My problem with the current implementation is:
I got multiple direct-message-channels about the same task and each one is listed in the sidebar with:
"Anja A, Bella B, Carlo C, ..." because members get added over time.
- It's spamming my sidebar.
- It's always reappearing if some writes into it.
- It's splitting information about the same thing into different places.

I really don't like that feature. Either I like to send a message to a single user or to a group of users. If it's a group there will always be an intention which is the groups title.
If it's just a single message to multiple users, used to avoid self repetition, it should be implemented like that and just duplicate/broadcast the message in different user-to-user chats.

Now there is a second, competing implementation of group messages, were the first one is fading in the background.

love you

pllzz add me member

Hey Claus, would this page help? https://docs.mattermost.com/help/getting-started/organizing-conversations.html#direct-messages-and-group-messages

If you click "More..." below your direct message list on the left hand sidebar, a dialog opens where you can select 1 or more people to start a direct message conversation.

We're considering further improvements on this feature so if you have any suggestions, please feel free to let us know.

we run 3.7.3 as well and so far can't figure out how to send any group messages.
I tried from web, mac desktop and ios version with no success. talk to the person who set mattermost up ( just installed last week) and he didn't know either. I would appreciate any feedback how to enable group messaging or how to trigger it.
I don't care how complicated it is to get it started, those things can always be improved later, but I'm trying to convince our small startup to use mattermost instant of slack and if there is one feature everybody's complaining about it is group messaging not being there ( while it should be there since we run version 373. it feels like there's just something we haven't activated)
thanks for your help

Thanks! it works, even with CTRL+K I can select a group chat. But I cannot create a new one with the channel switcher.

please make multi-user chats work with the shortcut CTRL+K and the /msg command.

Dear Mattermost, I tried to use this feature, but could not, pretty much like Max Rydahl Andersen.

I read: https://about.mattermost.com/mattermost-3-7/#group-messaging but do NOT know how to make the pop-up "Direct Messages" appear on my screen.

I am providing a link to a screenshot which will be valid for 30 days showing:
http://ovh.to/gwk9E8Z - shows the main mattermost scree
http://ovh.to/tq47J6d - shows that we are using v.3.7.3

Yours faithfully,
Grzegorz Nowak

How does one actually start the invite of multiple people ? it is not available in CMD+K and I don't see any other way to start message with people ?

+1
Really missing !

I would also like to add my request for this feature. I have multiple customers that need to communicate with an ad-hoc group of people, so having this ability would make managing projects much more convenient. This option is also available in Slack, so providing the same functionality would aid the transition to Mattermost.

Please add this - yes.

That would be very helpfull if mattermost support this feature

Totally agree, we are looking something to replace Skype, I agree with @michael said.

I totally agree - check how Slack handles this. There are 100s if not thousands of combinations when sending messages to various people and creating channels for each case just does not make sense.

I think it could work like facebook messanger or hangouts...

So here is a slight nuance on the idea:

1. User @Mentions more than one other user
2. When user submits message(hits "enter" key), it autocreates a private group and opens that group with message that was sent.

This would also mean that there would need to be a quick way to archive private groups. with a hover over "..." menu or something.