Messaging Parents Directly

Messaging Parents Directly

This is 1:1, real-time chat between you and one parent — a different tool from the Noticeboard (public, read-only, setting-wide posts) and from Broadcast Message (a one-way announcement sent privately to every parent at once). Use direct messaging for the ordinary, individual back-and-forth of running your setting: a question about pickup time, a reply to something a parent asked, a quick update about their child specifically.

Starting a New Chat

1. Open the Messages tab
2. Tap the + button in the top right
3. Pick a parent from your list — this comes from the parents linked to your children's profiles, so if someone isn't listed, add them to a child's profile first
4. Tapping their name opens the chat straight away, ready for your first message

If you haven't added any parents yet, the list explains this directly: "Add parents to your children's profiles to start messaging them."

Sending and Receiving Messages

Chats are live — messages sent and received appear instantly via KinderStart's real-time connection, no need to pull to refresh. Your own messages appear on the right in your setting's colour; the parent's messages appear on the left. Each message shows a timestamp.

Type into the message box at the bottom and tap the send button. There's no character limit beyond a normal text field, and the input grows as you type longer messages.

Polish with AI

Next to the message box is a Polish button (the sparkle icon). If you've written a message but want a hand tightening the wording before you send it, tap it:

1. Type your message as normal
2. Tap Polish
3. A Review KinderAssist sheet opens, showing your Original text alongside a Polished Version
4. Tap Accept Changes to replace your draft with the polished version, or Discard to keep what you wrote

Accepting doesn't send the message — it only rewrites the draft in the input box, so you still review and tap send yourself.

Broadcast Message: Sending to Every Parent at Once

Separate from 1:1 chat, Broadcast Message sends the same message individually to every parent linked to your setting in one action — useful for something every family needs to know right now, without composing a full Noticeboard post.

1. From the Messages tab, tap the ⋮ overflow menu in the top right
2. Tap Broadcast Message
3. Write your message — recipients are fixed to All Parents, there's no way to select a subset
4. Tap Send Broadcast

You'll be asked to confirm: "This message will be sent individually to all parents. Replies will be private." That's the key difference from the Noticeboard — each parent gets your message as their own private chat message from you, and if they reply, only you see it. Nobody else's reply, and no other family's name, appears in anyone else's chat.