Group discussion


You can create, join or leave a group and its discussion in which messages are received by all its participants.

Create a group and its discussion

iOS
  1. Tap (bottom).

  2. Tap Create Group.

  3. Select the members you want to add to this group to allow them to participate in its discussion.

  4. Specify or not the details of the group. You can always change them later.

  5. Tap Create group, then confirm.

Congratulations! You are now the administrator of this group and its discussion, which was automatically created. It appears in your discussions list .

Android
  1. Tap (bottom).

  2. Tap NEW GROUP.

  3. Select the members you want to add to this group to allow them to participate in its discussion.

  4. Specify the group’s details and choose its type. You can always modify them later.

    • Simple: All members are administrators and can invite new members.
    • Private: Only you can invite new members to this group.
    • Read-only: Only group administrators are authorized to post messages.
    • Custom: Choose the discussion settings that suit you best (administrators, read-only, etc.).
  5. Tap CREATE GROUP.

Congratulations! You are now administrator of this group and its discussion, which was automatically created. It appears in your discussions list .

Depending on the type of group created, any participant can send and receive messages that will be received by all the others.

Each group member can view the details of a group and its discussion along with the list of members and participants in the discussion.

Clone a group

You can clone any group. This will copy the title, photo and, of course, members into a new, blank discussion for which you will be the main administrator.

iOS
  1. Show the group details.

  2. Tap Clone this group.

Android
  1. Show the group details.

  2. Tap , then Clone this group.

View all your groups and their discussions

To view a list of all your groups and their discussions,

iOS
  1. Tap (bottom).
  • The ones you administer are displayed first.

  • Those you have joined are shown next.

Android
  1. Tap (bottom).
  • The ones you administer are displayed with a crown on the discussion icon.

View the details of a group and its discussion

The details of a group and its discussion display its invited members and the participants who have joined it, as well as its administrators and your options. You can view them in two ways:

Modify the details and type of a group and its discussion

If you are the administrator of a group and its discussion, you can modify its details and type.

iOS
  1. View the details of a group and its discussion.

  2. Tap Edit Members or Edit Title or at top right.

Changing the group type (as on Android) will soon be available on iOS.

Android
  1. View the details of a group and its discussion.

  2. Tap .

    The Edit group details screen appears.

  3. Select your choices, then press PUBLISH.

Join a group and its discussion

To join a group and its discussion, one of its administrators must add you to the members invited to participate.

Leave a group and its discussion

You cannot leave a group and its discussion if you are the only administrator. Otherwise, any member or participant can leave a group and its discussion.

  1. View the details of a group and its discussion.

  2. Tap Quit the group, then tap OK to confirm.

Add participants

If you are the administrator of a group and its discussion, you can add participants.

  1. View the details of a group and its discussion.

  2. Tap Edit Members, then Add group members.

  3. Select the participants you want to add, then tap OK.

  4. Tap Publish to confirm, or Cancel to leave it as is.

If you cannot find the person you are looking for, ask him/her to update Olvid.

Remove participants

If you are the administrator of a group and its discussion, you can remove participants.

  1. View the details of a group and its discussion.

  2. Tap Edit Members.

    The list of group members and participants in this discussion is displayed.

  3. Tap to the left of the name of each participant you want to delete.

  4. Tap Publish to confirm, or Cancel to make no changes.

Add or remove administrators

If you are the administrator of a group and its discussion, you can grant or remove the right to administer it to other participants. They can then add or remove participants and other administrators.



  1. View the details of a group and its discussion.

  2. Tap Edit Members.

    The list of group members and participants in this discussion is displayed.

  3. Enable to the right of the name of each participant you wish to grant the right to administer the group, or to remove it.

  4. Tap Publish to confirm, or Cancel to make no changes.

Start a private discussion with a group participant

You can start a private discussion with a group participant as soon as he/she is in your contacts. If they are not yet in your contacts, you can invite them. Here is how to add other users to your contacts.

Delete a group

If you are the administrator of a group and its discussion, you can delete a group and any possibility to write in its discussion. The discussion of the group will be blocked and nobody will be able to write in it anymore.

Be careful, this operation is irreversible and the group will be deleted from all participants.

To delete a group,

  1. View the details of a group and its discussion.

  2. Tap Disband this group.

    A warning and confirmation message will be displayed.

  3. Tap Delete this group for all members or Cancel.

    The group automatically disappears from your list of groups and the group discussion is blocked in all users with the automatic message “You are no longer part of this group, because you have left it, because an administrator has removed you from the group, or simply because the group has been deleted 🥲.”

Then you can also delete the discussion and all its posts.


New groups and old groups

Since October 2022 and version 0.12.0 on iOS and 0.13.0 on Android, Olvid has introduced a new feature allowing multiple administrators per group 👑! This change does not apply to “old groups”, but will be effective for all new groups created from now on.

In order to benefit from this feature, please ensure that your device and those of your correspondents invited into a new group are equipped with latest version of Olvid.

  • A user who has not updated Olvid will not be able to be invited to a new group when it is created.A warning will appear in the application to inform users of the need to update Olvid, along with a list of their names.From now on, each time a group is created, a new group is created.

This major technological and usage evolution for Olvid and its users offers :

  1. The possibility of naming several administrators per group, enabling the sharing or transfer of administration rights for a group and its discussion, such as inviting new participants, modifying the illustration image, etc.

  2. Messages sent to the discussion of a new group will reach all group members at the time of sending, as soon as they have joined the group and thus become participants, even if they appear as “Waiting”. This is similar to sending an e-mail to several people, who will receive it whether or not they are present when it is sent.

Older groups functioned like meeting rooms, where messages were only received once the participants were actually present. Any message posted to the group before this membership was never received. The creator and administrator of the old groups had to wait until all participants had joined the group before being able to write to them in a single message.

The old groups will continue to function in the same way, without the advantages of the new groups.

Clone an old group into a new group

If you are an administrator of an “old group”, you can clone it into a new group before you close the old one. This will copy the title, the picture and of course the participants and the main administrator.

You can then grant or remove the right to administer this new discussion to other participants who can then add or remove participants and administrators.

To clone an old group discussion into a new group discussion,

  1. View the details of a group and its discussion.

  2. Tap Clone this group.

We now invite you to delete the old group to avoid any misunderstanding in the further discussion of this group.