Chat button not visible when personal messages are disabled

zogstrip · February 19, 2026, 11:01am

Nice find

Looks like we missed one code path when adding these group-based site settings.

github.com/discourse/discourse

FIX: show chat DM button when personal messages are restricted (#37920)

main ← fix/chat-dm-button-pm-groups

merged 11:37AM - 19 Feb 26 UTC

ZogStriP

+15 -26

When `personal_message_enabled_groups` was set to exclude regular users (e.g. st…aff only), the Chat button on user cards and profiles was hidden even though chat has its own independent permission system (`direct_message_enabled_groups`). The `ChatDirectMessageButton` component checked `can_send_private_message_to_user` which internally gates on `personal_message_enabled_groups`, causing the PM admin setting to leak into chat button visibility. This removes the `can_send_private_message_to_user` check from the component and instead adds `recipient_allows_direct_messages?` to the `can_chat_user` serializer. This ensures the chat DM button respects chat-specific permissions (`direct_message_enabled_groups`, `chat_allowed_groups`) and the per-user opt-out (`allow_private_messages`) without being affected by PM group restrictions. https://meta.discourse.org/t/396442

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Chat button not visible when personal messages are disabled

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