Team chat

Talk with colleagues in public and private channels, with threads, mentions, reactions, files and search.

Chat

Chat is where your team talks to itself, in channels that outlive any single issue. It is for colleagues only: nothing posted here reaches anyone outside your workspace, and people with the guest role do not have chat at all.

Open chat

Choose Chat near the top of the sidebar, or press G then C.
Pick a channel from the Channels list on the left. The first one opens by default.

Chat needs the chat permission, which Owners, Admins and Members have by default. Without it the page says you don't have permission to use chat.

The Live marker in the channel header means new messages arrive as they are sent. If it shows Offline, messages still save and appear when you refresh.

Create a channel

Select the + button (New channel) beside the Channels heading.
Enter a Name. Spaces and capitals become hyphens, so "Release Planning" becomes #release-planning. Names need at least two letters or numbers, at most 40, and must be unique in the workspace.
Optionally add a Topic (optional) that says what the channel is for.
Tick Private if only members should be able to find or read it.
Select Create. You become the channel's first member.

Whether a channel is private is fixed when it is created and cannot be changed later, because everyone who writes in it does so believing it is private.

Public and private channels

Public channels (marked #) can be read by everyone in the workspace, joined or not. To post, react or change the channel you must first select Join.
Private channels (marked with a lock) are visible only to their members. You cannot join one yourself; a member has to add you.
Members add colleagues with Add people. Anyone added must be an active member of the workspace.
You can remove yourself with Leave. Only the channel's creator or a workspace admin can remove somebody else.

There are no one-to-one direct messages. For a private conversation between a few people, create a private channel and add just them.

Write messages

Enter sends and Shift+Enter starts a new line. A message can be up to 4,000 characters.
Type @ and part of a name to mention a colleague, then choose them from the list. Mentions are highlighted, and one that names you stands out.
Attach files with the paperclip (Attach files) or by dropping them on the message box: up to 10 files per message, 50 MB each. A message may be files alone.
Use the buttons on a message to Add reaction, Reply in thread, or, on your own messages, Edit message and Delete message.

Only the author can edit or delete a message, not even an admin can change someone else's words. A deleted message keeps its place but its text and files are removed for everyone, and it shows as "This message was deleted."

Messages are plain text. Issue keys are not turned into links, so paste the issue's address if you want colleagues to click through to it.

Threads

Select Reply in thread on any top-level message to open the Thread pane beside the channel. Replies stay out of the main conversation, and a thread is one level deep: you reply to the original message, not to a reply.

Unread messages, mentions and search

A dot beside a channel means there are unread messages. A number means messages that mention you.
Opening a channel marks it read, and a New divider shows where you left off.
Use Search messages above the channel list to find text in every channel you can read: public channels and private ones you belong to. Selecting a result jumps to the message. Up to 50 results are shown.

Archive a channel

A member can archive a channel with the archive button in its header. An archived channel becomes read-only and leaves the list; its history stays readable. Tick Show archived at the bottom of the channel list to see it again, and select Reopen to bring it back.