# Dividing line between private chat and personal message

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/dividing-line-between-private-chat-and-personal-message/209976>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Tags:** chat\
**Created:** [November 23, 2021, 1:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dividing-line-between-private-chat-and-personal-message/209976 "2021-11-23T13:06:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 15

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**Author:** ![JimPas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jimpas/32/148179_2.png) [@JimPas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JimPas)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2021, 7:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dividing-line-between-private-chat-and-personal-message/209976/15 "2021-12-22T19:31:53Z")

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> [@itsbhanusharma](#):
>
> Group Chats: informal conversations (especially off-topic) go here

We use a topic `Random Thoughts` for things like that. So far that works well for us.

Personal Messages are used like a “private chat”. We use it on my forum and it’s being used on another forum I’m on, but as a “private ‘group’ message” with about 8 members. It would be interesting to see how this would play out in a Group Chat.

As @sam points out in the chat message, one really nice feature is being able to see both the Chat box and other topics at the same time. Even though I noticed it, I hadn’t given that a thought. A 👍 for that!

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