Heartbeat gives you several tools to control what members can see and do inside your community. Use this article to understand your options for limiting direct messages, hiding the member directory, keeping onboarding answers private, and using access groups to restrict sensitive spaces.

Hide member emails

If you want to ensure that members have their personal info hidden from other community members, you can disable the email field (as well as location) from being shown on member profiles

Settings > Community > General → 

1. Scroll to the Member Defaults section.
2. Uncheck the Email field under User Fields

Turn off direct messages

By default, members can send DMs to each other. If your community doesn't need 1:1 messaging or if you want to prevent unsolicited contact between member segments, you can disable this feature.

Settings > Community > General → 

1. Scroll to the Member Defaults section.
2. Turn Direct messaging off.

With Direct messaging off, the Messages area and Message buttons are hidden for everyone in the community, including admins.

If you want members to be able to reach your team but not each other, use DM rules instead (Grow and Scale plans). For example, let your member role message your Administrator and Moderator roles, and stop it from messaging anyone else.

Hide the member directory from the sidebar

The member directory lets members browse and discover each other. If your community is privacy-sensitive or you simply don't want members visible to one another by default, you can remove the directory from the sidebar.

Settings > Community > Sidebar → 

1. Find User Directory in the list.
2. Toggle it off or use Limit Access to only display it to a few users or Access Groups.

Keep onboarding answers private

When you add questions to your onboarding flow, you can mark individual questions as private so only admins can see the responses, not other members.

To set a question as private:

Settings > People > Onboarding → 

1. Open the question you want to restrict.
2. Enable the Private (admin only) toggle.

Private answers are visible to admins in the member profile view. Members never see each other's responses to private questions.

To view a member's onboarding answers, go to Members, open their profile, and scroll to Onboarding Responses.

Use access groups to limit sensitive access

Access groups let you control which spaces, content, and features are available to specific segments of your community. This is the most flexible way to protect privacy at scale.

Common use cases:

• Restrict a private channel or course to paying members only
• Create a VIP or inner-circle space invisible to general members
• Prevent free members from accessing premium content

Settings > People > Access Groups → 

1. Create a group for the segment you want to restrict (e.g., "Paid Members").
2. Assign the relevant spaces, channels, or content to that group.
3. Add members to the group manually, or use automation to assign membership based on offer or tag.

Members outside the group won't see or be able to access the content assigned to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I disable DMs for some members but not others? Yes, on the Grow and Scale plans. DM rules let you control which roles and groups can message each other. On other plans, you can turn DMs off for everyone.

If I hide the directory, can members still find each other? Members can still discover each other through channels, threads, and events. The directory is only removed as a dedicated browsing tool.

Can members see each other's onboarding answers? Only if the question is set to public. Questions marked as private are visible to admins only.