> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.summerengine.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Add text chat
> Give everyone in a match or world a shared chat. Summer filters messages, applies blocks and rate limits; your game only draws the chat box.
Give everyone in a match a shared text chat. Summer handles the hard parts:
it filters messages, hides messages from players someone has blocked, slows
down spammers and keeps messages for 24 hours. Your game only draws the chat
box. Chat never goes through your game's server, so you don't have to
moderate anything yourself.
## Games like this
Chat with everyone in the match.
Everyone talks it over during a meeting.
One chat for everyone on the server.
Separate channels for general talk and trading.
## What your players get
* **One chat for the match:** everyone in the World sees each message with
the author's name.
* **Recent messages when they open it:** players who open the chat see the
latest messages, and can scroll back a little further.
* **A safe chat:** a message the filter stops is never shown to anyone, and
the sender is told it wasn't sent. When a player blocks someone, that
person's messages disappear for them.
## Pick your setup
### One chat for the whole match
Every player in the match opens the same channel and talks to everyone. Good
for most games: team shooters, party games, survival servers.
In my Summer project, add a text chat that everyone in the match shares. Use
the Summer `summer-world-chat` skill; if you don't have it installed, find it
in the Summer library.
* Show each message with the author's name, as plain text.
* Open chat once the player has joined the match.
* If a message isn't sent, tell the player why; if chat isn't available, hide
the chat box and keep the game working.
Read my project first and fit the chat box into my existing HUD. Then test it
with Local Play and tell me what I can only check once the game is hosted.
### Several channels in one world
A world can have up to 64 channels, each with its own name, such as
`general` and `trade`. Every player in the world can open any of them, so
channels work like topics on a busy server, not private rooms.
In my Summer project, give my world the chat channels \[CHANNELS, for example
"general and trade"]. Use the Summer `summer-world-chat` skill; if you don't
have it installed, find it in the Summer library.
* Players switch between channels with tabs.
* Show unread messages on the tabs.
* If chat isn't available, hide it and keep the game working.
Read my project first and fit this into my existing HUD. Then test it with
Local Play and tell me what I can only check once the game is hosted.
Messages between friends outside a match are
[direct messages](/build/friends), and party chat lives in the Summer app.
## Not sure which fits?
Read my Summer project and help me plan its text chat. Use the Summer
`summer-world-chat` and `summer-friends` skills; if you don't have them
installed, find them in the Summer library. Don't change any files yet.
Tell me:
1. which chats my game should have: one match chat, several channels, or
direct messages between friends;
2. where the chat appears on screen during play, and when it's hidden;
3. anything my design needs that chat doesn't cover yet, and how we can build
around it.
## Testing it on your machine
Under Local Play, chat reports that it isn't available, so build the "chat
hidden" version first and check your game keeps working without it. Real chat
works in a hosted game: test it with two accounts in the same match.
***
Does this not help you? [Reach out on Discord!](https://discord.gg/summerengine)
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