Organising and Splitting Audiences in Rooms

Where will the chat entry point be placed?

Firstly, you need to decide where your users will find the entry point to the chat. Will it be the general chat as a general lobby, or many chats on different content pages?

If your platform is dedicated to sports, news, or media and contains different content (such as articles, news, games, matches, and events), your users will be in a specific context while interacting. Thus, it will be much better for them to enter a chat from particular pages.

If your users have something general to discuss (suitable for specific media, such as trading, football clubs' apps, or fitness apps), it can be a general lobby where yours will be in the shared context. This general chat point can be combined with specific ones.

Please see our recommendations or various options for placing chats on different platforms:https://docs.watchers.io/update/docs/chat-placement#/

Will you split the audience or gather them together in the same room?

Two options for aggregating users in chats: gather or split all users.
Let’s find the best way for you.

Usually, if you place entry points to chats on different content pages, these chats have different room IDs, and users can appear in the same rooms only if they are together at the same time on the same pages. However, if your platform doesn't have as many users as needed for interactions, you can use the same one room ID for all available rooms. Users will be together in one room, even if they physically enter the room from different pages.

Please see more about room ID usage: https://docs.watchers.io/update/docs/how-do-rooms-appear-on-your-platform#/

Recommended approach

— If the platform’s MAU is less than 10K, it's better to unite users in one room (same room ID), regardless of the placement of entry points. You can use different room IDs when your audience grows, but the entry points remain the same.

— If your MAU is 10-50К, the best approach depends on your users. You can use different RoomIDs to help them stay in a clear context if they are active. If your users are more passive, use one room ID to be sure that your users get the interlocutor for a discussion at any time.

— If your MAU is more than 50K, it is better to split it into different room IDs. It allows users to stay in more contextual discussions. More specific conversations, more influential such discussions are tied to metrics.

Resuming

Benefits of the general room or many entry points leading to the same room ID:

• Enough users for the network effect, even if the platform is small.

Minuses:

• Users with different contexts can be gathered together. It can break the conversation and cause miscommunication.

Benefits of different rooms with different room IDs:

• High contextual conversations
• The fastest metrics growth

Minuses:

• Suitable just for big platforms (at least, 10K MAU).