Chat
Internal team messaging — channels, threads, DMs, mentions, slash commands and meetings.
Chat is internal team messaging built into the portal — channels, threads, direct messages, mentions, saved items and video meetings. It sits at the top of the navigation rather than down with the document surfaces because it is a place people go many times a day.
Chat is Growth and above.
In this guide
- Getting to the page
- Channels and categories
- Direct messages
- Sending, editing and deleting messages
- Threads
- Reactions, pins and saved messages
- Mentions
- Search
- Slash commands
- Meetings and calls
- Notifications and do-not-disturb
- Managing channels
- Troubleshooting
1. Getting to the page
Click Chat in the top section of the navigation. Chat opens full-screen — an entire viewport surface with its own rail, like Atlas and Inbox.
It keeps the /admin/comms URL across every portal. Despite the path, it is a shared surface, not an admin page: your team reaches it on every portal it is enabled for.
2. Channels and categories
Channels are the persistent rooms of the workspace. The rail lists them grouped into categories — collapsible sections you define, plus an Other group for anything uncategorised.
- Create a channel — name it in kebab-case (
sales-uk,ops). Channel admins can create and reorder them. - Join a channel — open it and click Join channel. You can read before joining, but must join to post.
- Archived channels — hidden by default. Toggle Show archived to see them. An archived channel is read-only, with a banner saying so.
3. Direct messages
The Direct section of the rail holds one-to-one conversations. Click New direct message and search staff by name or email.
DMs are excluded from category grouping and always sit in their own section.
4. Sending, editing and deleting
The composer supports rich text, emoji, file attachments and pasted images. Enter sends; Esc cancels an edit.
Hovering a message reveals its toolbar: react, reply in thread, save, pin, edit, delete, copy link, and a More menu.
Editing shows an edited marker. Deleting asks first and cannot be undone.
5. Threads
Replying to a message opens a thread beside the channel. Threads keep a side conversation out of the main flow while remaining attached to what started it.
A message with replies shows a reply count. You must be a member of the channel to reply.
6. Reactions, pins and saved messages
Reactions — add an emoji from the picker. Hovering a reaction chip names who reacted.
Pins — pin the messages a channel keeps coming back to. Pinned messages are listed at the top of the channel.
Saved — save a message to your own list, visible under Saved. Private to you.
7. Mentions
Type @ to mention a person. Mentions notify them and appear on their Mentions page, which is the reliable answer to "what needs me?" across every channel.
8. Search
Open search from the channel header or the rail. Search runs across messages; results show the channel, the author and the timestamp, with a jump-to-message link. Archived channels are marked. Two characters minimum.
9. Slash commands
Type / in the composer to open the command list. Commands turn a message into an action in the rest of the platform — the point is that you don't leave the conversation to do the thing you just agreed to do.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/schedule | Find a time and book a meeting with the mentioned people. |
/task | Create a task. Quote a multi-word title: /task "Fix the bug" @jane tomorrow. |
/remind | Create a reminder. |
/lead | Link a lead into this conversation. |
/client | Link a client account into this conversation. |
/appointment | Link an appointment into this conversation. |
/doc | Create or link a Vault document, shared with this channel. |
/folder | Create or link a Vault folder, shared with this channel. |
/call | Start an ad-hoc call in this channel. |
/invite | Add someone to this channel. (Manager/admin only) |
/leave | Leave this channel. |
/topic | Set the channel topic. (Manager/admin only) |
/archive | Archive this channel. (Manager/admin only) |
/dnd | Enable do-not-disturb. |
/me | Send an emote-style message. |
Command results are posted into the channel as their own kind of message, so the record of what was created stays with the conversation.
10. Meetings and calls
Chat carries video meetings, not just text.
/callstarts an ad-hoc call in the current channel; anyone in it can join./schedulebooks a meeting with the people you mention, checking their availability first.- Meetings lists upcoming and past meetings, with attendee counts.
In a meeting you get screen sharing, camera backgrounds (including custom ones), layout controls, a lobby queue, captions, connection-quality indicators, keyboard shortcuts, and recordings.
11. Notifications and do-not-disturb
Per-channel notification settings decide whether you are notified on everything, only mentions, or nothing. Do-not-disturb (/dnd or the notification settings panel) silences everything for a period.
Reachability across devices is tracked so a notification reaches you where you actually are — desktop, browser push or mobile push.
12. Managing channels
Channel admins can:
- Rename a channel.
- Set its topic.
- Manage members.
- Reorder channels within a category, and manage categories.
- Archive a channel — reversible, read-only.
- Delete a channel — permanent, removing every message and file for every member.
13. Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Chat isn't in the nav | Growth and above | See Plans & Subscriptions |
| I can read but not post | You have not joined the channel | Click Join channel |
| A channel disappeared | It was archived | Toggle Show archived |
| I'm not getting notified | Channel notification setting, or DND is on | Check notification settings and /dnd |
| A slash command was refused | It is manager/admin only | /invite, /topic and /archive are restricted |
| Search finds nothing | Fewer than two characters, or the message is in a channel you cannot see | Broaden the query |