💬FamilySearch Chat is Now Live!!!
FamilySearch Chat is a new messaging system on FamilySearch.org that is now available. It replaces the old FamilySearch messaging system and, like chat tools you may have used elsewhere, FamilySearch Chat enables real-time conversation with any FamilySearch users signed in at the same time as you. You can still access the Messages pages by going to the direct link: https://www.familysearch.org/messages/ where you can download all messages associated with your profile.
During the initial import of messages from the old to the new system, the first message is shown with the remainder of the messages as a "reply" or "thread" with the first. If it seems like messages are missing, start with the first message and see if you notice any "replies" and click on that to view if there are any missing messages. A reminder that only messages after November 2021 were imported over. Any other messages will remain on the old system until 31 December 2023 and can be downloaded using the link above.
Take a moment to jump on and chat, try the User Connections feature and search for a friend or colleague, and say hello.
To learn more click here
For Frequently Asked Questions click here
Comments
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As a FamilySearch Support missionary, I just spoke with a patron who lost all her recent messages. This is opposite of what the blog tells us: "Anything older than 2022 will be available at FamilySearch.org/messages until 31 December 2023. "
Instead she still had everything from Feb 2023 backward and was missing everything after Feb 2023.
She was able to find her more recent contacts and messages by going to FamilySearch.org/messages. Whew!
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Those who are interested in their messages from the older system should also take note of the ability to download all the old messages by going to https://www.familysearch.org/messages/download
That will download all the messages into one Word doc (or one doc per conversation, collected in a .zip file). Doing this will preserve all your messages even after the old system is completely retired on 31 Dec 2023.
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yeh I also got the impression that I may have lost some recent messages . . . (within months)
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I've experienced a similar loss of older messages. I no longer have any messages that were created prior to Jan 2020, unless the message thread was started prior to Jan 2020 and continued into or past Jan 2020.
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While the search box for the new FamilySearch Chat implies that a user can "Search for people or chats," the ability to search with words from the body of the message seems to be very hit or miss. I've hit some messages by searching on the first word or two within the message body, but this doesn't always work.
If at all possible, please have the search feature search words within the body of the messages.
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I discovered that the Chat link to the person being discussed is missing from the new dialog. Without a link or reference to the person/record being discussed the messages that I receive are non-sensical as they have no context and make no sense. I'll attach some examples at the end of this for clarity.
This problem exists using Windows desktop with both a Chrome and Bing browser, this is an issue on the iPad app and iPhone app. Troubleshooting steps such as clearing cookies, etc. do not resolve the issue. The only place I've found where the "about" link to the person the message is about exists is the Safari browser on the iPad.
I reported this via email with examples and was told the problem couldn't be recreated and to call. I called and demonstrated to support who a bit surprised and agreed that the "about" link to the person the chat was referencing was now simply gone. They suggested I raise the question here.
Is this an intentional change or an oversight or ?
- Here's an example message I recently received which frankly makes no sense as there is no context for who the sender is talking about -
CLB 9/25/2023, 7:22:47 PM Hi, I attached an OLD magazine article in your memories section. Under that article I put where I found it. It should be posted soon. I hope it helps with research ! Sincerely, [removed]
- This is the same message including the "about" information. This is how messages were displayed prior to the new "chat" dialog, this tells me that the message is about Mary Jane Price and links to her record. The only place the "about" information now displays that I can find is using the Safari browser on my iPad.
About: Mary Jane Price (1860–1902) • Person • Family Tree • FamilySearch
CLB 9/25/2023, 7:22:47 PM
Hi, I attached an OLD magazine article in your memories section. Under that article I put where I found it. It should be posted soon. I hope it helps with research ! Sincerely, [removed]
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The equivalent of an About link is indeed present in newly-created chats. It looks like this, if you start from a person and click on the Contributor to any conclusion for that person to initiate the chat.
But there are some problems with messages in the old system that were converted to chats. It appears that the About information was not preserved in the data migration. That is indeed unfortunate.
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If true and the hyperlink couldn't be migrated from the old system to the new, that would be good to include in the FAQ. IMHO, 80% of the problem could be addressed by copying the readable text of the hyperlink into the message when it was migrated. While the hyperlink functionality wouldn't be there, it would give some context, ,some idea of the subject of the message which could be used to search for the person/record. My view, as it is today, they existing messages are quite useless.
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I used the download thing yesterday (https://www.familysearch.org/messages/download), and it has the "about" lines in the resulting document. (I don't know if it's LibreOffice's fault or what, but while the link information is there in a tooltip, and the text is blue, it's not clickable.)
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It's a good point that the About information is preserved in the downloaded document. The document does indeed contain the links -- in MS Word, you use Ctrl+Click (in Windows -- perhaps Cmd+Click on a Mac) to follow the link, and it did work.
That gives some comfort that the information is not truly lost, but it's not particularly convenient; when I'm in a Chat conversation converted from a Message, I don't really want to open up that document, search for the message, and follow the link, just to figure out what was one click away in the old Messaging system.
However, the bottom line is that the information is not lost, and new messages will have the links. So the transition may be a bit bumpy for existing conversations, but over time those will become less important and the end result should be fine.
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Perhaps I am being a little lazy about not looking into this myself, but I have recently received this in my Messages. Does this relate to something raised via "Chat", as I have no idea what either of these items are referring to?
Also, what are the implications of my checking the "No" option in the below? Will I no longer receive any messages via the Family Tree links if I do so?
This whole issue appears to have either poorly explained, or maybe it's me not having had the chance to read about its implications. Perhaps someone would kindly provide me with a link to an article that might explain everything.
(I'm probably getting completely confused on the subject, as I have just realised the message received from William10012 was via this forum, but my Family Tree messages are now accessed via the Chat icon in that program.)
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@Paul W The directory search results option is explained here: https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/opt-into-the-familysearch-directory-service
Basically, the new Chat (and some other places in FamilySearch) has the ability to look up people. A good example would be if I encountered someone in another context (in real life, or here on Community) and I wanted to send them a Chat, then I could search for them. It will search by name or Contact ID. But it will only find people who have enabled the setting to be included in directory search results.
Of course, people who contribute to Family Tree or Memories in any way will have their Contact ID associated with those contributions, and so other users can contact them through that means. But you'll be generally searchable only if you enable that setting.
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Okay, thanks, Alan. So it seems I'll be "safe" to opt out of being included in the directory (if I decide it's not something that will be of interest / benefit to me).
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@Paul W, I doubt that opting out of the main site's directory will have any effect on the people who can't figure out how to use the Community and therefore send their questions to random users who've replied to whatever post they were looking at. (The other common behavior from such people is to post their question as a comment on often totally-unrelated threads; the mods can separate those out, so I think they're a step better than the messages to a random user.)
(The thing I don't get is, online forums predate even the World Wide Web. [Remember newsgroups?] Surely, people should have figured out the concept by now?)
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Mod note- @Larry Ford_1 Community is a public online forum. Your question was edited to remove names of living individuals for their privacy. Please see the Community Code of Conduct for more details. https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/community-code-of-conduct
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I have been told that there is no way to "Delete" a message in the new Chat feature. Can that really be true? thanks, DL Melville
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The new chat has a different set of features. Although it's technically true that you can't delete a chat, you can hide a chat, which from your perspective should be pretty much the same thing. A hidden chat won't appear in your list of chat conversations, but has the added capability that you can change your mind and unhide it.
Edit: I should clarify my comment about "you can change your mind and unhide it."
It turns out that a hidden chat can easily be unhidden on the mobile Family Tree app via Chat Settings. But on the web, there's no reasonable way to do that at this point. A hidden chat will be unhidden automatically if another participant in the chat sends a message. But you have no way to revive that hidden chat yourself.
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thanks, Alan
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Hi,
The new messaging area of family search no longer shows the person's name and profile/id number.
I've just had a message from someone about a photo I uploaded but they didn't include the name or profile number of the person they were asking about. The old message window used to have these details at the top of the message.
Perhaps you could update the new chat/message window to include these details again.
Thanks.
Karen
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Odd, for me it shows the person they're talking about underneath the first message in the conversation. Showing it at the top (or at least somewhere where it is shown at all times) would definitely be nice though.
I was able to send a message to my brother, disconnected from any ancestor's page, by searching for him in the chat instead of clicking on his name in a person page. Perhaps that's what happened?
Edit: I apparently have some chats that have the link, and others that don't. I'm don't remember if the links disappeared with the update or if the chats in question didn't have them before.
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There are a couple of differences between the old Messaging and the new Chat that would make it impossible to put these links at the top of the conversation. With Messaging, you could have multiple conversations with the same person, each with its own About link, so it was shown at the top. With Chat, however, you can only have one conversation with a particular person, so the About link has to be connected to a message within the conversation. That's necessary, since you could have multiple people or memories that you are discussing with the same person.
Note also that About links unfortunately didn't get converted from the old Messaging system to the new Chat system. So conversations that get initiated as Chat will in the context of a person or memory will have a link to the person or memory in the conversation. But conversations that were initiated as Messages and then converted to a Chat conversation will not include the person/memory link.
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@Alan E. Brown True, but perhaps they could put it at the top when looking at the replies for a message with a person attached.
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I know I read what Chat is about and maybe some training on how to use it.
I am one of those that has to do something several times to remember.
Is there a training video on how to do Chat. Or better yet explain it also in field.
What does "Type a Contact name mean" in top field just above the contributor name, or person I want to chat with.
Am I doing a record search? My Name, or ??
If my name why not have "Input name you want to be called" or known by.
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Here are some help center articles:
-https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-use-familysearch-chat
When I click on the chat icon in the top right corner, I am shown this:
The start overview brings up a pop up so there there does seem to be a link to that information.
When you click on a user's name anywhere in Family Tree to bring up the pop up with that person's information then click on the chat button there, you get a new private chat created that is pre-populated with that user and, if you are coming here from a Family Tree profile page, a link to the profile you came from:
"Type a Contact Name" seen here about the person you want to chat with is how you add additional people to the chat. It's like adding multiple recipients to an e-mail. Start typing in a user name and you get a list of possible matches:
Then pick the one you want to add:
It looks like you can have up to nine participants in a chat.
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Hope this is the right place to ask this...is there anyway to check our messages now without others knowing we are online? I do not want to ever check messages again if someone I have messaged with in the past can see when I am online. I cannot find any info on this
TIA
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Please see the FamilySearch Chat Guide.
This is from the Chat Guide:
Question: Can other users see my status when I am online using FamilySearch Chat?
Answer: Yes, other users can see that you are available when the chat window is open. Once you close the chat window, you no longer appear online.
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@Amy Archibald , ok, thank you very much for answering my question. Are there any plans for a future update to eliminate this invasion of privacy? I will not be able to use messages at this point because it is no one's business when I am online.
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I asked on the original article if this feature would be able to be turned off. I was told it would be. But I can find nothing to turn it off. I hate it. I will not look at messages if the notification comes up while I am online, cause I agree. I do NOT want anyone knowing when I am online. I will glance a couple of hours later, hoping that the person contacting me is no longer on line. I only keep the message window open for a few seconds, hoping if they are online they do not notice. It's almost as bad as Ancestry telling people when you have read their message. I guess privacy is a thing of the past. 😥
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"I do NOT want anyone knowing when I am online."
"Are there any plans for a future update to eliminate this invasion of privacy? I will not be able to use messages at this point because it is no one's business when I am online."
The feature of turning on or turning off the "online presence indicator" when you have Chat loaded at FamilySearch is on our list of things to deliver.
Many people have asked for the "Chat Online Presence" green dot indicator. They find it very useful to have instant private and public Chats in our collaborative Family Tree environment. We will provide the ability down the road for those who want the flexibility to turn it off and on.
Thanks for your input to help improve FamilySearch Chat.
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