UPDATE (May 9, 5:30pm PST): All of these changes are now live.
HipChat currently has three types of chats with different privacy levels:
- Open rooms – accessible to everyone in your group.
- Private rooms – only accessible to users given permission by the room owner, and all group admins.
- 1-to-1 chats – only accessible to the two users involved.
Allowing group admins to join private rooms without being given explicit access has often led to confusion, so we’ve decided to make changes in this area:
- Starting next Thursday, May 9th, group admins will not be permitted to join private rooms unless explicitly given access. If you are a group admin currently joining rooms which you have not been given access to, please ask the group owner to add you explicitly before this time.
- Group admins will also not be able to view or manage private rooms from within HipChat apps unless they have been given access to them.
- A new room management area will be added to the “Group Admin” section on the website. From this area, admins will still have access to the chat history and management options for private rooms.
In addition to these change, we’ll be unveiling new pages for viewing and managing rooms on the website – something we should have added long ago. These changes set the stage for some greater improvements coming in the future, so keep an eye on our blog here for more updates.
