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Must know
  • Text only. No photos, files or attachments on any channel.
  • Very long messages are refused with “Message too long”, and Web & SMS messages are capped at 1,600 characters. Nothing warns you while you type.
  • Too long is refused, not trimmed. Retry sends the same text, so copy it out of the faded bubble, shorten it and send it as a new message.
No attachments. The message box (Type a message…) and the send button are all there is, on phones and on a computer. To share a photo or a form, email it from outside chat. The limits. Every channel refuses a very long message with “Message too long”. Web & SMS is stricter: over 1,600 characters you see “SMS messages cannot exceed 1600 characters (yours is [number])”, with your character count in place of [number]. There is no character counter, so you find out only after you send. Under 1,600, a long text can still go out in several parts (about 160 standard characters each, fewer with emoji), but it counts as one message toward your club’s text usage.
1

Find the faded bubble

The box clears as soon as you send. A refused message stays in the thread as a faded bubble with a small red warning triangle and a red Retry link. On a computer, hover the triangle to see Failed to send. Retry sends the same words, so it fails again.
2

Copy, shorten, send

Copy the text out of the bubble, paste it into the message box and cut it down, or split it into two messages. On a computer, Shift+Enter starts a new line and Enter sends.
Before you switch conversations. The failed bubble disappears when you open another conversation. A message refused for length is never saved. Line breaks are kept, but spaces and blank lines at the start and end are trimmed. Long on purpose? You can switch the chat to Web & Email, but that fails with “Chat email notifications to families are switched off in Notifications settings.” if your club turned off chat emails. Web & SMS is also refused when the club has used up its monthly texts or its plan has no texting. See Why did my chat message fail to send?. Related: What do the Web Only, Web & SMS, and Web & Email channels mean? · Why did my chat message fail to send? · How can I tell if my message was delivered? · How do I switch a chat to a different channel?