Supported Community Features

This article outlines community features that are currently supported on the Thinkific Mobile App and a Branded Mobile App. Refer back to this article for updates as we continue to expand functionality!

Overview

The Thinkific Mobile App and Branded Mobile App allow your students to easily access their learning products wherever they are, using a native app on their mobile devices. Once your students have downloaded the Mobile App and logged in, they will have access to a variety of both course and community features.

As the Mobile App is being built out and improved, some features may not be available yet. Check out the breakdown of features below to see what is (and is not) currently supported by the Thinkific Mobile App and Branded Mobile App.

Mobile App solutions built by Thinkific were designed specifically for your students, which means that any Admin activity will need to be done using the desktop web browser version of Thinkific. We recommend that creators design their products with the desktop (browser) experience in mind, and inform students that the Mobile App is a supplementary tool for students.

How It Works

Once your learner has logged into the Mobile App, they will be brought to the Home screen. This screen lists their three most recently accessed courses at the top with an option to see all courses and a feed of the five most recent community posts below, with the most recent posts at the top. Learners can click the Home tab at the bottom of the app to be brought back to this main home screen.

If a learner is enrolled only in one type of product (only courses or only communities), the other section will not be visible.

Your learners can also view the full list of learning products available to them by clicking the Communities tab at the bottom of the screen.

Communities

Once your learner has selected a community, they can access:

The Following section: Gives an overview of the three most recent posts a community member (a learner) is following (with the most recent post on the right). Clicking on See All will show the rest of the posts the learner is following.
Threads that a user is following within a post will not show up under the Following section unless a user is following the main post.
The All Spaces section: Lists all spaces that were created in a community. Clicking on a space will open that space.
The Post button: This allows community members to create new posts in the community (see more on that below).

Community Spaces

Once learners locate and open a space within a community, they will see:

A Linked Course: This allows learners to easily navigate to the course that is connected to the community space. This section shows the course name, the course image, the completion percentage, and the number of lessons.
If a course is not connected to the community space, this section will not be visible.
The Posts: This lists all posts made by members in this community space in chronological order. If there are any pinned posts, they will show at the very top, before any other posts.
The Post button: Allows community members to create new posts in the community space (see more on that below).

Community Posts

Posts in the Mobile App look very similar to how they do on the web (browser) site, with a few adjustments to allow for mobile functionality. All posts and comments in communities will follow a similar structure:

The profile image of the author of the post (initials, if there is no profile image)
The name of the author of the post
More options, including Edit Post and Delete Post (if this is your own post), or Follow Post
Site Owners, Site Admins, and any other community moderators will automatically follow all posts. If you are already following a post, clicking the ellipses on that post will give you the option to unfollow.
A timestamp indicating how long ago the post was created and a status indicating if the post has been edited (if the post has not been edited, this space will be blank)
A Pinned tag for posts that have been pinned by an Instructor or a Moderator
A Following tag indicating whether you are following the post
Contents of the post
A number of likes and comments on the post
Comments on the post: similar to the main post, you can see the author's name, their profile image, when it was posted, whether the comment was edited, and whether you are following the comment. Additionally, you can reply to the comment or follow by clicking on ellipses/three dots.
An area where you can write a comment or a reply

The majority of community features are also supported on the Thinkific Mobile App. Below, you will find a list of what features are currently available on the Mobile App, and what features are not supported at this time.

Features that are supported for Mobile	Features that are not currently supported
Feature: Spaces	Feature: Profiles and Member directory
Feature: Post Creation	Feature: Live events
Feature: Comments and replies	Feature: Pinning posts
Feature: Post and comment editing	Feature: Trending posts
Feature: Posts and threads following	Feature: Search
Feature: Course-Community connection	Feature: Community Moderation
Feature: Likes
Feature: Mentions
Feature: Community Activity Notifications

To learn more about how supported community features work for your students within the Mobile App, check out our article Communities in the Mobile App (Student Resource).

Community Activity Notifications

Mobile app notifications allow your community members to keep track of events and activity in your communities!

Your learners can follow posts to receive push, in-app, web, and email notifications for comment activity on posts they are interested in. If you are a Site Owner or Site Admin, you are automatically added as a follower to every post in your communities. You can always unfollow a post if you no longer want to receive notifications.

Learners are automatically added as followers to posts they create.

The Notifications tab is where your learners will be able to view all of their community notifications. The in-app and push notifications are sent:

When they are added to a community
When an Admin creates a new post
When someone mentions them in a post
When someone comments on their post or a post they are following
When someone replies to their comment or a thread they are following

To access notifications, select the Notifications tab in the Thinkific Mobile app. The number next to the bell on the Notifications tab will indicate the total number of new (unread) notifications. Unread notifications will have a blue dot next to them. To access the post where a learner was mentioned or to view a comment or a reply on the post they are following, they can click on the notification.

In addition to the in-app notifications, your students can receive push notifications that will appear directly on their devices. To start receiving push notifications, they will need to enable them in the Notifications tab.

When a learner receives a push notification, they can click on it to be brought directly to the community or the post mentioned in the notification.

To learn more about other notifications, see Communities: Activity Email Notifications, Communities: Web App Notifications.

Important Considerations

As the Mobile App is regularly being updated, features that are currently unavailable may become available down the line. Keep checking this article for more information on the latest releases: Mobile App Recent Updates.
To learn more about your student's Mobile App community experience, check out this article Communities in the Mobile App (Student Resource).
Community Moderation is not available via a Mobile app experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I see my communities on Mobile?

In order for you to preview your community, you need to download the app and log in using your user: How to Install and Log In to the Thinkific Mobile App (Student Resource). Once you are enrolled, you can access your communities from the Mobile App. If you are a Site Owner or a Site Admin, you will have access to all communities on your site.
Note: The Mobile App will also show you draft communities if you are enrolled in them.

What should I do if I want to use unsupported community features?

If your course lessons contain features that are currently unsupported on the Mobile App, your students will still be able to access these features on the web (browser) app.

Can community members upload media to their posts using the Mobile App?

Yes! Community members can add media, videos, and files to their posts using the Mobile App. To learn more about how your users will experience communities on the Mobile App, check out Communities in the Mobile App (Student Resource).

Can learners enroll in Communities on the App?

At this time students will not be able to enroll in communities from the App.

Can I prevent community members from receiving in-app notifications?

It is not possible to turn off all in-app notifications globally. Notifications encourage your community members to engage with your community and your learning products. Your community members can unfollow posts individually, but they will still receive notifications when someone @ mentions them or when they are added to a new community.

Can I moderate a community through the Mobile App?

No. It is not possible to perform moderation tasks from within the Mobile App experience. To moderate your community, use the desktop experience.

We're continuously working on improving our Mobile App behind the scenes, but if you have feedback about what you'd like to see in the app, we want to know! Get in contact with us and let us know what functionality would be most valuable to you!