Canvas Messenger adds Discord-style direct messages, group chats, and class-wide channels to Canvas LMS — no separate app, no accounts to juggle.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Instructure or Canvas. Canvas is a trademark of Instructure, Inc.
Everything happens on top of the Canvas pages you already use.
Message any classmate one-on-one, in real time, without leaving Canvas.
Spin up group threads for projects, study sessions, or friends.
A shared channel for everyone in a course — announcements, questions, and banter.
Messages arrive instantly over WebRTC peer connections — fast and lightweight.
One codebase, both browsers. Loads as a standard extension.
The extension and both backend services are open source — run the whole stack yourself.
Load the extension, connect Canvas, and start chatting.
Firefox: download the .xpi from the latest release and open it in Firefox to install in one click. Chrome: download canvas-messenger-chrome.zip, unzip it, then load the folder at chrome://extensions (enable Developer mode → Load unpacked).
Open the extension and follow the token setup to link your Canvas profile so classmates can find you.
The messaging panel appears on top of Canvas. Start a DM, make a group, or drop into the class channel.
Three repositories make up the whole system — all public.
The short version.
Yes — free and open source under the repository's license. If it saves you a group-chat headache, you can buy me a coffee.
Both. The build scripts produce the correct manifest for each browser.
No — to just use Canvas Messenger, install the extension and it connects to the hosted backend out of the box. You only need your own server if you want to self-host the whole stack: the relay and signaling servers are open source and container-ready (ghcr.io images + Dockerfiles), so you can run them yourself and point the extension at your own endpoints.
No. Canvas Messenger is an independent, community-built extension. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Instructure. Canvas is a trademark of Instructure, Inc.
Messages travel peer-to-peer over WebRTC where possible; the relay handles registration, invites, and delivery. Self-host the backend to keep everything on infrastructure you control.