# Difference between group messaging and private category?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-group-messaging-and-private-category/203771
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [September 16, 2021, 9:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-group-messaging-and-private-category/203771 "2021-09-16T21:01:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wall-E](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Wall-E)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2021, 9:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-group-messaging-and-private-category/203771/1 "2021-09-16T21:01:05Z")
After 1.5 year using discourse, I am puzzled regarding the difference between a private category that would be accessible/visible to only one group, and group messaging within that same group. Is there any?
Typically, for a group that want to discuss their private project, the PM board of that group list all topic titles very much like a category does and I find little advantage to creating a private category. So am I overcomplicating things if a private category is created only for one group?
---
### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2021, 10:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-group-messaging-and-private-category/203771/2 "2021-09-16T22:16:04Z")
The main difference is how the messages are displayed. In a category, everyone with permissions has visibility of every topic in the feed. PMs would be mixed up amongst an individual’s other PMs (if they had some).
---
### Author:  [@Wall-E](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Wall-E)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2021, 10:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-group-messaging-and-private-category/203771/3 "2021-09-16T22:45:11Z")
That the PMs would be mixed amongst other messages, isn’t this also presented per group, avoiding the confusion you describe, like in my screenshot (mobile version):
---
### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2021, 10:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-group-messaging-and-private-category/203771/4 "2021-09-16T22:52:51Z")
Yup, it absolutely is – it’s just a little less visible/intuitive if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2022, 3:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-group-messaging-and-private-category/203771/5 "2022-02-13T03:00:42Z")
The main difference is that PMs allow per-topic “permissions”, and categories have permissions that apply globally to all topics.
PMs are the _only_ place in Discourse where you get per-topic “permissions” regarding who gets to see the topic – by adding people to and removing people from the PM.
---
### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2022, 7:15am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-group-messaging-and-private-category/203771/6 "2022-02-13T07:15:57Z")
Another (admittedly subjective) difference is that the category interface is just nicer than the private message interface.
A big difference is that if you receive emails for notifications there is no way of tailoring them per topic: you receive emails of all PM notifications, _or_ emails of all PM notifications “only when away”, _or_ turn off emails for all PM notifications. This makes a PM group inbox like a category where you are “watching” every post and potentially receiving emails for every notification.