Chat

Direct messages and real-time team, project, and task channels, with typing indicators and unread counts.

Chat is built in. You can message anyone in your workspace directly, and every team, project and task has its own channel, so work conversations live next to the work they're about. There are no general channels.

Channel types

The left sidebar groups your chats into People, Teams, Projects and Tasks, in that order. Each one shows an unread count badge if it has new messages since you last read.

Direct messages

A direct message is a private, one-to-one conversation with another member of your workspace. Everyone in the workspace can send and receive them.

• Starting one. Type a name in the search box at the top of the sidebar (Search people and channels...). Under People, the conversations you already have with matching people come first, then other members whose name matches. Click a person to open a conversation with them. If many people match, keep typing to narrow the list.
• People shows only conversations that have happened, newest first: a conversation appears there once it has a message, not every member of the workspace. A conversation you've just opened stays at the top of the list while it's open, even before you send anything.
• Everything works the same as in a channel: files, voice messages, formatting, replies, editing and deleting your own messages, and (where your workspace shows them) read receipts. The other person gets a push notification for each new message. The one exception is polls, which are only for team, project and task channels (see Polls below).
• Private. Only the two of you can open a direct message. Admins and people with View All Chats or Delete Chats can't open it, and in a direct message each person can delete only their own messages. Direct messages are also not available to the workspace's API keys. One exception: when a message is edited or deleted, its earlier text is kept in the workspace audit log (see below), which people with View Audit Log can read.
• At the top of the conversation you see the other person's photo and name, with a coloured dot on their photo and a line under their name: Viewing this chat (blue) when they have this conversation open in front of them, Online (green) when they are using the workspace, or when they were last active in this workspace (for example Active 5 minutes ago). A conversation open in a background tab counts as online, not as viewing.
• When someone leaves the workspace, your conversation with them stays in your list, marked Former member, and you can still read it, but you can't send them anything more. Its header shows Former member and no status, and your messages there no longer show as seen. If they rejoin later, the conversation is there again for both of you.

The side panel: people and files

Every channel and direct message has a side panel. On a wide screen it sits to the right of the conversation; on a smaller screen, open it with the panel button in the conversation's header. In a channel it has two tabs, People and Files. In a direct message there is no People tab (the other person and their status are at the top of the conversation): the panel shows your notification switch for the conversation, then its files.

• People shows who is in the chat. At the top is your own switch for this chat's notifications. Online now lists the members who are connected right now, with the ones who have this chat open first. All members lists everyone in the chat from A to Z, loads more as you scroll, and can be searched by name. Under each name you see Viewing this chat, Online, or when they were last active in this workspace (for example Active 5 minutes ago). Only the chat's own members are listed: someone who can view every chat but isn't a member of this one isn't shown.
• Files lists every file and link shared in the chat, newest first. You can filter by type (images, videos, audio, documents or links), by who sent it (anyone, you, or others), sort by date, name or size, and search by file name or link. Files from deleted messages aren't listed.

For a task's chat, having the task page open counts as having the chat open.

Sending a message

1. Open Workspace, Chat and pick a person or a channel from the sidebar.
2. The thread loads in the main panel, oldest at the top, newest at the bottom.
3. Type in the box at the bottom. It grows as you type, up to about 6 lines, then scrolls. Formatting shows as you type (see Formatting below).
4. Press Enter to send. Shift+Enter inserts a newline. On a phone or tablet, Enter adds a new line and you tap the send button to send.

Messages can be up to 4000 characters. You can attach up to 10 files to a message (a paste, a drop on the thread, or the paperclip), record a voice message with the microphone, or send a poll. The paperclip opens a small menu: File for any file, Photos & videos to pick only images and videos, and, in a team, project or task channel, Poll (see Polls below). There is no threading: to answer a particular message, reply to it (see Replying, copying, editing or deleting a message below).

Formatting

Chat uses WhatsApp's formatting: wrap text in markers, or start a line with one.

The rules people most often trip on:

• No space just inside the markers. *bold* works; *bold * and _ italic_ stay as typed.
• A marker touching a letter or a digit stays as typed, so snake_case_name and a*b*c never format. Punctuation next to a marker is fine: (*bold*) and *bold*. both work.
• Bold, italic, strikethrough and inline code stay on one line. A pair of markers with a line break between them stays as typed. Only monospace can span lines.
• Markers are single characters. **bold** shows as bold with extra stars.
• Lists and quotes start at the very beginning of a line, with one space after the marker, and a list item needs some text after it: -item and a lone - stay as typed.
• Nothing formats until the closing marker is typed: *almost stays as typed.
• Web addresses are never formatted inside: the underscores in https://example.com/a_b_c stay as typed, and the address stays a working link (see Links and previews below).

Live preview

The message box shows the formatting while you type. As soon as you close a pair of markers, the text takes the style and the markers hide, so *bold* shows as bold. When your cursor is right next to a marker (or inside a longer one, like the three backticks of monospace), both markers of that piece of text reappear in grey so you can edit them. Selecting text that touches a marker does the same. Bullets show as a bullet, quotes get a bar, and list numbers stay visible. Click outside the box and every marker hides again.

Pressing End (or clicking in the empty space after a formatted word) puts the cursor after its closing marker, so what you type next is not part of the formatting. After a click, the markers next to the cursor appear right away, so you always see what Backspace will delete. Double-clicking a formatted word selects just the word, not its markers, so typing over it keeps the formatting.

Moving or deleting a word at a time (Option with the arrow keys, Backspace or Delete on a Mac, Ctrl elsewhere) skips over hidden markers: one press moves past a whole formatted word, and deleting a formatted word takes its markers with it instead of leaving a stray * behind.

Copying a message's text out of the thread keeps its lists: each bullet (•) or number stays on the line of its item.

A message is saved exactly as you typed it, markers included, so the formatting is still there when you edit it later. The markers count toward the 4000-character limit.

Keyboard shortcuts

With text selected, the shortcut wraps it in markers (a space at either end of the selection stays outside them); press it again to remove them. It only ever removes markers that actually format the selection: the underscores in snake_case_name are left alone. With nothing selected, it inserts a pair of markers with the cursor between them, so what you type next is formatted; pressing it again right away removes the empty pair. Pressing it again after you've typed moves the cursor past the closing marker, so the rest of what you type is plain.

In WhatsApp conversations

If your workspace has WhatsApp conversations, the same formatting works there. These are WhatsApp's own markers, so the contact sees your formatting in WhatsApp, and formatting in the messages a contact sends you shows in the thread. A reply sent after the contact's 24-hour reply window has closed goes out as a WhatsApp template, which can't contain line breaks: each new line shows as a |, so lists, quotes and multi-line monospace arrive on one line. The message box warns you when that applies.

Links and previews

Web addresses in a message are clickable: anything starting with http://, https:// or www.. A link opens in a new tab, and the site you open can't see which chat it came from. The link shows exactly as it was typed.

Some addresses deliberately stay plain text, so a message can never show one address and take you to another:

• Inside inline code or monospace. Text in `code` or ```monospace``` is shown exactly as typed.
• With a user name or password in it, like https://yourbank.com@another-site.com, which reads as one site but goes to another.
• With hidden characters (invisible formatting characters) in the address.
• With look-alike characters in the site's name, such as a slash or a dot from another alphabet, or a name that mixes Latin letters with letters from another script.

Web addresses in other schemes (like ftp:// or mailto:) stay plain text too. International site names in a single script work as links.

The preview card

When a message has a link, a preview of its first link shows at the top of the message: the page's title, a short description, the site's name and its address, and an image when the page has one. Clicking the card opens the link. If the page has no preview, or it can't be loaded, the message simply shows without one.

Previews are fetched by the workspace's server, never by your browser (the image included), so the linked site doesn't see who read the message. Only public web pages are previewed: an address on a private network gets no card. A preview is loaded when the message comes into view and is kept for a while, so a page that changed may show its earlier preview for up to a day.

While you type, a bar above the message box shows the preview your message will carry, once you pause on the link. Click the X on the bar to send the message without it; the next message offers its link's preview again. A message with files has no preview (its files show instead), so the bar hides while files are attached or while you record a voice message.

In WhatsApp conversations

Links in the messages a contact sends you are clickable and get a preview card for your team, the same way (the contact isn't told).

When you reply within the contact's 24-hour window, a text reply can go with WhatsApp's own link preview, shown on the contact's phone, of its first web address starting with http:// or https:// (WhatsApp doesn't preview an address starting with www.). The bar above the message box shows that preview; click its X to send the message without one. Replies sent as a template (after the 24-hour window has closed, and a new chat's first message) and files can't carry a link preview, so the bar doesn't appear for them.

Typing indicators

When someone is typing, you'll see "Alice is typing..." below the thread. Two or more people typing show as "Alice and Bob are typing...". The indicator clears after about 4 seconds of inactivity.

Replying, copying, editing or deleting a message

Hover over a message (or reach it with Tab) and click the small arrow in its top corner to open its menu (on a phone or tablet the arrow is always shown):

• Reply quotes the message in what you send next: a bar above the message box shows what you're replying to, and the cursor moves into the box. Press Esc, or the X on that bar, to drop the reply (what you typed stays). Text, files and voice messages can all be replies. The quote shows at the top of your message, and anyone can click it to jump to the original, which is briefly highlighted (earlier messages load if needed). A deleted message can't be replied to; if the one you're replying to is deleted before you send, the bar says so and your message goes without the quote.
• Copy copies the message's text, formatting markers included (for a poll, its question and then its options, one per line).
• Edit. Available on your own messages (a voice message, a poll or a deleted message can't be edited). Updates the content; the message is marked (edited) afterwards. The edit box has the same formatting preview. Enter saves (on a phone or tablet, tap Save), Shift+Enter adds a new line, and Esc cancels.
• Delete. Available on your own messages, or on any message in a team, project or task channel if you have Delete Chats (in a direct message, only on your own). After you confirm, the message's text and files (or a poll and all its votes) are removed and everyone sees "This message was deleted" in its place (you see "You deleted this message"); replies that quoted it now quote "This message was deleted".

Editing and deleting both need access to the channel: once you leave a team, you can no longer edit or delete your messages in its channel.

Every edit and deletion is recorded in the workspace audit log, with the text the edit replaced or a copy of the deleted message and its files, so nothing said in a chat is lost to your organisation's history (the entry stays even after the member who made it leaves). Anyone with View Audit Log can read those copies, including for channels they aren't in and for edited or deleted messages in direct messages. Messages that were never edited or deleted are not copied there.

Replies in WhatsApp conversations

If your workspace has WhatsApp conversations, each message has a menu with Copy (for a message with text) and, when the contact changed or deleted a message, its edit history. Reply is there for members who can send messages in the conversation, while it is open. A reply quotes the message the way WhatsApp shows it, on the contact's phone too. It can quote the contact's messages and your team's, but only within 24 hours of the contact's last message, and not a message that failed to send, one the contact deleted, or one sent or received on the chat's previous WhatsApp number. WhatsApp doesn't show the quote on the contact's phone for a message older than about 30 days. WhatsApp gives businesses no way to edit or delete a message once it's sent, so there is no Edit or Delete there.

Polls

In any team, project or task channel (the chats that can have more than two people) you can ask a question and let people vote on the answers. Direct messages don't have polls: the paperclip there offers only File and Photos & videos.

1. Click the paperclip next to the message box and choose Poll.
2. Type your question, then the options. A new empty option appears as you fill in the last one, up to 12. Drag an option by its handle to move it, or remove it with its X. Enter moves to the next field, and Cmd+Enter on a Mac (Ctrl+Enter elsewhere) sends.
3. Allow multiple answers is on by default. Turn it off if each person should pick only one option.
4. Click Send. While something is missing, a line next to the buttons says what (for example, two options that read the same).

Clicking outside the poll window doesn't close it, so a half-written poll isn't lost; Cancel, the X or Esc throw it away. While you're moving an option with the keyboard, Esc cancels only the move.

Voting:

• Tap an option to vote. With multiple answers, each tap picks or unpicks that option. With one answer, tapping another option moves your vote there, and tapping your pick again takes your vote back. You can change your vote at any time.
• Everyone sees the results as they happen. Each option shows a bar, its number of votes and the faces of its most recent voters.
• Votes aren't anonymous. Click View votes, or the number next to an option, to open Poll details: who voted for each option, and when. Someone who has since left the workspace is marked Former member, and their vote still counts.
• Anyone who can read the chat can vote, including people with View All Chats.
• A vote isn't a message: it doesn't mark the chat unread, send a notification, or move the chat up in the sidebar.

A poll can be replied to, copied (its question, then its options, one per line) and deleted like any message, but it can't be edited once it's sent. If a poll fails to send, choose Edit under it to change it and send it again. Deleting a poll removes it and its votes for everyone; the audit log keeps its question, its options and how many votes each one had.

Polls are for your workspace's team, project and task channels: direct messages and WhatsApp conversations don't have them. A poll that was sent in a direct message before polls were limited to channels stays there, and the two of you can still vote in it (unless the other person has left the workspace, in which case it stays readable but can't be voted in any more).

Unread counts

Each chat tracks the timestamp of the last message you read. Anything someone else sent after that counts as unread, except a message that was deleted. The Unread filter at the top of the sidebar counts direct messages too. Opening the channel marks everything in it read up to the latest message.

Who has seen your message

Where your workspace shows read receipts, every message you send shows who has seen it, once someone has. In a team, project or task channel each of your messages gets a line under it such as Seen by Priya, Arjun and 3 more. Hover over it to preview the full list, or click it to keep the list open; the list can be searched by name and loads more as you scroll, so it works for chats with many members. In a direct message there is only one other person, so your message simply shows Seen next to its ticks. Only you, the sender, can open this list for your message. Someone who has turned off notifications for the chat can still appear in it once they have read the message.

Voice calls

You can call people from the chat, in your browser:

• In a direct message, the phone button at the top of the conversation calls the other person.
• In a team, project or task chat, the same button starts a group call that everyone in the chat can join, up to 8 people at a time.

When a call is already going on in a chat, the button reads Join instead, and the call also shows in the conversation as its own row with a Join button while it lasts. Every call stays in the conversation afterwards, with how long it lasted, or as a missed call.

When someone calls you, a ringing card appears in the corner of any workspace tab you have open, with Accept and Decline (for a group call, Join and Not now), and the tab plays a ring. If the tab is in the background you also get a notification from the browser. If you don't have the workspace open in a browser tab at all, your devices get a push notification instead, which opens the chat when you tap it. Nothing is sent to your phone while a tab of yours is ringing. If that tab can't play sound yet (a tab you haven't clicked since it opened), or can't take the call (the microphone is blocked for the site), you get the push as well, and if you close or put the computer to sleep while it rings, the call moves to your phone within a few seconds.

During a call a bar at the top of the page shows who is in the call, Mute and Hang up. You can move around the workspace while you talk; leaving the workspace or closing the tab hangs up. You can be on one call at a time: while you're on a call, the call buttons tell you to hang up first, and a new incoming call shows without ringing so you can see who is calling.

Good to know:

• Only members of a chat can call or join its calls. You can't call someone who has left the workspace.
• A chat with more than 32 other members doesn't ring anyone when a call starts: everyone gets the usual new-message notification ("Started a voice call") instead, and joins from the chat.
• A 1:1 call ends when either of you hangs up. A group call goes on until the last person leaves.
• If nobody answers within 45 seconds, the call ends as missed and the people it rang get a missed-call notification.
• You can start at most 3 calls in the same chat within 5 minutes. Joining a call that is already going on is always possible.
• Turning off Notify me about new messages for a team, project or task chat also stops its group calls from ringing you. Calls in a direct message always ring.
• Calls use your microphone, so your browser asks for permission the first time. Voice only, no video.
• Calls go directly between browsers. On some office or hotel networks a call can't connect; ask your administrator about a TURN server if that happens.

Notifications

When a message is sent, every member of the channel except the sender (in a direct message, the other person) gets a push notification with the first 80 characters of the message as preview, on one line and with the formatting markers removed (*urgent* shows as urgent). To stop notifications for one chat, open its side panel (see The side panel: people and files, above) and turn off Notify me about new messages (on the People tab of a channel, or at the top of a direct message's panel). It applies only to you and only to that chat, and replying there doesn't turn it back on. You can turn it on again at any time.

A new poll notifies people like a message, with Poll: and its question as the preview. A vote notifies no one.

Calls notify differently: see Voice calls, above. In your notification settings, Incoming calls and Missed calls control the push notifications a call sends.

Permissions

No permission opens or deletes someone else's direct messages. View Audit Log does show the earlier text of direct messages that were edited or deleted.

Things to know

• The chat feature is gated by the Chat feature flag at the org level. If your sidebar doesn't show Chat, your platform admin hasn't enabled the feature.
• Messages are delivered in real time via WebSockets. If your tab loses connection it auto-reconnects.
• There is no message search yet. A thread opens at its newest messages; to reach older ones, scroll up and press Load earlier messages.