Chat and Team Collaboration
Last updated
Last updated
In Connect you can participate in one-to-one and group (Channel) conversations. To open a Chat page, click on a chat-enabled Contact, Channel or a recent message.
You can send messages and files, use smileys, view message history and perform message search via the Chat interface. The Chat interface for one-to-one chats and Channels is almost identical.
Once you open a Chat page, you can type your messages using the input on the bottom of the page.
All messages support emojis. Text emojis (e.g. ":)" will always be replaced by graphic emojis automatically. You can also view the full list of available emojis and insert them into the message by clicking the emoji icon on the right part of the chat input.
Every time you send or receive a message, it appears on the top of the Recent Activity menu tab. Recent activity shows the last messages of one-to-one and Channel conversations, so you could easily find your last chat or see the chats with newest messages on top of the list.
Markdown support
You can also use a special syntax to highlight specific parts of your message.
Use single ticks wrapping `` for inline highlighting. This is also known as "code" style.
Use triple ticks wrapping ``` for multi-line highlighting. Contents inside such blocks are displayed as is without graphic smileys.
Use closing angular bracket > to make a quotation. The first paragraph of your message will be shown as a quote.
Use underscore wrapping _ to format text as italic.
Use asterisk wrapping * to format text as bold.
Example: ...Some text, *this text will be shown as bold*. More text with a _block of italic text_, etc. will result in: ...Some text, this text will be shown as bold. More text with a block of italic text, etc.
To send a file to a one-to-one Chat or a Channel, follow this 4 simple steps:
Click on the clip icon on the left part of the Chat input.
Select the file you want to send.
Wait until the file processed and uploaded. Large images and videos are processed to reduce their size before upload.
Find the file in the Chat or Channel where it can be downloaded by Channel members.
File sharing is limited to a 20MB file size.
Files received can be found within the chat thread and are stored locally within the default Documents folder of the device.
Note that you can also send a file by simply dragging and dropping it onto a Chat, Contact or Channel in the list. If you drop a file elsewhere, a modal window will show up asking you to choose a person or a Channel to send the dropped files to.
Chat menu can be opened by clicking the hamburger menu icon in the header bar. It appears on the right side of the screen and consists of two parts:
Files shows the full list of files that were ever shared in the current conversation with possibility to download them.
Members (Channels only) shows the list of members in the current Channel with their role and in-call status indicators. Each member has their own Actions︙ so you could easily switch to one-to-one chat or view user’s Profile.
Note that you can set up a Chat menu to be initially open each time you open a Chat or Channel in Language and Appearance settings.
You can easily Search messages in one-to-one Chats and Channels:
Click on the search icon in the header bar.
Enter the search query in the input that shows up on the right.
Check the list of results that shows matched messages with the matched parts of messages highlighted.
If you wish to see the found match within the context of the Chat or Channel, click on it, and it will be shown in the Chat or Channel along with other messages before and after it. You can load more messages before and after the match by scrolling up and down respectively.
To hide the search results and return to the most recent messages in the Chat, click on the Scroll to Bottom button on the bottom right part of the Chat.
The initiation of a group call is similar to one-to-one calls. You can start it either from a Channel chat or a Channel Actions︙. The user interface is also similar, i.e. you can enable video, start screen sharing or mute your microphone whenever you want. You can also see the in-call status of each member using the Members tab in chat menu.
In-call user status is represented by the following icons:
Phone icon indicates that the member is participating in the call.
Phone icon with shaking animation indicates that the member is being dialed and has not answered yet.
Crossed microphone icon indicates that the member is on the call but has the microphone muted. Note that unlike in one-to-one calls, other call members can see when you mute your microphone.
Pause icon indicates that the member has put the call on hold.
No icon or none of the above indicates that the member is not participating in the call.
Note that if you choose the Allow selection of members to call option in Call Settings, you will be prompted to select the specific Channel members to call each time you are starting a Channel call. This is convenient when the conversation involves only a few members of a Channel.
You can initiate a Channel Video Call by clicking Start with Video on the Channel menu or enabling a camera in an ongoing Channel call.
For Video Calls:
All call participants are shown in the bottom row. If someone has not enabled video, a user image with full name will be displayed.
Status icons such as "is on hold" or "microphone muted" are shown in black overlay on top of member's video or user avatar.
During a call, you can enable Screen Sharing. To share your screen, click on the Screen Sharing button and select what you would like to share - an entire screen or a specific application window.
Screen Sharing Support
Screen Sharing is supported on some of the application platforms. Here is the platform support information:
Web application:
Google Chrome: browser extension is required. It can be installed from the Integration Settings.
Firefox: Version 52 and above provide full support out of the box, below 52 a browser extension is required. It can be installed from the Integration Settings.
Desktop application: Full support out of the box.
Android and iOS apps: Not supported.
On the unsupported platforms, you can still see the other party screen sharing, you just can't share your own screen.
