Suspend and remove users

Two different actions take someone's access away, and they sit within a few centimetres of each other on the same panel. One is a pause you can undo. The other is permanent.

	Suspend	Remove
Use it when	Someone is on leave, off-boarding, or under review	Someone is gone for good
Reversible	Yes — Unsuspend at any time	No
Their sign-in	Still works	Still works
Their profile	Untouched	Anonymised to Deleted User
Their messages	Stay, still attributed to them	Stay, re-attributed to Deleted User
Their other workspaces	Untouched	Untouched

Reach for Suspend unless you are certain

Suspension costs you nothing — you can undo it in two taps. Removal anonymises the person's profile permanently, and nothing in HushChat brings it back.

Both live on the same screen. Settings → Users on the web, or the Admin tab → Users on iOS and Android, then select the person.

Suspend someone

1. Scroll to Account Status. The pill shows Active or Suspended, and the button beside it offers the opposite.
2. Select Suspend.
3. Confirm the dialog, titled Suspend User: "Are you sure you want to suspend {name}? They will lose access to the workspace."

HushChat confirms with "User status updated successfully", and the pill flips to Suspended.

Unsuspend is the same button in reverse, titled Unsuspend User: "Are you sure you want to unsuspend {name}? They will regain access to the workspace."

Unsuspend before you leave the panel

A suspended person is filtered out of the Workspace Users list, so searching for them afterwards will not find them. The Unsuspend button on the panel you are already looking at is the straightforward way back — use it there rather than navigating away and hunting for the person again.

What a suspended person experiences

• They can still sign in. Suspension does not disable their account or their password; it closes one workspace to them.
• They cannot get into your workspace. Choosing it tells them "Your access to this workspace has been suspended. Please contact support." — the same message whether they try at sign-in or by switching workspaces from inside the app.
• Their messages stay exactly as they were, still attributed to them, still readable by everyone in the conversations they were part of. Nothing is deleted or renamed.
• Everyone else sees a Suspended badge next to their name, in the conversation list and wherever people are listed.
• They cannot be added to a group or picked as a new conversation partner while suspended.

The second way in: Reports

Settings → Reports lists reported users, and each row carries its own Suspend button with the same confirmation — "Are you sure you want to suspend {name}? They will lose access to the workspace." It is a shortcut for acting on a report without going to find the person in Users.

The Reports button is the same switch

That button toggles, exactly like the one on the person's panel. On someone already suspended it reverses the suspension, even though it still reads Suspend — which makes Reports one route back for a suspended person who was reported. Check the panel in Users afterwards if you are unsure which way it went.

Remove someone

Removal lives at the very bottom of the person's panel, under a heading in red: Danger Zone. The section explains itself as "Remove this user from the workspace. Their data is anonymized and cannot be recovered."

1. Scroll to Danger Zone.
2. Select Remove User.
3. Confirm the dialog, titled Remove User: "Are you sure you want to remove {name} from this workspace? Their messages will be anonymized and they will lose access. This cannot be undone."

HushChat confirms with "User removed from workspace" and returns you to the users list, where they no longer appear.

What removal actually does

• It affects this workspace only. Their sign-in still works, and every other workspace they belong to is untouched. Removal is not account deletion.
• Their profile is anonymised. Their name becomes Deleted User, their profile picture is dropped, and the account can no longer be searched for or messaged.
• Their messages remain. Conversations keep their history; the messages are simply attributed to Deleted User from then on. Nobody loses a thread because you removed a participant.
• They stop receiving notifications from this workspace, and any session they have open here is disconnected straight away rather than lingering until they close the app.
• It cannot be undone. If the same person joins your workspace again later, they arrive as a new member with no history attached.

Removal is permanent

There is no undo, no restore, and no export of what was anonymised. If there is any chance the person is coming back, suspend them instead.

What you cannot do

Attempt	What happens
Suspend your own account	The button is disabled, and the panel says "You cannot suspend your own account."
Remove your own account	The button is disabled, and the panel says "You cannot remove your own account here."
Remove the last administrator	Refused. A workspace must always keep at least one administrator.

To remove the workspace's only administrator, give someone else the Admin role first, then remove the original account. See Edit a user for changing a role.

Leaving on your own terms

Someone who wants to go entirely can do it themselves from Profile → Delete account, which removes them from every workspace and deletes their sign-in. That is a different action from you removing them from yours.