Real-Time Private Chat System

Summary: The Forumax Chat System introduces a built-in private, real-time messaging experience directly inside your forum. It allows users to start instant one-to-one conversations from forum participants and communicate using messages, likes, replies, emojis, and file/video sharing - without leaving the site.

This feature is designed to increase user engagement, speed up collaboration, and reduce support friction by enabling direct communication between members and designated assistants or moderators.

With full admin controls, you can enable or disable chat capabilities, manage attachments, customize appearance, and assign support assistants.

Why Use the Chat Feature

The Forumax Chat system adds practical communication power to your forum environment:

• Enables instant private conversations between participants
• Reduces dependency on external messaging tools
• Improves community engagement and response speed
• Helps moderators and support teams assist users directly
• Supports rich interaction with emojis, files, and videos
• Keeps conversations contextual to forum activity
• Fully configurable from the admin settings panel

This is especially valuable for support forums, product communities, educational platforms, and professional discussion boards.

How the Chat Works

The chat system is integrated with forum participation data.

Users can start private chats by:

• Hovering over a forum participant
• Hovering over a topic author
• Hovering over a reply author

From there, they can launch an instant private conversation window and begin messaging in real time.

Chat supports:

• Text messages
• Message replies
• Message likes
• Emoji reactions
• File sharing
• Video sharing

If Chat Assistants are enabled, selected moderators or keymasters can appear in every user’s chat list and provide help directly.

Accessing Chat Settings

Navigate to: Forumax Settings → Chat

All chat-related controls are available in this panel.

Best Use Cases

The Forumax Chat feature is especially effective for:

• Product support communities
• Documentation portals
• Course and learning forums
• Developer communities
• Membership sites
• Customer help forums

It allows faster resolution, better engagement, and more personalized interaction.

Chat Settings Configuration

Chat System

Enable Chat — On / Off

Enable or disable the private messaging chat system across the forum.

• When enabled: users can start private chats
• When disabled: chat UI and messaging are hidden

File Attachments

These controls manage file and media sharing inside chat.

Enable File Uploads — On / Off

Allow users to send file attachments in chat conversations.

When enabled, users can share supported files directly in messages.

Max File Size

Define the maximum allowed file size for chat attachments.

Examples:

• 5 MB
• 10 MB
• 25 MB

This helps control server load and storage usage.

Allowed File Types

Select which file formats users are allowed to upload in chat.

Supported types include:

• Images: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, webp
• Documents: pdf, doc, docx
• Archives: zip
• Videos: mp4, webm

Restricting file types improves security and moderation control.

Emoji

Enable Emoji Picker — On / Off

Show or hide the emoji picker in the chat input area.

When enabled:

• Users can insert emojis into messages
• Improves expressiveness and engagement

Appearance

Customize the visual style of chat message bubbles.

User Message Bubble

Set the background color for messages sent by the current user.

Other User Message Bubble

Set the background color for messages received from other users.

These options help match chat styling with your theme design.

Text Color

Control message text color for better readability and visual balance.

Chat Assistants

The Chat Assistants feature allows selected moderators or keymasters to provide help across all user chats.

Enable Chat Assistants — On / Off

Allow designated assistants to reply to any user in chat.

When enabled:

• Assistants appear in everyone’s conversation list
• They can respond to user questions directly
• Ideal for support-driven communities

Select Assistants

Choose which users will act as chat assistants.

Only users with roles:

• Moderator
• Keymaster

are available for selection.

Assistants Section Label

Define the label shown above assistants in the conversation list.

Example:

• Support Team
• Help Desk
• Moderators

This label helps users quickly identify official helpers.

Positioning

Control where the chat interface appears on screen.

Chat Position — Right / Left

Choose which side of the screen the chat window appears.

Bottom Distance (px)

Set the distance from the bottom of the screen.

Example:

• 20 px
• 30 px

Useful for avoiding overlap with sticky footers or UI elements.

The Forumax Real-Time Chat System transforms your forum into an interactive communication platform by adding:

• Instant private messaging
• Emoji and reactions
• File and video sharing
• Assistant support system
• Admin-level controls
• Visual customization options

It is a high-value engagement feature that significantly improves user experience and support workflow – making it a strong reason to upgrade to the Forumax Pro-Max package.