BuddyPress Group Chatroom
This plugin provides neat chatrooms into BuddyPress groups. Each Group admin can enable a group Chat room, available for all group members to view and post.
Consider an alternative
BuddyPress Group Chatroom shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 80+ sites, is rated 3.7/5 and was last updated 6 years ago, and scores 28/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (80+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 5 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 5.6 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where BuddyPress Group Chatroom stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| ajax | >100 |
| buddypress | >100 |
| chat | >100 |
| groups | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 3.7 from 3 reviews
About BuddyPress Group Chatroom
From the official readme · v1.7.7Description
This plugin provides neat chatrooms into BuddyPress groups. Each Group admin can enable a group Chat room, available for all group members to view and post.
The Chat area provides an ajax chat room which displays the most recent messages along with timestamps and usernames. It also has a “who’s online” area which shows other group members viewing the Chat page.
Features
- Who’s Online list of members in the chatroom.
- Text Chat: Supports text and links added via the text input box.
- Video and other embeds – Videos such as You-tube can be added as an embedded video using the Video button. The same link can be used for other WordPress embedable urls.
- Emojis supported: over 1,000 emojis easily inserted into the chat stream with options to load them all or just a subset.
- Images: Users with upload_files capability can add images from the media directory/upload into the chat stream.
- Images Lightbox: Supports WP Featherlight lightbox, if you install this plugin then images loaded into chat will open in a lightbox.
- Activity threading: chat conversations can be collected and posted to the activity stream.
- Moderation: Group admin and moderators can delete chat messages.
- Theming: Chat message box colours can be set by Group Admin
- Auto-hide of chat messages after up to 30 days.
- Auto-deletion of chat messages after up to 30 days.
Chat messages support links, embeded video is supported an it’s possible to call in another site member to the chat using @mentions.
I’ve introduced rudimentary threads support. The behavior is that a new message, posted more then 15 minutes after the last message will be marked as a new thread. All messages posted after that initial message will be regarded as part of that thread. After 15 minutes the thread will be deemed closed and if posting of threads to group activity is enabled then all messages in the thread will be posted in a single activity update. I’m expecting this functionality to change as the plugin develops.
Currently the chat supports text chat and the sharing of links. I’m interested in adding further features but would like to see some user requests for the same.
This plugin was originally created by David Cartwright and has been forked by Venutius. It includes an emoji set which was sourced from WP Emoji One by Monchito.net.
This plugin runs from your own server, no chat data leaves your site. This has has the benefit of minimizing your exposure regarding user privacy and GDPR, however chat will be as responsive as your server and can be laggy because of this. User conversations are stored for one month then deleted.
Installation
Download and upload the plugin to your plugins folder. Activate.
Changelog
1.7.7
-
09/02/2021
-
Fix: Translation improvements.
1.7.6
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14/01/2021
-
Fix: Corrected error with color picker, now works in wp 5.6.
1.7.5
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09/01/2021
-
Fix: Removed repeating “No messages yet” from chat display to improve UI
- Fix: Removed color picker due to i18n compatibility issues with WP 5+ will try to find a solution and reinstate.
1.7.4
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06/05/2019
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Fix: More css improvements, user list consistency update.
1.7.3
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05/05/2019
-
Fix: Corrected blank messages on page reload.
- Fix: Corrected duplicate messages being displayed.
- Fix: CSS improvements.
1.7.2
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23/04/2019
-
Fix: Corrected error with mentions notifications.
- Fix: Refactored notifications code.
Screenshots
For developers
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FAQ
BuddyPress Group Chatroom: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 11, 2026
Is BuddyPress Group Chatroom free?
Yes. BuddyPress Group Chatroom is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is BuddyPress Group Chatroom safe to use in 2026?
BuddyPress Group Chatroom shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 80+ sites, is rated 3.7/5 and was last updated 6 years ago, and scores 28/100 on our health check.
How many websites use BuddyPress Group Chatroom?
BuddyPress Group Chatroom is active on 80+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 13,899 times since it launched in March 2019. It was downloaded 85 times in the last 30 days.
Does BuddyPress Group Chatroom work with WordPress 7.1?
BuddyPress Group Chatroom is officially tested up to WordPress 5.6.22, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was BuddyPress Group Chatroom last updated?
The latest version, 1.7.7, was released on February 10, 2021 (6 years ago).
Who makes BuddyPress Group Chatroom?
BuddyPress Group Chatroom is developed and maintained by Venutius.
What are the best alternatives to BuddyPress Group Chatroom?
The most popular alternatives to BuddyPress Group Chatroom are zipaddr-jp (50K+ installs), SearchWP Live Ajax Search (50K+ installs) and WP-Polls (40K+ installs).
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