Summer, 2026

Connect to the ATC Community

The Andover Tennis Club uses WhatsApp for most of its communications with members. This page provides instructions for setting up WhatsApp on your phone to communicate with the ATC community. Using WhatsApp is voluntary, but you'll need it if you want to participate in most of ATC's organized doubles evenings, and it is how most members coordinate open play.

(Please note that ATC still uses email for some communications and we still respond to emails to andovertennisclub@gmail.com.)

Instructions

Install WhatsApp on your phone and create an account for yourself.

  • On your phone, open the app store, search for "WhatsApp", and install it.

  • On your phone, open WhatsApp and create an account for yourself.

    • You'll need to provide your name, email address, and mobile phone number in the appropriate text boxes.

    • After you create your account, you'll get a confirmation email from WhatsApp. Follow its instructions to confirm that your email address is correct.

Join the Andover Tennis Club WhatsApp community.

  • On your phone, open your browser, and navigate to this page.

  • On your phone, in your browser, click this link:  Andover Tennis Club WhatsApp Community Invitation

    • WhatsApp will open to an invitation to join the Andover Tennis Club community.

    • (If an invitation web page opens instead of WhatsApp, click "Open app", and WhatsApp will open.)

  • Accept the invitation.

    • This will take you to the Andover Tennis Club community screen in WhatsApp, showing a number of chats.

  • All community members are automatically enrolled in the Announcements chat.

    • The Announcements chat allows administrators to send messages to the entire ATC community.

    • You won't see any chat messages at first because WhatsApp only displays messages that are sent after you join a chat.

Join one or more of the player chats according to your interests.

  • The player chats are:

    • General: Used for ATC members to send/receive messages to/from the entire ATC community.

    • ATC Mixed: Used for mixed doubles open play. (We don’t use WhatsApp to coordinate mixed doubles on Mondays because it is drop-in.)

    • ATC Women: Used for organized women's doubles on Wednesdays and for women's open play.

    • ATC Men: Used for organized men’s doubles on Thursdays and for men's open play.

    • ATC Trull Brook: Used for mixed doubles on Saturdays at Trull Brook during the off-season.

  • To join a chat, click on it, and confirm you want to join.

  • Again, you won't see any chat messages at first because WhatsApp only displays messages that are sent after you join a chat.

  • Please see the Play web page and subpages for how we use WhatsApp to coordinate open play and organized doubles.

Opting In and Out

  • You can opt into or out of any of the chats (except Announcements) at any time.

  • You can opt out of the ATC community at any time, too, but you'll need to use the invitation link to opt back in.

  • If you opt out of the ATC community, you'll also be removed from all the group chats in the community.

WhatsApp Tips

If you're new to WhatsApp, here are some tips to help you get started. These tips are based on WhatsApp on Android phones. WhatsApp on iPhones may differ.

Navigation

WhatsApp has four main screens: Chats, Updates, Communities, and Calls. Each main page has main screen navigation buttons at the bottom. If you don't see the navigation buttons, you're on a sub-screen, You can get back to one of the main screens by clicking the back arrow in the upper left of the screen one or more times.

WhatsApp opens to the Chats screen, which shows your most recently used chats. You may see the Andover Tennis Club community instead of a specific ATC chat. If so, you can click on the ATC community entry in the list, and the ATC community screen will open with the individual chats listed as usual.

You can also get to a particular ATC chat by clicking the Communities navigation button, and then clicking the Andover Tennis Club in the communities page, and then clicking the chat you want.

Messaging

WhatsApp generally lets you send group messages to all members of any chat group you've joined (except Announcements). As a matter of etiquette, please use group messages only for communicating with the group as a whole. For example, use group messages to coordinate drop-in play, or to ask if anyone can sub for you in competitive doubles.

If you want to respond only to the sender of a group chat message, click on the circle with their initials (or profile picture) next to the message. This opens a popup with information about the person and options for contacting them directly. You can also "react" to a message with an emoji, by long pressing the message and choosing an emoji in the popup that appears.

Polls

Polls show up in chat streams as a question with several possible answers. To respond to a poll, just tap the answer you want, and a green dot will appear next to your answer. If the poll allows only a single answer, tapping another answer will shift the green dot from your first answer to your second answer. If the poll allows multiple answers, tapping another answer will add a green dot next to that answer, too. To unselect an answer, tap it a second time, and the green dot next to it will disappear. 

Events

Events show up in chat streams like polls and work similarly. Instead of a question, events have a name and a time, and may have a description and a location. Events have three possible answers: Going, Maybe, Not Going. Tap an answer to select it. Tap a different answer to change your response.