What is chat?

Chat is where your team talks: channels for topics and teams, threads for side-conversations, and one-to-one direct messages, with voice and video calls in any of them. Open it from Chat in the menu. The icon carries a count of your unread messages.

Chat is always on in every workspace, and Settings › Modules marks it Always on.

Why is chat inside the same product as the work?

Because the conversation and the work belong together, and splitting them across two tools is how requests get lost.

Priya mentions in passing that the merino from Portside Mills is running low. In a standalone chat tool that message scrolls away. Here it becomes a task straight from the message, with a link back to the conversation that caused it.

It works the other way too. Tag a real task, document, product, customer, channel or a record from one of your Objects in a message, and it arrives as a chip anyone can click. A tagged task shows its title as a violet chip that opens the task.

That two-way link is what How to turn a conversation into work and How to tag people, tasks, documents and products cover.

When would you use chat?

• A quick question for the team. "Has anyone heard back from Kaimen Knitwear about the polo samples?" goes in the channel where the buying team works.
• A decision being talked through. Keep it in a thread so the main channel stays readable, then record the outcome as a decision.
• A private word with one colleague. Use a direct message for something that is genuinely between two people.

When something needs an owner and a due date, make it a task. Chat is for talking about the work, and the task is where the work is tracked.

How is the chat list arranged?

Down the left, under a Chat heading with a Create button, in this order:

• Meetings, the list of calls, where your workspace has calls. See How to start a call and take notes.
• Agents, which holds Agent. It opens the Agent panel, per What is the Agent?.
• Channels, the channels outside any folder.
• Folders, each under its own name, grouping channels. The menus call a folder a category; both words mean the same thing.
• Direct Messages, with New message to start one.

A channel with messages you have not read shows a count badge. Threads are listed at the top of their own channel, not in this list. Click a section's heading to fold it shut or open it, and Tideswell remembers which you folded in that browser.

On a phone browser the channel list fills the screen. Tapping a channel opens it, with a Channels link to go back.

What is the difference between a channel, a thread and a DM?

• A channel is a named room for a topic or a team. Everyone who can see it can read it.
• A thread is a named side-conversation inside a channel. Its messages stay out of the main timeline, so one tangent does not bury a day of conversation. See How to reply and start a thread.
• A direct message is a private conversation between two people. See How to send a direct message.

A reply is an ordinary message in the channel that points back at an earlier one. Use a reply for a quick answer and a thread for a longer side-conversation.

How do you read a channel?

A channel opens at the newest message, with older messages above. Scroll up and older history loads by itself, fifty messages at a time; the Load older messages button at the top does the same.

New messages and deletions appear as they happen, with no reload. If the connection drops for more than a moment, a strip reads "Reconnecting… new messages may be delayed." until it is back.

While a teammate types in the channel, a line above the message box reads "Priya is typing…". With two people it reads "Priya and Dana are typing…", and with more, "Priya and 2 others are typing…".

A link from your Inbox or a notification to a recent message opens the channel at that message and outlines it briefly so you can spot it.

Which documents mention this channel?

Click Channel details (the i button in the channel header) to see Linked documents: every document that tags this channel. It is the quickest way to find the brief or plan a channel keeps talking about.

To tag a channel from a document, see How to find a document and link it to your work.

Who can see what?

You see the channels you have permission to view. A private channel stays out of the list for everyone except admins, so people outside it do not see it at all.

A link to a channel you cannot see opens a not-found page, so a private channel gives nothing away, including its name.

Creating channels and folders needs Create channels, which admins have by default. See How to create and organise channels.

Can the Agent join a conversation?

Yes. Once it has been added to chat under Brain › Automations, write @Agent in a channel and it answers there. See How to add the Agent to chat.

In a workspace with late-task check-ins switched on, the Agent asks about your late tasks in its Inbox, or in a direct message where the Inbox is off. Answer it there. See How to have the Agent check in on late tasks.

From the Agent panel, it can draft a post for a channel for you to approve under your own name. See How to approve, refuse or undo a suggested change.

Where should you go next?

Start with How to send, format and edit a message, then How to tag people, tasks, documents and products, which changes how the product feels once you know it.

Then How to share files and photos in chat for photos and attachments, How to reply and start a thread for keeping a busy channel readable, How to send a direct message for one-to-one conversations, and How to start a call and take notes for talking it through live.

How to turn a conversation into work covers turning a message into a task, outreach or decision. If you set chat up for your team, read How to create and organise channels. To control what buzzes you, see How to mute or follow a channel.