Staff chat
Faculty and office staff message each other inside SmartMy, one to one or in groups they make. Files go with the message, and the conversation stays with the college instead of on personal phones. Students and parents are never part of it.
PLANSEvery plan
The problem it solves
- Faculty coordinate exam duties and timetable changes in personal WhatsApp groups, and the college loses the record when someone leaves.
- The exam cell emails a file to twenty faculty members and gets twenty replies in twenty threads.
- A new head of department is never added to the right group.
- Work talk and family photos mix in the same app on the same phone.
How it works
- Click Chat in the main menu of the back office. It takes the place of the Discuss link and opens under the usual menu bar.
- The list on the left shows every conversation you are in, newest first, with the last message and the number unread.
- To message a colleague, click New > Message someone and choose the person. If a chat with them exists, it opens again.
- To make a group, click New > New group, type a name such as Exam cell 2026, tick the colleagues and click Make the group.
- Write in the box at the bottom. The paperclip adds files. Enter sends; Shift + Enter starts a new line. New messages appear by themselves.
Everything it does
Who you can message
- Colleagues with an office or faculty login who share at least one of your colleges
- Groups you make, and the channels of your organisation you are a member of
- Students and parents are not in staff chat; faculty talk to families in the separate parent chat
The conversation
- Day labels (Today, Yesterday, 5 Oct), the time in each message, other people's messages on the left with their name
- Ticks on your own messages: one means sent, two mean everyone in the conversation has seen it
- A message holds up to 4,000 characters, with any number of files
- A group name holds up to 60 characters
- Search inside a conversation with the magnifying glass
- Mute a conversation, or leave a group, from the three dots
What it does not do
- No voice or video calls and no voice notes
- A sent message cannot be deleted by its writer
- No phone notification for staff chat; unread counts show in the chat list
- No staff chat page in the Campus app; the address /chat opens the same screen in a phone's browser
Who uses it
Faculty memberMessages colleagues and works in the department and exam groups they are in.
Head of departmentMakes a group for the department and shares notes and files with it.
Exam cell and officeCoordinate duties, papers and arrangements with the people concerned.
Where you use it
- Web: Chat in the main menu of the back office, in place of Discuss
- A phone's browser: the address /chat, the same screen with its own top bar
- Not in the Campus app: its Messages are chats with families about one student
- Not for students or parents
What you control
Settings
- No set-up: every staff login has Chat
- Who appears in Message someone: colleagues sharing a college with you
Notifications
- No message by app notification, WhatsApp, SMS or email for staff chat; unread counts show in the chat list
Questions
Can students or parents see our staff groups?
No. Staff chat is for office and faculty logins only. Faculty talk to a student's family in the separate parent chat, one family at a time.Can I chat with staff of our other college?
Yes, if you are both given that college under Allowed Entities. The people you can message are colleagues who share a college with you.Will I get a notification on my phone?
No. Staff chat sends no phone notification. Unread messages show as a count in the chat list when you open Chat.Can I call a colleague from the chat?
No. Voice and video calls and voice notes are not part of staff chat. Messages and files are.Can I delete a message I sent by mistake?
Not yet. Write a correction in the conversation instead.Related features
CERTIFICATES AND LIBRARYMessages between students, parents and facultyStudents and their parents message the class teacher and the faculty of each subject the student takes, in a private chat about that student. Faculty answer on the web or in the Campus app, and the principal can read the chats.TIMETABLE, ASSIGNMENTS, NOTICESCirculars and noticesWrite a circular once, choose who it is for (students, parents, staff, chosen programmes, batches, sections or departments) and how they are told. It is approved before it goes out, and students read it with its attachments on the portal and in the Campus app.APPS AND PORTALFaculty view in the appThe faculty view of the Campus app puts the day on the phone: today's lectures and registers, assignments, marks, student leave and exam duties. The same app runs the library counter and the activity instructor's sessions, and each person sees only the pages their role allows.ACROSS SMARTMY COLLEGENotificationsSmartMy College tells students, parents, faculty and recruiters when something needs them: an elective window, a fee due, a result, a drive or an offer. Every message also lands in one inbox in the Campus app and on the portal. Each person chooses their channels and their informational messages.
See your own semester run in it.
Tell us how many students you have, which programmes you run, how you hold examinations and how electives are chosen today. We will show you SmartMy College set up that way.