Group

Group stores the metadata for group conversations. The actual thread still lives in Conversation; Group adds group-specific information on top of it.

This model is a good place to add app-specific room metadata, as long as you keep the package permission flags intact.

Core fields:

Field	Purpose
`conversation_id`	Parent conversation id for the group thread.
`name`	Group name.
`description`	Group description or about text.
`type`	Group type enum.
`allow_members_to_send_messages`	Permission flag for regular members.
`allow_members_to_add_others`	Permission flag for inviting others.
`allow_members_to_invite_others_via_link`	Permission flag for letting regular members copy and send the primary group invite link.
`allow_members_to_edit_group_info`	Permission flag for editing name and description.
`admins_must_approve_new_members`	Approval flag used during join flows.
`meta`	Nullable JSON metadata for display-only, integration, or rarely queried extension data.

Important Relationships

conversation(): BelongsTo

Returns the parent conversation.

$group->conversation

cover(): MorphOne

Returns the cover attachment model when the group has one.

$group->cover

Important Accessors And Helpers

$group->cover_url

Returns the resolved URL for the cover attachment when it exists.

$group->cover_url

isOwnedBy(Model|Authenticatable $user): bool

Checks whether the given app model is the owner of the group conversation.

$group->isOwnedBy(auth()->user())

allowsMembersToSendMessages(): bool

Checks whether regular members are allowed to send messages in the group.

$group->allowsMembersToSendMessages()

allowsMembersToAddOthers(): bool

Checks whether regular members are allowed to invite other users.

$group->allowsMembersToAddOthers()

allowsMembersToEditGroupInfo(): bool

Checks whether regular members can update the group name or description.

$group->allowsMembersToEditGroupInfo()

allowsMembersToInviteOthersViaLink(): bool

Checks whether regular members can copy and send the group's primary invite link. This does not grant permission to create, reset, revoke, or manage additional invite links.

$group->allowsMembersToInviteOthersViaLink()

$group->admins_must_approve_new_members

This is a stored flag rather than a helper method and is useful when building join-request or approval flows.

$group->admins_must_approve_new_members

Typical safe customizations:

Add organization or workspace relations.
Add visual metadata such as themes, tags, or external ids.
Add read-only accessors for display data.
Preserve the permission flags and cover-cleanup behavior.