Sharing & Permissions

In Collab, being a member is what gives you access. DMs and group chats are flat: everyone in them can do the same things. Channels have three roles: Viewer, Member and Admin. Nobody owns a conversation or a channel. In a channel, the person who started it is shown as Creator, for reference only. Files uploaded into a conversation or channel are kept in a folder in the Files of whoever started it, though: see File Access.

Looking for file and folder roles instead? See Files: Sharing & Permissions.

DM and Group Chat Permissions

• Everyone is equal: these permissions apply to every member, including the person who started the group.
• No removals: nobody can be removed from a DM or group chat. If you want out, you leave.
• DMs stay one to one: a DM can’t be renamed and nobody can be added to it. Start a group chat instead.
• Meetings: anyone can join a meeting, but starting one needs a paid plan. See Meetings.

Channel Permissions

• Viewer: read-only. Viewers can read messages, open files shared in the channel, and start or join calls, but can’t send, reply or react.
• Member: everything a Viewer can do, plus sending, replying, reacting, editing their own messages, and renaming the channel or editing its description.
• Admin: everything a Member can do, plus adding and removing people, changing roles, deleting anyone’s message, sharing the channel, and archiving, deleting and restoring it.
• Creator: whoever started the channel. The Creator’s channel permissions come only from their role, and an Admin can change it or remove them like anyone else. Files uploaded into the channel are kept in a folder in the Creator’s Files (see File Access).

To check your role, open the channel’s Info: it’s shown as Your Role under Details.

A Viewer only has messages of their own if they used to be a Member or Admin. They can still delete those, but can no longer edit them.

Channels are available on paid plans. You need one to create a channel or to add people to one, and everyone you add needs one too. In Manage Channel, click the info icon next to the title for a quick summary of the roles.

Keeping an Admin

Every channel needs at least one Admin while other people are in it. The last Admin can’t leave, and can’t be removed or given another role, until someone else has been made an Admin.

Archive, Delete and Restore

Only Admins can archive, unarchive, delete, restore or permanently delete a channel. Admins see Delete in the channel’s three-dot menu, which offers both Archive and Delete. Archived channels disappear from everyone’s list and appear in the Admins’ Settings > Data > Archive, on the Collab tab. Deleted channels go to the Admins’ Settings > Data > Recycle Bin (also on the Collab tab) for 30 days.

DMs and group chats can’t be archived or deleted for everyone. They move to the Recycle Bin when the last person leaves. See Archive, Delete & Restore.

Adding People

Group Chats

Any member can add people:

1. In the group, click More (the + at the top left) and choose Manage. You can also open the group’s three-dot menu in the sidebar and choose Share > Manage.
2. On the Add people tab (the + tab), search by name or username and click Add next to each person. They appear under Pending until you save.
3. Click Save.

The people you add get an Added to Group notification and can read the group’s whole history.

Channels

Only Admins can add people:

1. In the channel, click More and choose Manage, or open the channel’s three-dot menu and choose Share > Manage.
2. On the Add people tab, search by name or username. Free users don’t appear, because channels need a paid plan.
3. Click Viewer, Member or Admin on a result to add that person with that role. You can change the role under Pending before saving.
4. Click Save.

The people you add get an Added to Channel notification that names their role. Viewers and Members can open Manage to see who is in the channel, but can’t add anyone.

Changing Roles

In a channel, Admins can change anyone’s role except their own:

1. Open Manage in the channel.
2. Open the Viewers, Members or Admins tab.
3. Click Manage (the gear) next to the person and pick Viewer, Member or Admin.
4. Click Save.

The person gets a Channel Role Updated notification. Group chats have no roles to change.

Removing People

Nobody can be removed from a DM or group chat, including by the person who started it.

In a channel, Admins can remove anyone except themselves: open Manage, click Manage (the gear) next to the person, click Remove, then Save. The person gets a Removed from Channel notification, everyone else sees “{name} removed {name} from the channel”, and they lose access to the channel and its messages.

Removing someone doesn’t take back the view access they got to files posted in the channel while they were a member. To cut that off, change the file’s sharing in Files.

Leaving

Anyone can leave a DM, group chat or channel: open its three-dot menu in the sidebar and choose Leave, then confirm. In a group chat you can also click Leave on your own row in Manage > Members.

• Last Admin: in a channel, the last Admin can’t leave while other people are still in it. Make someone else an Admin first.
• Last member: if you’re the last person in, leaving moves the conversation or channel to your Recycle Bin, where you can restore it for 30 days.
• What you lose: the conversation leaves your list, everyone else sees that you left, and you lose access to files posted there, including access you had to them from elsewhere (see File Access). To come back, someone has to add you again.

Share With and Copy Link

Open a group’s or channel’s three-dot menu in the sidebar and hover over Share. Any member of a group sees it; in a channel, only Admins do.

• Share With: pick a friend on the Friends tab, one of your groups or channels on the Groups or Channels tab, or anyone on the Search tab, then click Share and confirm. Picking a person adds them. Picking a group or channel adds all of its members. Pentos also posts a link in the place you picked, starting a DM with the person if you don’t have one yet. People added to a channel this way join as Members and need a paid plan.
• Copy Link: copies a link to the group or channel. Only its members can open it.
• Manage: opens the same Manage panel described above.

Mentioning Someone Who Isn’t a Member

In a group chat or channel, if you @mention someone who isn’t a member, Pentos asks before sending, for example: “@name isn’t in this conversation, so they won’t be notified. Add them so they can see your mention and reply?” In a channel the prompt is titled Invite to Channel; in a group it’s Add to Conversation.

• Add: adds them, then sends your message. In a channel they join as Members and need a paid plan, and only an Admin can add people, so for anyone else the add doesn’t go through.
• Send anyway: sends your message without adding them. They aren’t notified.

Sharing a Link in a Message

If your message contains a Pentos link to a chat, file, folder, group or channel that some people in the conversation can’t open, a Share Resource prompt asks whether to share it with them:

• Share & Send: gives them Editor access to the chat, file or folder, or adds them to the group, or to the channel as Members (channels need a paid plan), then sends the message. If access can’t be given, your message is still sent and Pentos tells you to share it again.
• Send Without Sharing: sends the message as it is.

You can only share things you’re allowed to share. For anything else you’ll see “Sorry, we couldn’t share that: you don’t have permission to add people to it.” and that item isn’t shared.

File Access

You can attach any file you can open in Pentos: your own files, files shared with you and public files. The one exception is a file you can see only because someone posted it in a conversation or a shared chat. You can’t attach that one yourself, in that conversation or anywhere else.

What the others in the conversation get depends on your access to the file:

• You own it or are an Admin on it: everyone in the conversation gets view access, including channel Viewers. People who join later can open it too, as long as the message is still there and you still own the file or are an Admin on it. Files you upload while writing a message are yours, so this applies to them.
• Anything else: people who don’t already have their own access see a locked User File that can’t be opened. In More > Files it’s marked No access.

Access gained this way is always view-only, whatever your role in the conversation. Someone who already has more access to the file keeps it while they’re in the conversation.

• Where uploads are kept: files uploaded into a conversation or channel are saved in a folder in the Files of the person who started it. Everyone else in it sees that folder under Shared, with Viewer access. See Attachments.
• Deleting the message: doesn’t take the file back from the people who were in the conversation when you sent it. To cut off their access, change the file’s sharing in Files.
• Leaving: unless you’re the last person in it, leaving removes your access to every file posted in that conversation or channel by someone who could share it, including access you had to those files from elsewhere, such as a direct share in Files. Files you own are not affected. Ask the owner to share a file again if you still need it.
• Being removed from a channel: doesn’t end the view access you got to files posted there while you were a member.

For more on sending files, see Attachments.