6 min read · Updated 2026-08-02

Create a Branch-Wide Academy Group

Create the Academy’s general announcement group and choose whether Players can reply.

Availability

  • One Branch-wide group is available on the Free, Growth and Premium Academy plans.
  • The app does not allow a second active Branch-wide group while one already exists.

Create the group

  1. Open Messages from the Academy dashboard.
  2. Select Add.
  3. Choose Branch-wide.
  4. Review the automatically prepared group name. Edit the name if required.
  5. Choose Allow Players to reply or Read-only.
  6. Optionally enter a welcome message of up to 500 characters.
  7. Select Create Chat.

Members added at creation

  • Academy owner
  • Active Players in the Academy data supplied to the group-creation screen
  • Active Academy staff
  • Coaches assigned through Academy batches

After creation

The new group opens immediately. If a welcome message was entered, it appears as the first announcement. The group also appears in the Academy Messages list with the Branch-wide label.

Important current behaviour

Note: The current creation form does not ask you to select a branch. If the Academy manages multiple branches, review the member list after creation and contact support if the group includes the wrong members.

If Branch-wide is unavailable

  • A Branch-wide group may already exist. Open the Active, Deactivated or Archived filters to locate the existing group.
  • A deactivated group still prevents accidental duplication until it is reactivated or archived.
  • An archived group cannot be restored. A replacement group may then be created.

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