Manage Guest Users

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The Guest Users feature in Rocket.Chat enables organizations to extend collaboration beyond internal teams by inviting external users with limited capabilities to your workspace. This setup is ideal for collaboration with partners, contractors, or customers, allowing businesses to grant project-specific access while ensuring security.

Key capabilities of guest users:

  1. Start discussions.

  2. Access and participate in the invited rooms.

  3. Reply to direct messages.

Guest users can join a maximum of one room apart from DMs.

Add a guest user

To add a guest user, you will need to create a new user and assign the guest role to the new user.

  1. Go to Administration > Workspace > Users > New.

  2. On the Add User page, enter the guest users' information as follows:

Field

Description

Email*

Enter the email address associated with the user. This is a required field. This email will be used for notifications and communications within the workspace.

Mark email as verified

Enable this option to automatically verify the user upon creation, eliminating the need for them to manually verify their email. This is important if your workspace requires email verification for user logins.

Name*

The full name of the user as it should appear within the workspace.

Username*

A unique identifier for the user within the workspace, used for login and mentions. Usernames can include alphanumeric characters, hyphens, underscores, and periods, but no spaces or other characters. They must be at least one character long.

Set password randomly and send by email

Automatically generate a random password and send it to the user via email. This requires setting up an SMTP configuration workspace.

The user receives a temporary password in an email. Once they use the password on the workspace, they are prompted to change their password.

Set password manually

Manually enter and confirm a password for the user, setting a specific login password. If password policies are enabled, there’ll be real-time verification to show how well the password adheres to the rules.

Require password change

If the Set password manually option is selected, you can enable this option if you want to force users to change their password upon login.

Roles*

Select the guest role option from the drop-down menu.

Join default channels

Enable this setting to automatically add the user to the default channels (rooms) upon their first login.

For example, #general is a default channel to which new users are added automatically.

Send welcome email

Send a welcome email inviting the user to join the workspace. This feature requires an SMTP configuration.

Status message

A custom status message to be displayed alongside the user’s name in the workspace.

Bio

A short biography or description that other users can view on the user's profile.

Nickname

An alternate name or alias that the user can choose to display instead of their full name.

Show/hide additional fields

Display/hide additional fields if custom fields are defined for users in the workspace.

  1. Click Save.

Once the guest user is added, you can edit, activate, and deactivate the guest user.

Edit guest users

To edit the guest user,

  • Go to Administration > Workspace > Users.

  • Click the guest user from the list of users to view the User Info.

  • Click the Edit button to edit the user.

  • Click the kebab menu for other actions like activating, deactivating, and deleting the user.

View guest user permissions

To view the guest user permissions granted in a workspace,

  1. Navigate to Administration > Workspace > Permissions and locate the guest role.

  2. You can view the enabled permissions for the guest role. By default, the following permissions are enabled for guest users:

    1. View Private Room

    2. View Joined Room

    3. Start Discussion

    4. View Direct Messages

  • Guest role permissions cannot be modified for Rocket.Chat workspaces on version 6.0 and above subscribed to the Enterprise plan.

  • You must be an administrator to manage guest users in your workspace.

  • If you need different permissions for temporary users, you can create custom roles and assign them to users.

Enable file upload on the mobile app for guest users

By default, guest users on the Rocket.Chat mobile app have restricted file upload capabilities(e.g., sending images, documents, and audio messages). However, administrators can grant or revoke the Allow file upload on mobile devices permission for guests using the Execute a Meteor method API.

To enable file upload for guests on the mobile app, see the cURL example for Assign Permission to Role method below:

curl --location 'http://localhost:3000/api/v1/method.call/authorization:addPermissionToRole' \
--header 'x-auth-token: xxxx' \
--header 'x-user-id: xxxx' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
  "message": "{\"msg\":\"method\",\"id\":\"16\",\"method\":\"authorization:addPermissionToRole\",\"params\":[\"mobile-upload-file\",\"guest\"]}"
}
'

To disable file upload for guests on the mobile app, see the cURL example for Remove Permission from Role method below:

curl --location 'http://localhost:3000/api/v1/method.call/authorization:removeRoleFromPermission' \
--header 'x-auth-token: xxxx' \
--header 'x-user-id: xxxx' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
  "message": "{\"msg\":\"method\",\"id\":\"16\",\"method\":\"authorization:removeRoleFromPermission\",\"params\":[\"mobile-upload-file\",\"guest\"]}"
}
'

Rocket.Chat Guest Users feature is a valuable tool for organizations seeking seamless collaboration with external users. It streamlines communication and promotes efficient collaboration without compromising the security of your workspace.