Group conversations with multiple participants

Overview

A group conversation is one secure conversation that includes more than one external participant alongside your staff. Instead of running a separate thread with each person, you add everyone who needs to be involved — a patient, their family members, an outside caregiver, a care manager — into a single conversation, together with the coworkers and teams responsible for that patient's communication.

Every participant messages in the same thread. When anyone replies, everyone in the conversation sees the message, and each reply is labeled with the sender's name as saved in your organization's directory, so your team can tell who responded.

Group conversations are a secure conversation type. External participants receive a secure link over SMS and open a portal to read messages and reply — there is no app for them to install. Use group conversations when a patient's care involves several people who all need to stay on the same page.

Prerequisites

• A paid SMS-enabled plan. Secure links are delivered over SMS from your organization's number. See SMS messaging and Update payment method.
• A phone number with a team attached. Each phone number is tied to a team in BloomText; team members can message from that number and see its conversations. Admins manage membership under Directory → Phone numbers.
• The phone number of each participant you want to add — every patient or contact you include needs a mobile number that can receive SMS.

Steps

1. Create a chat

Open the Inbox and click the purple + button, then choose Create a chat. Send from the team that has your phone number assigned so secure links can go out over SMS.

2. Add multiple participants

Add each participant to the conversation by phone number or from your directory. You are not limited to one recipient the way plain SMS is — add the patient plus the additional people who need to be in the loop, such as a parent, an adult child, an outside caregiver, or a care manager.

For example, the front desk at Lakeside Pediatric Therapy might build a conversation for the "Margaret P. care team" that includes Margaret's two adult children at (555) 010-2233 and (555) 010-4455, her outside care manager at (555) 010-6677, and the practice's assigned clinician.

3. Send the message

When you send, each external participant receives their own secure link over SMS (a https://blm.care/… link) that opens into the same conversation. Everyone lands in one shared thread rather than separate one-to-one threads.

4. Everyone replies in one thread

Replies from any participant appear in the one conversation, visible to everyone in it. Each reply is labeled with the sender's name as saved in your directory, so staff can always tell who said what.

You can share photos, files, and documents in a group conversation the same way you would in any secure conversation. You can also name the conversation (for example, "Margaret P. care team") so it is easy to find in the inbox — use Rename chat from the conversation header.

Access and history

Your staff participate in group conversations from every BloomText client: the web app, the desktop app, and the iOS and Android mobile apps. Coworkers you add — and members of the phone number's team — can read and reply from whichever client they use.

The conversation history stays on the organization account, not on any one person's phone. Every message is retained and exportable for audit, and admins control who has access.

How group conversations differ from broadcasts and one-to-one SMS

Group conversations are one of several ways BloomText moves messages. They are easy to confuse, so here is how they differ:

• Group conversation — several external participants and your staff share one conversation. Everyone sees every reply, and each reply is labeled with the sender's name. Use it when multiple people are coordinating around the same patient.
• Broadcast — one message goes out to many patients at once, but each reply comes back as a private one-to-one conversation. No recipient sees another recipient or their reply. Use it for reminders and announcements. See Broadcast messaging.
• One-to-one patient SMS — the plain SMS (Text Message) send mode is for exactly one patient and for messages that contain no protected health information. It is a separate mode from secure group conversations. See SMS messaging.

Edge cases / gotchas

• Identity labels are directory names. A reply is labeled with the participant's name as saved in your directory. Keep directory records accurate so the labels stay meaningful — the label reflects the saved name, not a separately verified identity.
• Secure links expire and can be resent. Each participant's secure link expires after the configured window. If someone reports a dead link, resend from the conversation and a new link is generated for them.
• Team membership controls access. Removing a staff member from the phone number's team immediately revokes their ability to send from that number and their access to the conversation history on it.
• You cannot convert a plain SMS thread into a group conversation. Plain SMS is a one-patient, no-PHI mode. To involve several people in one secure thread, start a secure group conversation instead of trying to add participants to a plain SMS thread.

Related flows

• SMS messaging to patients
• Broadcast (mass) SMS to patients
• Getting started with BloomText