The best group chat isn’t the funniest one. It’s the one that notices when you go quiet.

A chat can be constantly funny and notice nothing. Jokes are easy to keep going, and one person’s silence is invisible against that much noise, so somebody can drop out of a group for two weeks without anybody registering it. What makes a group good is attention rather than comedy. Being missed is the actual feature.

Scroll back and work out who has gone quiet lately. Message them separately instead of in the group, since one person asking privately lands differently. Ask something specific, and if they say they are fine, ask once more later in the week.