Private messages on a WordPress page

Front End PM delivers private messaging through a page on your site, so visitors can communicate from the front end instead of the WordPress Dashboard. Conversations can be threaded or sent as individual messages. Messages can also include embedded content from YouTube, Photobucket, Flickr, and WordPress TV.

Conversation and email settings

Front End PM PRO features include multiple recipients, group messages, admin-only messaging, role-to-role messaging, and email piping. Read receipts, email templates, and an email queue are also listed. Users can block other users.

Administrators can block a user from sending private messages, set a delay between messages, and view users’ private messages. They can also prevent users from starting new messages while still allowing replies to existing conversations.

Announcements and notifications

Administrators can publish announcements for all users or selected roles. Settings control whether an email is sent when an announcement is published and which address or addresses appear in its “to” field.

Users can choose whether to receive messages, email alerts for new messages, and email alerts for announcements. Notification sound and desktop notification options are available.

Directory and message settings

Administrators can set a maximum message count for each role, choose how many messages appear per page, and set the number of users shown per page in the front-end directory. The directory can be shown to all users or hidden. Administrators can also conceal user autosuggestions. Three types of sidebar widget are available.

Set up the messaging page

Install and activate Front End PM, make a WordPress page, add the [front-end-pm] shortcode, and publish the page. Then choose that page as the Front End PM Page in the extension settings.

Before updating, test on a staging website and make a full backup so you can recover the site if something goes wrong. The plugin is translation-ready; WordPress translation utilities can be used if your language is not already available. Paid support is also referenced.