One Church Chat is a real-time messaging space built right into One Church Software. It gives everyone at your church a place to talk — in open channels, in private channels, or in private messages — without leaving the rest of the platform.
Chat opens as an overlay on top of whatever you are already working on, so you can keep using One Church while a conversation stays open beside it.
Getting to know Chat
Opening Chat
Sign in to One Church Software.
Find the Chat item in the left navigation.
Click it. The chat overlay slides in over whatever was on screen.
From there you can open Channels (grouped under categories), Private Messages, and your group and service-plan chats.
The building blocks of Chat
Chat is made up of a few pieces:
Channels - the main place people talk. Public (anyone can join) or private (invite-only), and either a Text timeline or a Forum board of titled posts.
Private Messages - closed conversations between specific people, one-on-one or in a group.
Threads - focused side-conversations that branch off a message to keep a channel tidy.
Polls, reactions, pins, and files - tools for gathering input and keeping track of what matters.
Real-time and on every device
New messages, edits, reactions, typing indicators, and presence dots all appear in real time — no need to refresh. Chat also adapts to your screen: a full layout on desktop, and a single-pane layout on phones where search, pinned messages, and the member list each slide in from the right.
Plans and who can use Chat
What turns chat on for a person
Three things all have to be true before someone sees and uses chat. If any one is missing, the chat icon simply doesn't appear.
License - your church's plan includes chat (or you added Member Chat Pro), and chat hasn't been switched off for the church.
Access - this specific person is allowed to use chat. Most churches allow everyone; some limit it to certain people.
Age - the person is at least 13 and has confirmed their date of birth. See Age requirements and child safety in Chat.
Which plans include chat
Standard chat is included on the Core, Core Plus, Plus, and Premium plans, and on trial accounts so you can evaluate it. A church on a plan that includes chat can also add Member Chat Pro.
Member Chat Pro
Member Chat Pro is a self-serve paid add-on that a church turns on from its subscription's Add Ons. It raises several limits and unlocks features:
Message length - 4,000 characters.
2,000 characters on standard chatAttachment size - 250 MB per file.
25 MB per file on standard chat
Message history - full conversation history.
Only the last 30 days on standard chatCustom emojis - not available on standard chat
On standard chat, only the most recent 30 days of a conversation are readable. Older messages appear as a short stack of grayed-out
Turning chat on or off and choosing who can use it
A church administrator manages chat from the Messaging Center, where they can switch chat on or off for the whole church and choose who may use it — Everyone (the default) or Specific people (limited by criteria such as a group, location or campus, record type, or a saved list). An administrator can also override a single person on the Permissions screen, setting their access to Always or Never.
Changes take effect immediately
If a church's license, the on/off toggle, or a person's access changes while they are signed in, the change applies live — no need to reload. The composer's character limit adjusts, the custom-emoji tools appear or disappear, and if chat is turned off entirely it closes on its own.