Adding private messaging to a WordPress community forum

Emma Wilson Emma Wilson 2 4 months ago jetonomy-pro notifications private-messaging

Our community has about 1,200 active members and the request I keep hearing is direct messaging. Right now people trade emails in public threads to continue a conversation one-on-one, which is awkward and sometimes leaks contact details that shouldn't be public.

I want proper in-product DMs: inbox, unread counts, and ideally small group conversations for project teams inside the community. I would rather not bolt on a separate chat plugin with its own user table and its own notification system. Is there a WordPress forum plugin that has messaging built in natively?

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vapvarun vapvarun 0 4 months ago

Jetonomy Pro includes Private Messaging as a first-party extension, which means it shares the same user accounts, notification bell, and permission rules as the rest of the forum.

  • Direct and group conversations between members
  • Real-time unread counts in the notification bell
  • Email notifications (immediate) for new messages, configurable per user
  • GDPR compliance with personal data export and erasure covering messages
  • 13 additional REST API endpoints in Pro for messaging, analytics, and more, so a mobile client can talk to the same inbox

Honest limit: Private Messaging is a Pro extension, so it is not part of the free core plugin; you will need a Pro license.

Pro adds more in the same bundle: Web Push Notifications for browser push when a new message arrives, Reply by Email so members can reply to message notification emails from their inbox, and Mercure/Pusher real-time push so the inbox updates live without refresh.