Start and Manage Conversations

Use a channel for an ongoing team topic, a direct message for a focused one-to-one conversation, or a group direct message for a small set of people.

Start a Conversation

1. Open Chat.
2. Select the compose button at the top of the chat sidebar.
3. Choose Direct message or Channel.
4. Select the people who should participate. You can search by name or email, add everyone, or clear the selection.
5. Select Start conversation or Create channel, then send the first message from the new conversation.

A direct conversation with one teammate becomes a direct message. Selecting more than one teammate creates a group direct message.

Create a Channel

When creating a channel, add:

• A short channel name, such as adoption-review, medical, or transport
• An optional description explaining what belongs there
• The teammates who should participate

Turn on Make private to label the channel with a lock and make its intended privacy clear. All channels are participant-scoped in the sidebar, so add every teammate who should be able to find and open the channel.

Understand the Sidebar

Channels and direct messages appear in separate, collapsible sections. Each row can show:

• A channel, lock, person, or group icon
• The conversation name
• The latest message preview and activity time
• Online status for direct-message participants
• A star when the conversation is a favorite
• A circular unread count when new messages are waiting

The total unread count also appears at the top of the chat sidebar and beside Chat in the main app navigation. Counts over 99 are displayed as 99+ to keep badges compact.

Use the tabs above the list to switch between all active conversations, active conversations with unread messages, and archived conversations. The tabs show their current counts. If your organization has many conversations, select Load more at the bottom of the sidebar.

On desktop, use the panel button in the chat sidebar header to collapse the sidebar to a compact icon rail. PawPlacer remembers that choice for the current organization.

Read and Unread State

Opening a conversation marks its current messages as read. You can also use the row's more-actions menu, or right-click the row on desktop, and choose:

• Mark as read to clear its unread state
• Mark as unread to leave yourself a reminder to return

A New messages divider shows where unread content begins inside the conversation.

Unread state is personal. Marking a conversation read for yourself does not clear it for another teammate.

Favorite Conversations and People

Use the conversation row's actions, right-click the row on desktop, or select the star in an open conversation header to add or remove a favorite. Starred conversations sort ahead of other conversations in the same tab.

Stars are personal to you and do not change the conversation for other participants.

Active and Archived Conversations

Conversation status helps keep the sidebar clean without losing useful history:

• All shows active conversations, including both read and unread items.
• Unread shows only active conversations that have unread messages for you.
• Archived conversations are read-only and appear only in the Archived tab until restored.

Use a conversation row's actions to archive or restore it. Channel managers can also archive or restore a channel from the open conversation's more-actions menu. Participants who do not own the conversation can leave it from that menu.

Add or Remove People

Select the people count in the conversation header to open the participant manager. From there, authorized team members can:

• Review the full participant list
• Add another teammate
• Remove a teammate who is not the conversation creator
• Update a group direct message's membership

The same dialog provides channel settings when those options apply. See Manage Channels for the complete administration guide.

Presence and Typing

Direct messages show whether another participant is online. Inside an open conversation, PawPlacer displays the names of teammates who are currently typing. A small connection indicator in the header shows whether live updates are connected or reconnecting.

If the live connection is temporarily unavailable, existing conversations remain readable. The workspace catches up when the connection returns.

Next Steps

• Learn everything the composer can do in Send Messages and Collaborate.
• Learn how to find any conversation quickly in Find and Organize Work.
• Review channel privacy, ownership, and notifications in Manage Channels.