--- title: What is chat? url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/chat description: Channels for topics and teams, threads for side-conversations, and direct messages. Every message can become work. --- > Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further. # What is chat? **Chat** is where the talking happens. Channels for topics and teams, threads for side-conversations, and one-to-one direct messages. It is always on. Chat is structural, so no admin can switch it off for a workspace. ## Why is chat inside the same product as the work? [#why-is-chat-inside-the-same-product-as-the-work] Because the two are the same conversation, and keeping them in separate tools is what makes things get lost. Somebody at Fairgreen Golf Co. mentions in passing that the merino is running low. In a standalone chat tool that is a message which scrolls away. Here it becomes a task in one click, keeping a link back to the conversation that caused it. The same is true in the other direction. You can tag a real task, document, product, customer or channel in a message and it arrives as a live chip that other people can click. That connection is the point of and , and it is the reason chat is not a bolt-on here. ## How is the channel list arranged? [#how-is-the-channel-list-arranged] Down the left, with four things in it. * **Folders**, which group channels and can carry a coloured icon tile. The menus call a folder a category; both words mean the same thing. * **Channels**, each showing a coral unread badge when there are messages you have not read. * **Threads**, listed indented under the channel they belong to. * **Direct messages and who is online**, in a rail pinned at the bottom. Click a folder's name to roll it up or open it. Which folders are collapsed is remembered per browser, so collapsing one on your laptop does not collapse it on your phone. On a phone the channel list is the whole screen, and tapping a channel opens it with a **Channels** back link. ## What is the difference between a channel, a thread and a DM? [#what-is-the-difference-between-a-channel-a-thread-and-a-dm] * A **channel** is a named room for a topic or a team. Anyone 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, which is what stops one tangent burying a day of conversation. See . * A **direct message** is a private conversation between exactly two people. See . A **reply** is a fourth thing and it is not a thread: it is an ordinary message in the channel that points back at an earlier one. ## How do you read a channel? [#how-do-you-read-a-channel] Oldest at the top, newest at the bottom, opening at the newest. **Load older messages** at the top pulls in the previous fifty. Scrolling back is safe: the view only follows new messages when you are already at the bottom, so reading history does not yank you away. New messages and deletions appear live without reloading. A link from your Inbox or a notification lands on the exact message, which flashes briefly so you can find it. A link to something far back in history opens the channel without jumping, because the message is not loaded yet. ## Who can see what? [#who-can-see-what] You only see channels you have permission to view. A **private** channel is hidden from everyone except admins, so it is simply not in your list rather than appearing locked. Opening a link to a channel you cannot see returns a not-found page rather than a permission error, which is deliberate: a private channel gives nothing away, including its existence. Creating channels and folders is an admin job in most workspaces. See . ## Read this section in order [#read-this-section-in-order] and are the two that change how the product feels once you know them. Then for keeping a busy channel readable, and for the part no other chat tool does. For controlling what buzzes you, see .