4.5 Group Chats & Multi-Recipient Send

4.5.1 What Group Chats Are

A group chat is a Matrix room with two or more members of any role, optionally including the client. Group chats serve four real-world needs:

Sub-flavours visible in Figma: Lokal 1:1, Live 1:1, Kreis (circle), Intern, Fachblick, Trauerhilfe. These are labels on top of the same underlying group-chat primitive, used for filtering and routing — not separate technical types.

4.5.2 How a Group Chat Is Created

Two paths:

1. Promotion of an existing 1-1 — a counselor in an active room clicks Invite more people (⇧I) in the Chatraum-Einstellungen menu. Anyone the admin policy permits can be invited. The room becomes a group; the client receives a system message and (per tenant policy) may be asked for re-consent.
2. Direct creation — Erstelle Chat opens the participant picker (Add → search → multi-select). The creator chooses chat-type label, optional supervision flag, optional schedule (live Mo 9.Sep 2026 um 18:00 Uhr).

flowchart LR
  A[Counselor clicks Erstelle Chat]:::a --> B[Pick participants]:::b
  B --> C[Choose chat-type label]:::b
  C --> D[Optional Supervision On]:::b
  D --> E[Optional schedule]:::b
  E --> F[Group room created<br/>(Matrix encrypted)]:::c
  F --> G[Members invited<br/>+ system message]:::c

  classDef a fill:#fff3e0,stroke:#ef6c00
  classDef b fill:#e3f2fd,stroke:#1565c0
  classDef c fill:#e8f5e8,stroke:#2e7d32

4.5.3 Member Roles Inside a Group

Counselor-only tools are hidden from clients in the UI and rejected by the API as a defense-in-depth measure.

4.5.4 Multi-Recipient Send ("Wähle wer diese Nachricht sehen soll")

The most novel collaboration tool. A counselor can target a single message to a subset of the room.

Send-button rules (Figma-confirmed)

Recipient picker

The picker shows:

• A flat list of room members with checkboxes.
• Quick selectors: Select All, Select All Counsellors, Select All Moderators.
• A live result chip: "visible only to: Ich", "3 Moderators", "+23", etc.
• A "Reply directly" / "Reply in Thread" toggle controls the destination.

How it actually works (proposed)

Matrix has no native "visible only to N members" message-level restriction, so we propose a server-side relay ("Carimat-relay" service account):

sequenceDiagram
  participant Co as Counselor
  participant FE as ORISO-Element
  participant Bot as Carimat-Relay (service account)
  participant MX as Matrix
  Co->>FE: Pick "3 Moderators" → Send
  FE->>Bot: encrypted_payload + recipient_set
  alt Per-recipient Megolm
    Bot->>MX: send N encrypted events, one per recipient (parent_event_id linked)
  else Sub-thread fan-out
    Bot->>MX: open hidden 1-to-N sub-room, post message there
  end
  Bot-->>FE: ack with sub-event-ids
  FE-->>Co: Pill "visible only to: 3 Moderators"

Decision pending — see Figma analysis §4.3.

Status pills

After send, the message in the chat shows a chip explaining who can see it:

4.5.5 Reply Directly vs Reply in Thread

The composer offers four send modes:

1. Direct send — main thread, all members.
2. Reply directly — quote a parent message, main thread.
3. Reply in Thread — open / continue a side-thread off the parent message.
4. Multi-recipient — restrict either of the above to a subset.

UX rule: "Important. When I click again in text field, clicking now on send will only send this item directly into either the thread or editor." — i.e., once a thread is open, the next send goes to that thread until explicitly switched back.

4.5.6 Forwarding & Deleting

• Forward Message — opens a recipient picker similar to multi-recipient send; sends a copy preserving original timestamp. Forwards are also restricted to counselors.
• Delete Message — Matrix redaction event; visible as a tombstone "Message deleted".

4.5.7 File Upload

• Drop zone copy: "Ziehen Sie die Datei in das Feld, um sie hochzuladen."
• Allowed: .jpg, .png, .pdf, .docx, .xlsx.
• Max: 10 MB per file.
• Stored in Matrix media repo, encrypted at rest.

4.5.8 Group Chat Settings ("Chatraum Einstellungen")

4.5.9 Filters, Phases & List Views

The chat list now sorts and filters across multiple axes. Tabs at the top of a counselor's inbox:

Ungelesen · 1-1 Beratung · Live-Chat · Gruppen · Aktiv · Termine · Archiv · Anfragen

Filter chips (visible in the rail): Personen, Type, Beratungsstelle, Archived. Plus the secondary tabs: Gespräche, Reports, Mein Profil, Logs, Entwürfe (drafts), Aktivität (activity), Zeitstrahl (timeline), Gemerkt (pinned), Terminiert (scheduled).

Phase model (counselor inbox)

Each list row shows the phase the chat is in:

4.5.10 Lifecycle & Retention

4.5.11 Edge Cases (Group-Chat Specific)

For the full catalogue see Edge Cases. Key group-chat ones:

• Client deletes themselves mid-group-chat → see 9.1.8.
• Multi-recipient send with offline recipient → message is delivered as soon as the recipient's Megolm session is back online; never visible to non-recipients.
• Counselor invites a non-permitted user → API returns 403 with the admin-policy reason.
• Admin disables Group Chats globally → existing groups become read-only; no new groups can be created; no data loss.

4.5.12 Related

• Live Chat (4.2) — the 1-1 entry point most groups grow out of.
• AI Tools (4.6) — Summary, Mark/Blur.
• Notifications & Help Requests (4.7).
• Roles & Permissions — per-chat-type permission matrix.
• Figma Analysis — the source for everything on this page.