Approve or Reject a Join Request

An owner or admin reviews a pending join request and grants or denies access to the group.

Who Can Do This

Any admin or the group owner. Pending request management is always available to admins regardless of whether they are permitted to change the group name or description. This action is only relevant when requireApproval is enabled in group settings.

Steps

  1. Receive an in-app or push notification for a new join request, or navigate to the group's member list.
  2. Open the pending requests section.
  3. Tap Approve or Reject on the request.

Rules

  • Any admin or the owner can act on a request — first-come basis. Once a request is approved or rejected by one admin, it is resolved and no other action is needed.
  • A join request belongs to the group, not to an individual admin. When one admin acts on it, the request is resolved for the whole group.
  • Any other admin who opens the same request after it is resolved sees its final status — approved or rejected — not a pending action.
  • Pending notifications sent to other admins for that request are dismissed automatically where the platform supports it. Otherwise, the notification opens to the resolved state.
  • Approving a request adds the user as a member immediately.
  • Rejecting a request is an internal action. The rejection is recorded in the admin's view only — the requester's record is not updated. From the requester's perspective, the request remains in a "Request pending" state. The requester is not notified of the rejection. Rejection removes the request from the group's pending queue immediately, freeing a slot toward the 100-request cap regardless of whether the requester cancels.
  • A rejected request is no longer shown in the admin's pending queue, but it remains open from the requester's side until it expires or the requester cancels it. The requester can cancel their request at any time. See Cancel a Join Request.
  • A pending request expires after 3 months if no admin or owner approves it, or if it was rejected and not cancelled by the requester. The requester is notified only when it expires, not when it is rejected.
  • While a request is open — whether pending, silently rejected, or still within the 3-month window — the requester cannot submit a new request to the same group. The request must expire or be cancelled first.
  • Only the owner and admins receive notifications for new join requests.
  • If the requester deletes their account while the request is pending, the request is removed automatically. It will no longer appear in the admin's pending list.
  • This action is not applicable when approval is not required for joining — users join directly without a pending request.

What Happens Next

  • Approved: The user is notified that their request was approved and gains access to the group.
  • Rejected: The rejection is recorded internally. The admin's pending queue is cleared. The requester sees no change — their request remains pending from their perspective until it expires (3 months) or they cancel it.

Failure Cases

  • Request already resolved: If another admin acted on the same request first, the action has no effect. The request is no longer shown as pending.
  • Group is archived: Pending requests cannot be approved or rejected while the group is archived. They are cancelled when the group is archived. See Archive a Group.
  • Group is frozen (owner lapsed): Pending requests cannot be approved while the group is read-only. They are resolved once the group returns to active (a subscriber takes ownership or the owner re-subscribes), or expire on their normal schedule. See Frozen (owner lapsed).

Status: partially-live. Backend API (approve and reject endpoints) is complete. The groups module has not yet been built in the frontend.