---
title: "Customizing a Chat - Help Desk - mssgs"
description: "Chat backgrounds, pinned and archived chats, nicknames, per-chat sounds, auto-delete and the chat bar."
canonical: https://mss.gs/en/help/messaging/customize-chats
language: en
---

# Customizing a Chat

Chat backgrounds, pinned and archived chats, nicknames, per-chat sounds, auto-delete and the chat bar.

Almost everything here starts the same way: **hold a chat** in your list, or **hold the name** at the top of an open chat.

## Chat background

Choose **Chat background** and pick one of 22 themes, from Charcoal and Midnight to Forest and Rose. Tap one to preview it and **Set** it. **Create** makes your own from a colour or a photo, with your own bubble colour and brightness.

## Pin and archive

- **Pin** keeps a chat at the top of your list. Free accounts can pin 3 chats, Premium as many as you like. Manage them in **Settings → DM Settings**.

- **Archive** moves a chat out of your list into the Archive tab. You can lock the archive with Face ID or a code.

*Chat background: 22 themes, or make your own.*

## Names, sounds and auto-delete

- **Edit name & photo** (Premium): give a friend a nickname and photo that only you see.

- **Notification sound** and **Ringtone**: a sound just for this chat, so you know who it is without looking.

- **Update Expiry** (hold the name in an open DM): delete messages automatically after 24 hours, a week, a year and more, or never.

- **Lock with code**: put a 4-digit code on the chat. See [Chat Locks](https://mss.gs/en/help/tools/chat-locks).

## Your chat bar

Use the buttons you like and hide the rest. Go to **Settings → DM Settings → Customize chat bar**. Tap the arrows to reorder, the minus to hide, and **Reset to default** to start over. This applies to your DMs. In communities, the chat bar follows what your role may do.

*Settings → DM Settings → Customize chat bar.*

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