Team chat

Chat is the place on the left rail where your business talks to itself: the people on your seats, the guests you add from other firms, and a channel for every project. It is built to take the place of a separate chat tool.

What you'll find

• #general is for everyone in the business. It is made for you.
• Topic channels are ones you make: #wins, #admin, whatever you need. A public channel is open to every full seat; a private one is invite-only.
• Project channels appear for every live project, named after it, and show the people on that project. When a project is finished its channel is archived with it.
• Direct messages are one-to-one or a small group, with anyone in your organisation.

Each project channel links to the project's client thread in the portal (Inbox → Portal messages), which stays a separate conversation with the client. Nothing you say in a project channel reaches the client.

Threads, mentions, reactions and files

• Reply in thread keeps a side conversation out of the main stream. The channel shows "3 replies" with who replied.
• @name gets someone's attention; @channel reaches everyone in the channel. Type @ to pick a name.
• React with an emoji, attach up to ten files to a message, and edit or remove your own messages. A removed message leaves a "message removed" line for 30 days so the thread still makes sense.
• Make a task from any message: it opens the task with the message as its description and the project filled in from the channel.

Who can see what

• Full seats (owner, admin, team) see #general, public topic channels, and the channel of every project they can see.
• Guests see only the channels of projects they are on, and any channel an admin adds them to. Not #general.
• Direct messages are private to the people in them. Nobody else can read them, including the owner.
• Clients are never in team chat. Their messaging is the portal's own.

Notifications

A badge on the Chat icon counts direct messages and mentions. Each channel can be set to Every message, Mentions only (the default for channels) or Muted from its menu.

If a direct message or an @mention sits unread for ten minutes, Ambital sends you one email for that channel and then leaves you alone until you've looked. Turn it off under Settings → Notifications → Chat.

Messages appear within a few seconds while Chat is open. A desktop app with instant notifications is the next step.

Note: team chat is part of Business Pro and Teams. The client portal's messaging is separate and stays where it is.