# Customise group chat message for joining group

**URL:** <https://forum.heroiclabs.com/t/customise-group-chat-message-for-joining-group/1193>\
**Category:** Game Design\
**Created:** [December 2, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://forum.heroiclabs.com/t/customise-group-chat-message-for-joining-group/1193 "2020-12-02T13:58:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DaveOak](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.heroiclabs.com/daveoak/32/377_2.png) [@DaveOak](https://forum.heroiclabs.com/u/DaveOak)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://forum.heroiclabs.com/t/customise-group-chat-message-for-joining-group/1193/1 "2020-12-02T13:58:30Z")

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When a player joins a group, a chat message is sent to the group channel with the ID of the new player. I would like to add the display name of the player to this message so it can be displayed without needing an additional call on the server to fetch the player’s name.  
Can a ‘before hook’ achieve this?

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**Author:** ![novabyte](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.heroiclabs.com/novabyte/32/1324_2.png) [@novabyte](https://forum.heroiclabs.com/u/novabyte)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 10:18pm UTC](https://forum.heroiclabs.com/t/customise-group-chat-message-for-joining-group/1193/2 "2020-12-02T22:18:48Z")

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@DaveOak We don’t have a way to customize that message right now. It’s one of the few messages that are automatically sent by the server which cannot be easily modified. It would be good to extend the server to make sure that the display\_name and username field are included. Can you open a request for the change?

I’m also curious whether you’d want display\_name or username in your game logic. The username per player is unique but the display\_name can be the same for different users so it might be harder to disambiguate if you use the display\_name in the chat channel?

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**Author:** ![DaveOak](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.heroiclabs.com/daveoak/32/377_2.png) [@DaveOak](https://forum.heroiclabs.com/u/DaveOak)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 12:31pm UTC](https://forum.heroiclabs.com/t/customise-group-chat-message-for-joining-group/1193/3 "2020-12-04T12:31:22Z")

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We currently only have a non-unique display name, which is predominantly taken from players Facebook names. In a smaller number of cases it is the Google Play or Apple Sign-in display name. It is possible for players to have thew same name, but it hasn’t proved an issue so far.