Messages live in their own tab. Coaches get one thread per client, and clients get one with their coach. There are no groups and no channels. It is deliberately just a conversation.
Sending one
Open Messages, pick the person, type and send. A new thread opens with a prompt to start the conversation, which carries the same reminder as the composer: do not share personal or private details.
If you have nobody to message yet, the screen says so plainly. Coaches see that inviting a client unlocks it, and clients see that their coach has to invite them first.
What belongs here, and what does not
Messages are for the conversation. Feedback on a specific exercise belongs in an exercise update instead. Posted there it is attached to the movement, sits in the history, and is still findable in three months. The same words sent as a message scroll away by Friday.
A reasonable split: anything about a set, a weight or how a workout went goes in the update. Anything about scheduling, motivation, or a question that needs an answer today goes in a message.
The privacy reminder is not decorative
Both the composer and the empty thread tell you to avoid sharing personal or private details. Messages are stored, so treat the thread as a written record rather than a conversation that disappears.
Keep medical details, identification numbers, addresses and anything financial out of it. If a client needs to tell you something sensitive, a phone call leaves no permanent copy in a database.
Deleting a message
You are asked to confirm, and it cannot be undone. Worth knowing that deleting your copy is housekeeping rather than recall. Do not rely on it to unsay something the other person has already read.
For coaches: setting expectations
An always-open message thread quietly implies you are always available. Tell clients when you actually reply, for example within a working day rather than at eleven at night. Say it early in the relationship, rather than after the first slow answer has already caused friction.
Turn Messages notifications on if you want to know when something arrives; they are a separate switch from exercise updates and completions.