How chat works
Last updated 23 October 2026. For organisations deciding whether to switch chat on, and writing their own risk assessment.
Attendees can post short text messages to an event's chat, translated into each reader's language. Your organisation runs the chat: you decide whether it is on, how strictly it is screened, and who looks after it. Hablexo supplies the tools described here.
1. Chat is off until you switch it on
Chat is off on every new device. An Admin can switch it off for the whole organisation in the console's Chat panel, and then no event can have it. It also cannot be switched on until the organisation has given attendees a contact for concerns, an email address or a phone number. Each attendee sees that contact before they post.
2. What chat is, and what it is not
- It is text only, inside one event, and it closes when the event ends.
- There are no private messages, no profiles and no search. Every post goes to the whole event.
- Names are optional. An attendee may post without one.
- Before their first post, each attendee sees the chat rules: be respectful; nothing sexual and nothing that puts a child at risk; no one's personal details; no spam or advertising. They are also told that posts are screened automatically and translated by machine.
3. Screening and translation
Each post is screened automatically, by machine, before anyone sees it, at the level the event is set to: off, light, moderate or strict. Moderate is the default. An Admin can set the lowest level any event may use, and no device can go below it. A post that screening blocks is not shown, and its author is told so. Posts are translated by machine, and any reader can tap "Show original" to see the words as they were written.
4. The tools your organisation has
- Approval. Every post can wait for a person to approve it before anyone sees it. The author is told their post is waiting. An Admin can require approval at every event.
- Remove. Any post can be taken off every screen at once.
- Block. The person who sent a post can be stopped from posting again in that event, and they are told so.
- Moderators. The organiser can show a moderator QR code. Whoever scans it and gives a name can approve, remove and block from their own phone, and every action they take is recorded with that name on the organiser's device. Showing a new code ends every moderator page opened from the old one.
- Reports. Any attendee can report a post with one of six reasons. Every report is listed for the organiser.
5. What a report does on its own
Some reports act before any person does:
- For "A threat of violence, or encouraging suicide or self-harm", "A child may be at risk" or "Something else illegal", the post is removed at once. Every later post from the same person then waits for approval for the rest of the event.
- For "Spam or off-topic", "Offensive or abusive" or "Harassment or bullying", the post stays up until three different people have reported it, and is then removed.
- Nobody is ever blocked automatically. Blocking is always a person's decision.
The attendee who reports is told that the organiser has been told, and that if someone is in immediate danger they should call their local emergency number.
6. When children may attend
Each event has a "Children may attend" setting. While it is on, every post is screened at strict and every post waits for approval, and neither can be lowered for that event. An Admin can lock the setting on for every event, or off for every event. For organisations that signed up for education or worship, it starts locked on.
7. What Hablexo keeps
Hablexo keeps no chat post, report or name on its servers. Our servers pass posts between the organiser's device and attendees' screens. A reconnecting phone needs to catch up, so posts are held in memory for a few minutes (your organisation sets how long) and are never written to disk. The chat history, the reports and the moderation record are kept on the organiser's own device, and only for as long as your organisation's retention settings allow. They can be deleted there at any time. The Privacy Notice says more, and the sub-processor list names the services that screen and translate posts.
8. If something goes wrong
Your organisation runs the chat, so a concern about a post goes first to the contact shown to attendees. If the organiser does not deal with it, or the problem is the organiser, attendees can tell Hablexo from the report screen, and anyone can write to hello@hablexo.com. If someone is in immediate danger, call the local emergency number.