Paid publications can gate access to their Chat to only paid subscribers or founding members. There are three options for paywalling your Chat:
Paywall individual chat threads
Similar to paywalled posts, you can paywall individual chat thread replies. When starting a thread via the app, click settings icon and tap "Audience". Select whether you want to gate the audience to paid subscribers only or all subscribers.
If you paywall an individual chat thread, only paid subscribers can reply but will be able to see your initial message– this preview cannot be removed.
Paywall the entire chat
In your publication's Settings, you can paywall access to your entire chat space rather than on a thread-by-thread basis. First click “Enable chat paywall,” then select whether to gate access to paid subscribers or just founding members next to "Who can bypass the paywall".
Subscribers without access cannot view or reply to any chat threads. If they try to navigate to your chat, they’ll be prompted to upgrade to participate.
Paywall permission to start new threads
You can limit the ability to start new chat threads to a specific subscriber tier via your chat settings. All other subscribers can view and reply to threads but not start them.