Chat

Chat

📣
Using the Chat during workshops allows participants to share their thoughts with GIFs and emojis without interrupting the flow of whoever's speaking or presenting. The chat is easy to manage thanks to discussion threads, pinned messages, private messages, and separate chat channels during breakouts. All chat logs are saved in your Recaps—so you’ll never lose an important link again. 😅

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🎥 Video Explainer: Chatting in Butter

Here’s Jakob with a 2-minute overview of everything you need to know about the Butter Chat.

Chat Features

The chat has all the typical features you love, plus a few more!

To open the chat, select ‘Chat’ from the left sidebar, or press your ‘C’ key as a shortcut. The chat will open up within the main Butter window.

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Pop out the chat window

If you want to declutter your Butter window or move the chat to a separate screen, select the ‘Popout’ button.

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Popping out the chat makes it easier to see everyone’s faces!

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Throw in some fun

In the chat, you can post:

  • images
  • emojis
  • GIFs from the Giphy library
  • files of any type (facilitators only)

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Say it with a GIF: Want participants to share how they're feeling in a fun and engaging way? Ask them to share their mood with a GIF!
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Other chat options

Sometimes the chat can get a little hectic. We’ve added features that make it easier to stay on topic and organize the discussion:

  • react to messages with emojis 👍
  • reply to a message in a thread
  • edit your own messages (argh, typos!)
  • delete your own messages
  • pin messages in the chat (facilitators only)
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📍
Put a pin in it: You can pin as many messages in the chat as you’d like and then access them with ‘See pinned messages’. This is a great way to save questions or links for later.

Chat Channels

Sometimes, you need to privately message someone—and it’s a pain to open up another chat app on the side! That’s what chat channels are for.

To access the different channels, just select from the dropdown at the top of the chat window.

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Main Room

This is the main default chat room. Everyone will be in here unless you’re running breakouts.

Facilitators Only

Message your co-facilitators in the Facilitators Only channel. This is great for coordinating responsibilities on the fly!

Participants (direct)

You can privately message any participant by choosing ‘New message’ and selecting a participant.

Breakouts

While running breakouts, you have a few more channels available:

  • Breakout Overview: where facilitators hang out while the breakouts are in progress
  • Individual groups/rooms: A great option for telling a group to pick up the pace
  • All rooms: Broadcast a message to all breakout rooms (e.g. “Only 5 more minutes!”)

Learn more about breakouts here:

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Chat Logs

Chat logs let you revisit your chats to debrief your sessions or find a link that someone dropped in the chat.

You can see the chat logs for sessions you hosted and sessions you were invited to.

View your chat logs

To access your chat logs, go to your Recaps tab on the main Butter dashboard, select the room session you’re looking for, and select ‘Chat logs’.

This will pop open a chat window, where you can view all the same chat channels as you can during a session—including breakouts.

The one exception is private messages. These are not saved in the chat logs, so make sure to save anything important from your DMs!

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🌶️
Hot tip: To quickly find your sessions with chat logs, you can filter your recaps by ‘Contains: Chat’.

Download your chat logs

You can also download your chat logs as a .csv file by clicking the ‘Download’ button from the Recaps tab, or from a Chat log window.

To learn more about Recaps, check out

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Chat FAQs

What chat channels can participants access?

Participants can direct message:

  • Facilitators
  • Participants
  • Their breakout group/room
  • All breakouts (but not individual breakouts)
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Can I see unread messages?

Yes, unread messages appear as red notification dots.

You’ll also get a notification pop-up in your Butter window when you receive a new direct message.

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Can participants also download chat logs?

Yes, anyone can download their chat logs from any Butter session they hosted or participated in—but only if they’re logged in!

Do private messages get saved in the chat log?

Private messages don’t get stored in the chat recaps, so make sure to copy anything important before the session ends.

Do breakout messages get saved in the recaps?

Yes, they do!

Can I turn off GIFs in the chat?

No you can’t. If you find the GIFs distracting, we’d suggest closing the chat or popping it out to another screen.

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