# People & messages widgets > Keep the people, mail and conversations behind a piece of work on its desk with the Contacts, Inbox, Chat and Email widgets. Source: https://plexiidesk.com/help/widgets-people-and-messages Section: Widgets > People and messages Plans: All plans Updated: 2026-10-10 Most work involves other people: the colleagues doing it with you, and the clients, suppliers and advisers outside your organisation. The People & messages widgets keep them on the desk the work lives on, so who is involved, what they have emailed and what you are saying to each other are all in view while you work. There are four of them: - **Contacts** lists the people this desk is about. See [Contacts widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-contacts). - **Inbox** shows the mail about this desk, picked from your mailbox by a rule you can see and change. See [Inbox widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-inbox). - **Chat** pins one chat conversation to the desk, so you can read and reply without leaving it. See [Chat widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-chat). - **Email** keeps one email, or its whole thread, on the desk to read like a document. You make it from Mail. See [Email widget: keep an email on a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-email). ## Which widget to use | Widget | What it shows | Use it when | | --- | --- | --- | | **Contacts** | The people on this desk, colleagues and guests, with their role, company and contact details | You want everyone involved in one list, in the place you do the work | | **Inbox** | Your mailbox, narrowed to this desk by a rule such as "from the client, in the last 30 days" | You want new mail about this work to show up on the desk as it arrives | | **Chat** | One conversation from Chat, with a message box to reply | You want to talk about the work without leaving the desk | | **Email** | One email, or its whole thread, that you chose to keep | One message matters to the work and should stay with it | ### Inbox or Email? The two mail widgets do different jobs, and many desks use both. - **Inbox** is a live view. It shows whatever currently matches its rule, so messages come and go as mail arrives and the rule changes. - **Email** is one message you chose. It stays on the desk even after you archive it in Mail or it stops matching any rule. Use it for the message the work depends on, such as a quote, a brief or a signed agreement. > **Note:** > **Inbox** in the Office menu is a different thing. It holds your notifications and share invites. See [Your Inbox of notifications](https://plexiidesk.com/help). ## Before you start - **Contacts** works on every plan with nothing to set up. Its suggestions draw on your connected mailbox, the tasks on the desk, the calendars you have added and your organisation, so the more of those you use, the more it can suggest. To invite someone into your organisation from it, you need to be signed in to an organisation where you are an admin. - **Inbox** and **Email** need a mailbox connected in Mail, which runs in the PlexiDesk desktop app. See [Connect your email account](https://plexiidesk.com/help). - **Chat** needs you to be signed in. See [Sign in to PlexiDesk](https://plexiidesk.com/help). All four widgets are part of every plan. Drafting a reply with AI from the Inbox widget is part of the Pro and Team plans. See [Plans and pricing](https://plexiidesk.com/help). ## Add them to a desk ### Contacts, Inbox and Chat 1. Open the desk. 2. Click **Add widget** in the header. 3. Click **Contacts**, **Inbox** or **Chat**. The widget appears on the desk. In the **Add widget** menu, these three sit together in the **People & messages** column, in that order. You can also type a name, such as "inbox", into the search box at the top of the menu and press `Enter` to add the first match. You can also press `⌘` `K` on a Mac or `Ctrl` `K` on Windows, type **Add Contacts**, **Add Inbox** or **Add Chat**, and press `Enter`. See [The command palette](https://plexiidesk.com/help/command-palette) and [Add a widget to a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/add-a-widget). ### Two more ways to add Chat - **From the desk.** Click **Chat** in the desk's quick actions in the header. PlexiDesk opens this desk's own conversation and adds it to the desk as a Chat widget. See [Desk quick actions](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-quick-actions). - **From Chat.** In **Office**, open **Chat**, open a conversation and click its pin button to pin it to your current desk. Both are explained step by step in [Chat widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-chat). ### Email, from Mail The Email widget is not in the **Add widget** menu, because it always starts from a message. In Mail, open the message, click **Send to desk** and pick the desk. See [Email widget: keep an email on a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-email). ## Keep a whole client's correspondence together The widgets work best side by side. On a desk for a client, a deal or a project: 1. Add **Contacts** and add the people involved. Pick them from the suggestions where you can. 2. Add **Inbox** and set its rule to the client's email address or company domain. 3. Send the one email that matters to the desk from Mail, so it stays there. 4. Click **Chat** in the desk's quick actions to put the desk's own conversation beside them. For the full walkthrough, see [Keep a client's people, mail and chat on their desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-people-and-mail). ## When you share a live view of the desk When you share a live web view of a desk, these four widgets appear to viewers as placeholders. The people, mail and messages on them are not shown. See [Share a live web view of a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/share-live-web-view). ## Related tasks - [Contacts widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-contacts) - [Inbox widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-inbox) - [Chat widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-chat) - [Email widget: keep an email on a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-email) - [Keep a client's people, mail and chat on their desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-people-and-mail) - [Mail overview](https://plexiidesk.com/help) - [Chat overview](https://plexiidesk.com/help) - [Add a widget to a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/add-a-widget)