Community Masters: Back To School

The end of summer means only one thing – it’s time to go back to school, and Viber is right here with you. Communities on Viber are great for all your out-of-school communications.

Whether you’re a student, teacher or parent, there are so many ways you can use them; from the practical to the fun – you’ll find it all on Communities.

Organize fundraising for school events, stay in the loop with school updates, be on top of tasks and homework and of course – connect with everyone. Teaching and learning remotely doesn’t have to be a challenge. See ideas for to make the most out of your Community:

If it matters – pin it!

Important messages that you want to be easily accessible and always visible, can be pinned to the top so everyone, at any time, can see them!

Whether it’s a signup sheet, instructions or homework, it will be visible at all times, without disappearing – no matter how many messages are written after.

No student will be able to say they “didn’t know they had homework.”

Manage who can post

If you feel your Community is growing and there are too many people posting and messaging at the same time, you can easily control this. As the superadmin, you’re able to close the Community to member messaging and ensure that posts by admins can be shared and seen by everyone. In this case, members can still react to your messages by tapping the heart next to them.

When you do need more detailed input from others if, for example, you need volunteers for a school activity or would like to start discussions, easily navigate between modes and allow all or some Community members to post: Tap Community name > Member privileges > Toggle on/off Can Send Messages.

Private Messages

It’s always a little scary to start at a new school or a new class – where you don’t know the people and probably don’t have their phone number. Private Messages in Communities are great for this.

When you decide to turn Private Messages on, you will be able to receive messages sent to you by other people in the Community, without revealing phone numbers.
A fast and private way to connect with new people:
Tap Community name > turn on Receive Private Messages.

Chat histories matter

When adding someone new to the Community, they will immediately see the entire Community chat history so they won’t miss out on a single thing. This way, no one is left behind and everyone stays in the know.

Polls in Communities

Polls are a great way to open things up for discussions, encourage participation and hear everyone’s opinion and voice without creating chaos in the Community and starting a frenzy of messages.
Use them in many ways yourself and also allow Community members to create them as well.

Whether it’s to decide on test practice schedules, choosing class representatives or asking parents to choose themes for class events, everyone will want to participate in them and results are shown in real time.

Communities on desktop

All your school needs, including Communities, can be on one device – the good old desktop!

No more typing long messages or struggling to send attachments from your phone. With Viber for Desktop, send messages in your Community from the comfort of your computer – bigger screen, bigger keyboard – and make life a lot easier for yourself.

Save the data plan on your phone by using your desktop to upload, download and share links with your Community.

Even if you’re using Viber on a shared computer, everything you do should still remain private. By enabling Viber-screen lock, only you will have access to your account, including the superadmin privileges.
Click More > Set a Viber-screen lock.

Create your own GIFs and stickers

GIF and sticker creation is a great new way to get students involved in Communities, as this gives them a chance to express their creativity and keep the atmosphere light and fun.

Follow these easy steps:
To create a sticker pack: Tap the Sticker icon > Tap the Create icon.
GIFs: Tap the GIF+ icon > Tap Create your own GIF.

There are so many ways to effectively use Communities on Viber when going back to school, no matter if you’re a teacher, student or parent. Go ahead and open one now – you have all the tips and tricks to being a perfect back-to-school Community superadmin!