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Direct messages and channels

Start a direct message by @handle or email, join or create your organisation's channels, manage who is in a conversation and choose how it notifies you.

All plansUpdated

A conversation in Chat is either a direct message with one person or a channel your organisation talks in. Direct messages are for one-to-one questions. Channels are for a team, a project or a topic, where everyone who joins sees the whole conversation.

This article shows how to start each kind, how to add and remove people, and how to choose how much a conversation notifies you.

Before you start

  • Sign in. Chat needs you to be signed in. See Create an account and sign in.
  • Plans. Direct messages and channels are part of every plan.
  • Know their @handle. Every PlexiDesk account has a handle, such as @sam. People see it next to their name when you mention them.
  • For channels, be in an organisation. Channels belong to an organisation, and only its members see and join them. See Set up and manage your organisation.
  • Work in the right workspace. Chat shows the conversations of the workspace you are in, so open the organisation you want to talk in first. See Organisation settings and switching workspaces.

Start a direct message

  1. In the side menu, under Apps, click Chat in the Tools group.
  2. Click New message (the pencil) at the top of your conversations.
  3. In the box marked @handle or email, type the person's handle, with or without the @.
  4. Press Enter or click Start.

The conversation opens, ready for your first message. If you already have a direct message with that person, it opens that one.

If the box says No user with that handle., check the spelling of the handle.

Other ways to start one

Invite someone by email

When you do not know someone's handle, or they are not on PlexiDesk yet, invite them by email.

  1. Click New message (the pencil).
  2. Type their email address and press Enter or click Start.

What happens next depends on the person:

The box says What it means
Request sent — they can accept it in their inbox. They have a PlexiDesk account and you are in an organisation together. They see your request in their Inbox and click Accept or Decline.
Invite sent — they'll get an email to join PlexiDesk. There is no PlexiDesk account for that address. They get an email inviting them to create one, and your request waits in their Inbox.
No user with that email. The address belongs to an account you do not share an organisation with. Ask them for their @handle instead.

When they click Accept, a direct message between you opens. See Inbox: your notifications.

Answer a contact request

When someone invites you by email, the request appears in your Inbox.

  1. Open Inbox from the Tools group in the side menu.
  2. Find the request and click Accept to start a direct message with them, or Decline.

Join a channel

  1. In Chat, click Browse and create channels (the hash sign) at the top of your conversations. The Channels window opens.
  2. If you belong to more than one workspace, choose your organisation in the list at the top.
  3. Each channel shows its name and how many members it has. Click Join beside the one you want.

The channel opens, and from now on it is in your list of conversations. Channels you are already in say Joined.

Create a channel

  1. Click Browse and create channels (the hash sign).
  2. Check the organisation in the list at the top, if there is one.
  3. At the bottom of the Channels window, type a name in the box marked new-channel-name.
  4. Press Enter or click Create.

The new channel opens with you as its first member. Everyone in the organisation can find it in Channels and join it, or you can add people yourself.

Add or remove people

  1. Open the conversation.
  2. Click Members, the button with the number of people in the conversation.

The list shows everyone in the conversation, with (you) after your own name.

  • To add someone, type their handle in the box marked @handle to add and press Enter. In a channel, they must belong to the channel's organisation, or the box says That person is not in this organization.
  • To remove someone, click the cross beside their name. Its tooltip reads Remove.
  • To leave, click Leave conversation at the bottom. The conversation leaves your list. A conversation always keeps at least one member, so the last person in it cannot leave.

Any member of a conversation can add or remove people.

In a channel, the first line of the list says whether the channel is marked Public channel or Private channel. Click it to switch.

Choose how a conversation notifies you

Each conversation has its own notification setting, which only affects you.

  1. Open the conversation.
  2. Click the bell at the right of the buttons above it. Each click moves to the next setting:
The button shows You are notified
A bell About every new message. This is where every conversation starts.
The @ sign Only when someone mentions you.
A crossed-out bell Never. The conversation is muted, even for mentions.

Rest the pointer on the button to see the current setting: its tooltip starts with Notifications: and then all, mentions or muted. Unread counts still go up in muted conversations, so you can catch up when you choose.

In the stream view, the same button sits at the top of a conversation in Focus. See PlexiiChat: channels and messages.

Conversations that appear by themselves

Some conversations start without you creating them:

  • When someone shares something with you and it arrives in your Inbox, Chat gets a direct message with the person who shared it, and a conversation for everyone it is shared with, marked with a shared-folder icon.
  • When you chat about a desk, room or document, its own conversation appears in your list with a hash sign and the item's name. See Chat about a desk, room or document.
  • When someone mentions the AI member in a channel and it replies, it becomes a member of that channel. See Set up the AI member in chat.

Tips

  • One channel per stream of work. A channel for each project or client keeps decisions easy to find later. Pin it to the project's desk as a Chat widget. See Chat widget.
  • Mentions only for busy channels. Set channels you skim to the @ sign, and keep direct messages on the bell, so a message to you always reaches you.
  • Use #general for the whole team. Everyone added to the organisation is in it, so it is the place for news everyone needs.

Common questions

The Channels window has no channels. It says No channels yet. Create the first one below. when the organisation in the list at the top has none. Check that the list shows the organisation you meant, or create the first channel.

I created a channel but my team cannot see it in their list. A channel appears in someone's list once they are in it. Ask them to click Join in Channels, or add them yourself with Members.

Can I rename a channel? Not from Chat. Choose the name carefully when you create it.

Why can I not see a conversation from my other organisation? Chat shows one workspace at a time. Switch workspace at the top of the side menu. See Organisation settings and switching workspaces.

Still need help? Contact support at [email protected].