile
Click Message
to start the conversation
📝 NOTE: You cannot search for members directly. You must first find them in the Community page before messaging them.
On Mobile Apps
Open your app and navigate to the Community page
Tap Messages
to view all your conversationsTo start a new conversation, tap New Chat
Search for the member and send your message
💡 TIP: You can also manage your messaging preferences in More > Content by toggling "Allow new members to message me".
Privacy & Security
Direct messages are encrypted both at rest and in transit, but are not end-to-end encrypted
Messages are intended to be private, so store admins or team members cannot access direct messages when impersonating users
Uscreen may review direct messages for support, tuning, and forensics, only when necessary (e.g., to fix a bug)
When access is required, Uscreen treats your data with the highest level of confidentiality
As a community admin, you will only see direct messages if they are reported through the moderation feature
ℹ️ INFO: This ensures complete privacy for all your community conversations.
Important Limitations
Direct Messages are only available to active paying subscribers
Trial accounts cannot use direct messages
Free registered users (leads) cannot access direct messages
Community must be enabled to use Direct Messages
Disabling Direct Messages hides but does not delete content
Share Content in Direct Messages
Links
To share clickable links, include the full URL with https://
✔️ Will work:
https://www.uscreen.tv✖️ Will not work:
uscreen.tv
Media Support
All members with DM access can send GIFs and catalog links
Admin-to-member conversations support image uploads
Member-to-member conversations cannot send images yet
pending moderation tools to avoid inappropriate content in private spaces without admin visibility
📝 NOTE: Images are automatically removed after 90 days, so download any important pictures you need before they get removed.
FAQs
Can I have direct messages without enabling community?
Can I have direct messages without enabling community?
No, direct messages are part of the community feature and cannot be enabled separately.
Can admins or Uscreen staff read private messages?
Can admins or Uscreen staff read private messages?
Store admins cannot access direct messages when impersonating users. Uscreen cannot immediately view these private messages and may only access them when necessary for support or to fix issues, always maintaining strict confidentiality.
💬 We'd love to hear from you, so here's how you can submit feedback.