TeamSideline App Chat is your team's messaging in the TeamSideline app: a team chat for everyone on the roster, a staff chat for coaches and team staff, group chats, and direct messages. Chat is only in the app. Messages aren't sent by email or text, so members see them in the app and as push notifications.
Applies to: Parents, players, coaches and team staff on a team site · All plans · TeamSideline app (iPhone, Android and Apple Watch)
Where: TeamSideline app > your team > chat
The chats on a team
| Chat | Who's in it |
|---|---|
| Team chat | Everyone on the team's roster who signs in to the app. Everyone in it sees every message and reply. |
| Staff chat | The team's staff only: Coach, Assistant Coach, Manager, Team Parent and Site Coordinator. |
| Group chats | Only the team members added to the group, for example the parents arranging rides. |
| Direct messages | Two team members, one to one. |
Every team site has a team chat and a staff chat from the start. Each message can be up to 500 characters, and you can send photos.
Join your team's chat
- Install the TeamSideline app and sign in with the email address that's on the team's roster. For a youth player, that's the parent's or guardian's email on the family account.
- Open your team, then its chat.
- To be alerted to new messages, allow notifications for the TeamSideline app in your phone's settings.
What you'll see: the team chat, the staff chat if you're team staff, and any group chats and direct messages you're in. The app shows messages from the first day of the month two months back, for example from August 1 in October; older messages drop off.
Start a group chat or a direct message
- In your team's chats, start a new group chat and give it a name (up to 50 characters).
- Choose the team members to add. For a direct message, choose one person.
- Send your first message.
The person who starts a group chat manages it: open the group's member list (View/Edit Members) to add or remove people. Someone who joins the team later sees the team chat automatically, but has to be added to group chats that already exist.
Good to know
- App only. The web Team Site has no chat, and chat messages aren't copied to email or text. Texting from team sites was retired in October 2025, and App Chat replaced it. For news every family must get, the team staff or your organization can send an email.
- Deleting. You can delete your own messages (press and hold a message). You can't delete someone else's.
- Your organization can read team chats. For teams in its programs and leagues, your organization's admins can read the team's chats, including group chats and direct messages, in their Team Site Chat Log. A message deleted in the app stays in that log.
- Admins and chat. Being an admin doesn't put someone in a team's chat. An admin who opens a team site from the admin site is added as League Administrator, and the app doesn't list a team for someone whose only role is League Administrator.
- Archived teams. When a team site is archived, the team and its chats leave the app.
- A team with no staff. Team chat may not be available until the team has a staff member, such as a coach, on its roster. Ask your organization.
- A chat across teams. Chats belong to one team, so coaches from several teams need their own team: your organization can register the coaches on a coaches' team (with one placeholder player, since a team site can't be published without a player) and publish its team site.
- Standalone teams. A team created in the app has a team chat and a staff chat; group chats and direct messages may not be available there.
- Apple Watch. You can read team messages, send messages in the team chat, group chats and direct messages, and get notifications on your watch.
If it doesn't work
- Your team or its chat isn't in the app. Sign in with the email address on the roster, not another one. If the team still doesn't show, ask the coach or your organization to check that you're on the roster with that email, and that the team site is published and not archived.
- Chat keeps loading. Update the TeamSideline app to the latest version (the version is shown under Account > Help). If that doesn't help, delete the app, install it again and sign in.
- You don't get notifications. Allow notifications for the TeamSideline app in your phone's settings, and check that notifications aren't turned off for that chat in the app.
- Older messages are gone. The app shows messages from the first day of the month two months back.
- A parent can't see a group chat. They joined after the group was started. Add them to the group, or start a new group with everyone.
- A member hasn't seen anything. They haven't signed in to the app yet. Send them a message so they download the app and sign in with the email on the roster.
Related articles
- Communication Tools in TeamSideline
- How to use the TeamSideline App with your Apple Watch
- Standalone Team Sites: Features, Limitations & How They Differ from Org-Linked Program Teams
- Can admins see team chat messages? (Team Site Chat Log)