The Accent Desktop allows you to chat with team members in a one-on-one and group capacity (). All chats take place within the app and may only include other members of the organization. This section will detail both one-to-one chat conversations and ).
The Channels list shows all the Channels of which you are either a member, moderator, or owner. The list will provide the following information for each Channel:
Channel Name
Channel Subject (if applicable)
Your role within the Channel
Whether the Channel is public or private
To search for available Channels, click the search icon:
By default, you will be presented with an alphabetically sorted list of all available Channels. You may join public channels from this list or further refine your search in the Channel search field.
Note: You must be added to private Channels by the Channel moderator or owner.
Once you begin entering text into the search field the list will automatically filter the results based on your search input.
The Channels List provide an Actions︙button for quick Channel actions, the available actions within this menu differ depending on your role within that specific Channel.
As a Channel member, Channel Actions are limited to opening the Channel content and leaving the Channel as a member.
As a Channel moderator or owner you may open the Channel Management section or delete the Channel completely.
Warning: Deleting a Channel can not be undone and a deleted Channel can not be recovered by Accent Technical Support.
The Channel owner can manage a Channel at any time. To do this, go to the Channel Management page, it is accessible via the by clicking the Actions︙button for any Channel which you are an owner of.
Once the Channel Management page is opened, the following options are available:
Edit Channel Privacy
Channels may be either Private or Public
Edit Channel Subject & Description
These fields are optional and used to provide more information to Channel members regarding the channel
Manage Channel Members
Used to add/remove members from the Channel as appropriate
Select or deselect members under Manage Channel members list. You can also use the search bar to find members if necessary. Press Save to save any changes.
There are 3 roles a user can have within a Channel:
Channel Owner is a user who created the Channel
Channel Member - any member of a public Channel or a user who was invited in a private Channel
Nominating a member as a Channel Moderator by the Channel Owner is very simple. To do this, the Channel Owner needs to open the Member Actions and click on Grant admin rights. To remove the rights, the Channel Owner needs to open member the properties and click on Remove admin rights.
Only one Channel Owner per Channel may exist. A Channel Owner can nominate a Channel member as a Channel Moderator. There are no restrictions on the number of Channel Moderators per each Channel.
A created Channel can be deleted by clicking on Delete in Channels List Actions and confirm the Channel deletion in the pop-up window.
Warning: Once a Channel is deleted that action can not be undone and the Channel's information can not be recovered.
Channels are a team chat feature which allow internal groups and teams of users to communicate in real-time via chat messages and file shares. A channel can be created for any topic, project, function, groups, or any other reason for communicating to multiple people simultaneously.
This section will detail interacting with a single channel and its members. For details regarding the , , or please refer to their individual sections.
Channel members may hold one of three : Channel Owner, Channel Moderator, or Channel Member. More information regarding Channel Roles is available in the section of this guide.
The mechanics of Channel chat are very similar to sessions, you may refer to the dedicated section on for further details on specific chat mechanics. Messages and files posted within the Channel appear in the Channel Content Thread in chronological order. You may download any file posted to the thread by clicking the file's accompanying download link, downloaded files are accessible via the menu.
You may invite the members of a Channel to an ad-hoc video call at any time by clicking the Video Call icon in the top right corner of the Channel window. Once the video call icon is clicked, the video invite window will open with the channel member pre-populated into the video invitation. Optionally, you may include a message with the invitation and/or curate the invitees list by adding/removing people. Once the invite is ready click the "Send Invite" button and the contacts will receive an invitation to join the video call.
Please Note: Only meeting invitees logged in to the app will receive the video call invitation.
Once the invitation is sent, the video meeting window will open and join the user to the meeting. Concurrently, the notification tray will open within the app to provide a real-time view of the invitees and the pending video invites. All video call invitations have a 60-second timeout, which will appear within the notifications window. Any pending video call invites may be canceled by clicking the "Cancel Meeting" button within the notification tray.
The Channel Actions button will reveal a tabbed window that allows you to toggle between a list of the Channel Members and the files shared within the channel.
Users may create a new Channel at any time. The process begins by clicking the New Channel button located at the bottom of the .
Once you've clicked the New Channel button you'll be presented with the new Channel setup page. This page will allow you to edit the specific Channel settings and details, including the following:
Channel Name
This field is required, it should include lowercase letters, numbers, or the underscore. This field does not support spaces or special characters.
Channel Subject
This is an optional field which supports letters, numbers, special characters, and spaces. When a Channel subject is set it will replace the Channel Name within the Channel chat.
Channel Description
This is an optional field which supports letters, numbers, special characters, and spaces.
Channel Icon/Picture
This is an optional settings allowing you to customize the Channel icon.
Channel Privacy
Public - Channel is available for any user to join
Channel Members
Allows you to choose members from the organization's users to be a part of the new Channel. Members may be added or removed from the Channel at anytime by the Channel Owner.
Once you have set the appropriate Channel Settings click the Save button to save your settings and create the new Channel.
Channel Moderator is a Channel member who was given rights to invite or remove members from the Channel ( indicates that the member is a Channel Moderator within the current Channel)
The Channel Members list shows a detailed list of the users who are members of the particular channel with an Actions︙ button to quickly contact an individual user directly or view their . The list also includes an icon displaying the user's .
This Files tab within a Channel differs from the page accessible from the top navigation toolbar, this Channel Files tab details files shared within the specific Channel. Once a user within a channel that file will remain within the Files tab for reference or access in the future. Clicking on the Files tab will provide a list of those shared files within the Channel and allow you to download any file shared.
Note: Once the file is downloaded it is available within the file folder you designated and also from within the app's page.
Searching within a Channel's history is identical to with the only primary difference being you are searching through a Channel with messages and files from multiple users instead of just two. You may refer to the section on for further detail on searching within a chat.
Private - The Channel Owner must add members to the Channel. Private Channels will include an iconto indicate that Channel is private.
To access a chat thread and begin messaging, click on a chat-enabled Contact, Channel or a recent message from the Chats menu option. You can send messages and files, launch a video call, use emojis, view message history and perform message search via the messaging and chat interface. The interface and messaging dynamics 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.
Once a message is sent you will see it posted to the chat thread.
All chat messages received, posted, or shared files appear in chronological order within the chat stream.
Note: Every time you send or receive a message, it appears on the top of the Chats menu tab. Chats 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.
When a message is received, you will receive an operating system notification if your PC/Mac settings support OS-based notifications.
Once a message is sent to a user or posted within a Channel, you may take specific actions with that message, those actions include:
Edit Message - Edit the text content of the message
Forward Message - Forward the message to another user
Delete Message - Delete the message from the conversation
Note: You may only edit or delete messages that you have sent or posted, not messages received from other users.
Once a message is received from another user or posted by another user within a Channel, you may forward that message to other users through the Message Actions options.
To forward a message, simply click on the Forward action, a pop-up box will appear asking you to determine who the message will be forwarded to. Messages may be forwarded to individual users or Channels of which you are a member.
First, select the message destination from the pop-up box then follow the steps below the image.
The message to be forwarded will appear as an attachment within the destination chat, allowing you to add any additional comments along with the forwarded message. Once you've added any additional desired comments, simply press the Enter key or click the Send icon to forward the message and the comments.
Note: Additional comments are not required to forward a message, it is an optional feature.
Inserting a video meeting link within a chat is easy via the right-click menu within the chat entry box. This will allow you to quickly drop a meeting link directly into the chat and send it to a contact or team chat channel.
To insert your personal meeting link select the "Insert Personal Meeting Invite" option from the menu.
To start a channel meeting and invite a channel to a meeting select the "Start Channel Meeting" option from the menu. This option will insert an invite with a unique meeting name specific to that channel.
Clicking a video meeting link shared within a chat will automatically join the user to the video meeting specified within the link.
All chats support emojis. Text emojis (e.g. ":)" will always be replaced by graphic emojis automatically. You can view the full list of available emojis and insert them into the message by right-clicking within the chat text box and selecting the "Emoji" menu item.
The emoji library will be presented allowing you to insert the appropriate emoji for you conversation.
The Accent Desktop app supports the use of animated GIFs within both one-on-one and team chat messaging. GIFs are insertable via right-clicking within the chat text box and selecting the "Insert GIF" menu option.
The GIF search window will open on the right-hand side of the application, allowing you to search an online library of GIFs (provided by Giphy) to insert into the chat stream. To search for a GIF, enter a search term into the GIF search box, circled in the image below. GIF search terms can be vague or specific and based on a variety of topics.
Once you have searched for a term and found an appropriate GIF you can insert that image directly into the chat via the "insert" icon located in the bottom right corner of the respective GIF. Clicking the insert icon will automatically insert the GIF into the chat stream.
Once the GIF is inserted into the chat stream it is viewable by all parties within the chat and able to be manipulated in the same manner as any other chat messages or content.
You may search within a one-on-one or channel chat history to find messages or files from within that chat.
Click on the Search icon to reveal the Chat Search Window.
Enter a query to search within the entry form. You may search for messages, files, or webhook messages within the chat.
You may designate optionally within the Chat Search Options to include or exclude messages, files, or webhook messages from your search.
Your search results will be shown within the Chat Search Window. Search results are interactive, simply click on the returned result and that message will be shown within the Main Chat Window.
To send a file to a one-to-one Chat or a Channel, follow these 4 simple steps:
Click on the clip icon on the left part of the Chat Entry Field.
Select the file you want to send from within your local files.
The file will then be processed and uploaded to the chat. Large images and videos are processed to reduce their size before upload.
Files received can be found within the chat thread and are stored locally within the default Documents folder of the device. Any file received and downloaded will also be found within the My Files menu.
Note: File sharing is limited to a maximum file size of 20MB.
Note: You can also send a file by dragging and dropping the file from your OS file list onto a Chat, Contact or Channel in the members list. If you drop a file elsewhere, a modal window will appear asking you to choose a Contact or a Channel to send the file.
Once a shared file has been downloaded that file will appear within the Files page of the application.
Within a one-on-one or team chat, the chat Actions︙provides a list of the shared files history from within the chat. This history provides a list of all the files shared within this specific chat conversation and provides an opportunity to download those files.
Note: You can specify the chat Actions︙menu to be initially open each time you open a Chat or Channel in Language and Appearance settings.
