Communities are an easy way to connect teachers, students, and parents outside the classroom. They help everyone stay informed and organized.
You might Communities to:
Coordinate students working on group projects
Enable parent-to-parent communication
Share class content and experiences with staff
Plan field trips
Post important announcements
With Communities, parent volunteers are always in the loop, teachers can share permission forms quickly, and students can be accounted for using the members list. You can also pin posts so important messages don’t get missed.
Create a Community
To create a community:
Tap the Community tab (chat bubbles icon).
Tap the (+) icon.
Select New Community.
Enter a name, adjust settings (see below), and tap Save.
Community Settings
Name: Enter your community name. There are no character limits - be creative!
About: Write a short description of the community’s purpose. This appears in Community Info.
Code: This is the join code. Tap the refresh arrow to generate a new one.
Registration:
Open – Members join instantly with the code
By Approval – Members request to join and must be approved
Closed – No new members can join
💡 New communities default to Open. After two weeks, they automatically switch to By Approval for added security.
Announcements Only:
When enabled, only community owners can post. Other members can view but not comment.
Parents Can Join:
Allow or prevent parents from joining.
Students Can Join:
Allow or prevent students from joining.
Archiving, Restoring and Communities
Only community owners can archive or delete a community. Archived communities are hidden from all members until restored.
Archiving
To hide or archive a community from your list of communities:
Go to Showbie → Menu → Communities
Select the community
Tap Settings (…) → Community Info → Community Settings
Tap Archive Community
💡Community Owners can swipe left on the community for a quicker way to archive communities!
Restoring (unarchiving) a Community
To restore (unarchive) a community:
Go to Showbie → Menu → Communities.
Tap the (+) icon.
Turn on Show Archived Communities.
Select the archived community.
Scroll down and tap Restore Community.
💡You can also swipe on an archived community to unarchive it.
Deleting a Community
Communities can only be deleted by the owner if they are the only owner of the community. Communities need to be archived before they can be deleted.
Open Showbie → Menu → Communities.
Tap the (+) icon and enable Show Archived Communities.
Select the archived community.
Scroll down and tap Delete Community.
🚨 Deleting a community is permanent for all members of the community. This action cannot be undone, and deleted communities cannot be restored.
Changing Community Settings
To change the community settings after the community has been made:
Go to Showbie → Menu → Communities.
Select the community.
Tap Settings (…) → Community Info → Community Settings.
Community Notifications
Showbie includes flexible notification controls. You can mute all communities or receive notifications only from specific ones.
Learn how to adjust account-wide notification preferences and preferences for specific communities in the following support article: Notification Settings in Showbie.
Joining a Community
To join an existing community, you will need the community code from the community owner.
Joining via Community Code
Go to Showbie → Menu → Communities.
Tap the (+) icon.
Tap Join a Community.
Enter the code and tap Join.
If you see the message, "Waiting to Join Community" this means that the community owner needs to approve to join first. They will have received a push or email notification letting them know you've requested to join. As soon as they approve your request, you'll be able to see all the messages in the community. Learn more here.
💡 Don’t have a community code? Please get in touch with the community owner, and they can give the code to you.
Managing Group Members
You can manage group members by granting/revoking ownership to other teachers or blocking/unblocking members. Members can also leave a community on their own.
Leaving a Community
Select your own name in the group members list and to get the option to leave the group. You’ll be able to rejoin via group code/invitation. If you’re a community owner, you can only leave the community if there is another owner. Non-owners can leave a community anytime.
To leave a community:
Go to Showbie → Menu → Communities.
Select the community.
Tap Settings (…) → Community Info → Community Members.
Select your name and tap Leave Community.
✍️If you are the only owner of community in Showbie, you will need to grant ownership to another teacher before you are able to leave the group.
Grant, Resign, or Revoke Ownership of a Community
To grant ownership to another member of your Showbie community:
Tap Settings (…) → Community Info → Community Members.
Select a member and tap Grant Ownership.
Once you have granted ownership to another member, you can optionally resign ownership by selecting your own name from the community's member list and then tapping Resign Ownership.
Community owners can also revoke ownership from other members by selecting that member's name in the members list and tapping Revoke Ownership.
There can be multiple owners of a group and only teachers can be granted ownership. Owners can manage group settings and members, and annotate any PDFs and images in the group.
Blocking Members from a Community
Community owners can block community members to prevent those members from viewing or posting to the community:
Open the community.
Tap Settings (…) → Community Info → Community Members.
Select the member and tap Block from Community.
Community members can be unblocked by following the same steps as above and selecting Unblock from Community.
Blocked members will be hidden in the group members list and will be unable to rejoin the group unless unblocked.
🚨 If blocked members try to join the group again by code, they’ll receive a "This isn't a valid group code" error message.