Chat: getting started

Chat is the team chat built into SingleSign Mail: channels for topics and projects, direct messages for one-to-one and small-group talk, and threads to keep side conversations tidy. It works the way Slack does, so a company can move its day-to-day conversation off Slack and keep it next to its mail, calendar and documents. Open it from the app launcher (the grid of squares in the top bar), from the Chat section of the Mail sidebar, or go straight to email.singlesign.com/chat.

Who can use Chat

Chat belongs to an organization. Every organization has exactly one chat, and everyone in it chats with their company mailbox — you@yourcompany.com, the address the organization gave you.

A company mailbox is required. If you belong to an organization but haven't been given a company address yet, ask an admin for one — see Company mailboxes.
Personal @singlesign.com mailboxes can't use Chat. There's nobody to chat with in a personal mailbox, so Chat shows a short explainer with Start an organization instead. See Getting started as a business.
One chat per organization. If you belong to more than one organization, each has its own chat. Switch mailbox in the account menu and you switch chats too — see Your Accounts & Organizations.

Everyone in the organization can see its public channels and message each other. Nobody outside it can: there are no guests or shared channels with other companies.

When someone leaves the organization and their company mailbox is offboarded, they lose access to Chat straight away. Their messages stay where they are, under their name.

Finding your way around

The left sidebar is your map of Chat, from top to bottom:

The search bar: search every message you can read. See Chat: search and keyboard shortcuts.
Your organization's name, with a New message pencil to start a direct message.
Unreads: every conversation with unread messages, on one page.
Threads: every thread you follow, newest reply first.
Activity: your @mentions, keywords, reminders and reactions to your messages.
Drafts & sent: your drafts, scheduled messages and sent messages.
Later: your reminders, and the messages you Saved for later.
Browse channels: every public channel in the organization, to find and join.
Starred: the conversations you starred, always at the top.
Your own sections, if you've made any. See Chat: channels and direct messages.
Channels: the channels you've joined. # marks a public channel and 🔒 a private one.
Direct messages: your one-to-one and group conversations, with a green dot for people who are active.
Meetings: the chats of meetings on your calendar. See Chat with Mail, Calendar and Meetings.

Channels and Direct messages can each be collapsed, and each has a + to add a channel or start a new message. A conversation in bold has unread messages, and a number means someone mentioned you or sent you a direct message. See Chat: notifications, status and Do Not Disturb.

Press Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac) anywhere in Chat to open the quick switcher and jump to any channel or person by typing a few letters.

A conversation

Opening a conversation shows its header with the name, a star, the member count, the topic (click it to change it), the huddle button and the details button ⓘ. Messages run oldest to newest, grouped by day under Today, Yesterday and dated headings. A red New line marks where your unread messages start.

The composer is at the bottom. Type, press Enter to send and Shift+Enter for a new line. What you type but don't send is kept as a draft for that conversation, on all your devices. See Chat: messages, threads, mentions and reactions.

The details pane (ⓘ) has About (topic, description and when the channel was created), Members, Pins, Files, Integrations and Settings for notifications, muting and leaving.

On your phone

Chat works in your phone's browser and in the SingleSign Mail home-screen app. On a small screen it shows one pane at a time: the conversation list, then the conversation, then a thread. Use the back button to go back up. Press and hold a message to see its actions.

#general

Every organization has a #general channel for company-wide announcements. It's created the first time anyone in the organization opens Chat, with the topic "Company-wide announcements and work-based matters", and everyone is in it automatically.

#general is special:

Nobody can leave it, archive it, rename it, delete it or make it private.
Nobody can be removed from it.
@everyone is meant for #general. It reaches the whole organization.

Admins can also make other public channels default channels. Everyone joins default channels automatically, including people who join the organization later. See Chat: channels and direct messages.

You don't have to open Chat to keep up with it. In SingleSign Mail, the sidebar has a Chat section under Tags, the way Gmail shows Google Chat:

Your 5 most recent conversations, newest first. Each row shows #, 🔒 or the person's picture with a green dot when they're active, the conversation's name, and the latest message underneath, for example "Ana: see you at 3".
A name in bold has unread messages. A number on the right counts your mentions and direct messages.
+ starts a new chat message, and Open Chat at the bottom opens Chat with your total count beside it.
Click a conversation to open it in Chat.

With the Mail sidebar collapsed, the section shrinks to a single chat icon carrying the total count. The section updates every 30 seconds and when you come back to the tab.

The Chat section only appears for a company mailbox. In a personal @singlesign.com mailbox, it isn't shown.

You can also type Open Chat or New chat message in the Mail command menu (Ctrl+K).

Admins

The organization's Owners and Admins are Chat admins too. They can rename, archive, unarchive and delete any channel, make public channels private, choose default channels, remove people from channels and delete any message. They also run the Slack import, the export and message retention. Every one of these actions is recorded in the organization's audit log. See Admin roles and permissions and Moving your team from Slack.

Admins can't open a private channel or a direct message they aren't in from the sidebar or search. An admin export of all conversations does include private channels and direct messages, so that data can leave with the company if it ever moves on.