Both Chats and channels are used to facilitate internal communications in a company. However, there is a slight difference between them.
- Channels are primarily a tool for informing employees about important events in the company's life.
- Chats are used for personal interaction between employees: to exchange important data, coordinate activities, discuss work issues, etc.
Create a chat
There are several ways to start a conversation with a coworker in a chat.
- Use the search box.
Go to the Messages section. In the search box for channels and chats, enter the first few letters of the coworker's name and select a person from the drop-down list.
- Click on the user's name.
In the Activity stream, a channel, or a task page, click on the person's name and select the Send message option.
All your personal chats are displayed in the Messages workspace. Your recent chats are shown right under the #Activity stream.
Sent messages are marked as follows:
one tick means that the message has been sent;
two ticks mean that the message has been read.
In group chats a message is marked as read if at least one person has seen it.
Share files
In a conversation with your colleagues, you can easily share files, such as presentations, documents, or photos.
To do this, drag the file to the message box or click on the paperclip icon 
in the right corner of the comment field and select the file on your computer.
The attached file will be displayed next to your message. Other can hover the mouse over the file and click on the 
icon to download, or on the blue area to open it in the browser. An opened preview can be printed or saved to your computer. Read more about how to share files in this article.
New message notifications
With notifications, you will never miss important messages and will be able to timely resolve all the issues that might arise.
There are several ways to find out that someone wrote to you in the chat:
- Pop-up windows. When you receive a new message, a pop-up window will appear in the lower right corner of the screen. Click on it to go to the chat.
- Even if the browser window with ELMA365 is minimized, you will still receive a push notification.
начало внимание
You will receive push notifications only if you allow the system to send them to you. For more information about push notifications see Notifications.
конец внимание
- You will see a new message counter in:
- The Messages workspace, to the right of the name of a person who has sent you a message.
- On the main page, next to Messages.
начало внимание
The counter next to the letter icon does not show how many new messages you have, but indicates the number of chats or channels with unread messages.
конец внимание
Silent mode
If you don’t want to receive notifications, simply switch the chat to silent mode. To do that, go to the chat window and click on the speaker icon in the upper right corner.
Invite someone to join a chat
You can invite other people to a chat to discuss an issue together, coordinate plans or share information. To do this, click on the + icon in the upper right corner of the chat and select new participants in the window that opens. You can read more about chats for multiple people in Group chats.
Find a chat
To quickly find a chat, start typing the user's first or last name in the search box in the Messages section. A drop-down list with prompts will appear below the box. Just click on the name of the person to go to the chat.
To find a channel, click on the hash 
. icon You will see a list of all your channels.
You can also click on the asterisk 
in the right corner of the search box. In this case, you will see a list of all your chats, channels, and live chats.
Often you need to find a message written by you or a person you are talking to. To do this, go to the chat through which you want to search. Then enter the phrase or word in the search box. In the drop-down list, select the option Search in this chat. 
Matches found will be highlighted in dark yellow. To go to the next match, use the navigation buttons that appear in the right corner of the search box. 
Create an event in a chat
You can create an event for all the chat participants. To do that, click +Event in the header. In the pop-up, fill out the event details. Note that the Participants field automatically includes all the people from the group chat or channel.
When saved, the event will appear in the personal calendar of every participant and in the activity stream.
Hide a chat
If you no longer need a chat, you can remove it from your list of chats and channels. It will still remain available to all the other participants. As soon as someones sends a new message to the chat, it will re-appear in your list.
To hide a chat, right-click on the name and select Hide chat.
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