Chat: messages, threads, mentions and reactions

Everything you say in Chat is a message: typed in the composer at the bottom of a conversation, sent with Enter, and seen by everyone in the conversation straight away. This article covers writing messages and everything you can do with them afterwards. For finding your way around, see Chat: getting started.

Writing a message

Type in the composer and press Enter to send. Shift+Enter starts a new line. If you'd rather have Enter start a new line, change it in Preferences; then Ctrl+Enter (⌘Enter on a Mac) sends.

Drafts: an unsent message is kept for each conversation and each thread until you send it or clear it. Drafts are saved to your account, so one you start on your computer is waiting on your phone. Drafts & sent in the sidebar lists them all.
Typing: while someone is writing in the conversation you're looking at, a line under the composer says so, for example "Ana is typing…".
Length: a message can be up to 40,000 characters.
Sending too fast: you can send up to 20 messages in 10 seconds. After that, Chat asks you to wait a moment.
If sending fails, the message stays in the conversation with a Retry button. Nothing is sent twice.
Commands: type / at the start of the composer for the list of slash commands.

Scheduling a message

Write a message now and send it later: click the arrow next to Send (Schedule for later). Pick one of the suggested times, such as tomorrow at 9:00 AM, or choose Custom time to pick your own. You can schedule a message from 1 minute to 120 days ahead, in a conversation or in a thread.

Drafts & sent ▸ Scheduled lists your scheduled messages. From there you can edit one, Reschedule it, send it now or delete it.
You can have up to 100 scheduled messages waiting at a time.
When the time comes, Chat checks that you can still post there: that you're still a member, the channel isn't archived and posting hasn't been limited to channel managers. If you can't, the message isn't sent, and Activity tells you why.

Drafts & sent ▸ Sent lists the messages you've sent, newest first, so you can jump back to one.

Formatting

Use the formatting toolbar above the composer, the keyboard shortcuts, or type the markers yourself. Chat uses the same formatting as Slack, so habits carry over.

To get	Type	Shortcut
Bold	`bold`	Ctrl+B
Italic	`_italic_`	Ctrl+I
~~Strikethrough~~	`~strike~`	Ctrl+Shift+X
`Inline code`	`code`	Ctrl+Shift+C
A code block	``` on the lines before and after, for example ```ts	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C
A quote	`>` at the start of a line	—
A bulleted list	`•` or `-` at the start of each line	—
A numbered list	`1.` , `2.` … at the start of each line	—
A link with a label	Select the text and use the link button	Ctrl+Shift+U
An emoji	`:shortcode:`, for example `:tada:`	—

On a Mac, use ⌘ instead of Ctrl. Web addresses you paste become links on their own. Every link in Chat is checked when you open it, the same way links in your mail are.

Code blocks and snippets

Code in a code block is highlighted in color. Add the language's name right after the opening backticks, such as ```python or ```sql, and Chat highlights it for that language.

For longer code, logs or config files, make a snippet: a text file shown with highlighting and a download button, that doesn't flood the conversation.

Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter (⌘⇧Enter on a Mac) to turn what you've typed into a snippet, or choose Create a text snippet from the composer's attach menu.
Give it a title and pick the language, then post it.
A snippet can be up to 1 MB of text. It's stored like any other file in Chat and counts against your storage.

Editing and deleting

Hover over a message to see its action bar. The ⋯ menu has Edit and Delete for your own messages.

Edit your own messages any time. Edited messages show (edited). To fix the last thing you sent, press ↑ in an empty composer.
Delete your own messages any time. There's no undo.
Admins (the organization's Owners and Admins) can delete anyone's message, to moderate. Nobody can edit another person's message.
If a message that started a thread is deleted, it's replaced by "This message was deleted." so the replies stay together. Otherwise it disappears completely.

Notes that Chat posts itself, such as "joined the channel" or a changed topic, and huddle cards can't be edited.

Threads

Reply to a specific message without cluttering the channel: hover over it and choose Reply in thread. The thread opens in a pane on the right, with the original message at the top and the replies below. Under the original message, the channel shows a summary such as "3 replies · Last reply 2h ago" with the pictures of the latest people to reply; click it to open the thread.

Also send to #channel: tick this under the thread composer to post your reply in the thread and in the channel. Use it for a conclusion everyone should see.
Following: you follow a thread automatically when you start it, reply to it or are mentioned in it. Unfollow a thread to stop hearing about it, or follow one you're only reading.
Threads view: Threads in the sidebar lists every thread you follow, newest reply first, with its latest replies and an unread count.

Thread replies don't make a channel bold. New replies light up Threads instead, unless they were also sent to the channel.

Mentions

Type @ to pick someone from the conversation's members. They're notified, the conversation shows them a number badge, and the message appears in their Activity. You can only mention people in your own organization.

Type @ and a group's handle, such as @designers, to mention a user group. Everyone in the group who can read the conversation is notified; people in the group who can't read it aren't told about it. See Chat: channels and direct messages.

Three special mentions reach many people at once:

Mention	Who it's for
@here	The members of the conversation who are around right now.
@channel	Every member of the conversation.
@everyone	The whole organization. Use it in #general.

In Chat, all three count as a mention for every member who hasn't read the message yet, so each of them gets a badge. Save them for things that really need everyone's attention. In some channels only channel managers can use them, or nobody can; see Who can post.

Type # to link a channel. Clicking the link opens the channel.

Reactions

React to a message instead of replying: hover over it, click the add reaction button and pick an emoji. Reactions show under the message as small pills with a count.

Click a pill to add the same reaction, and click it again to take yours back. Your own reactions are highlighted.
Hover over a pill to see who reacted.
Press Ctrl+Shift+\ (⌘⇧\) to react to the last message in the conversation.
A message can have up to 50 different emoji.
Reactions to your messages appear in your Activity.

Emoji shortcodes

Type : followed by a few letters to pick an emoji by name, or type the whole shortcode, such as :thumbsup:, :+1:, :white_check_mark:, :eyes: or :tada:. Chat understands Slack's emoji names, including skin tones such as :wave::skin-tone-3:. A shortcode Chat doesn't know is shown as its text.

Custom emoji

Your organization can add its own emoji: a logo, a mascot, an in-joke. Custom emoji work everywhere standard ones do, in messages, reactions, statuses and the emoji picker, for everyone in your organization.

Add one: click your organization's name at the top of the sidebar and choose Add custom emoji. Upload the image and give it a name, such as :shipit:. Names use lowercase letters, numbers, _, + and -, and can't be the name of a standard emoji.
Images: PNG, GIF, JPEG or WebP, up to 128 KB and 512 × 512 pixels. SVG files and every other type are refused. Square images look best.
Aliases: give an existing emoji a second name, for example to keep a name your organization used in Slack.
Who can add them: admins, unless an admin lets everyone add emoji. The person who added an emoji, and admins, can delete it.
An organization can have up to 1,000 custom emoji.

Pins

Pin a message to keep it handy for everyone in the conversation: ⋯ ▸ Pin. Pinned messages are listed in ⓘ ▸ Pins, and the conversation notes who pinned what. Any member can pin or unpin. A conversation can have up to 100 pinned messages, and pinned messages are never removed by your organization's message retention.

Reminders and Later

Later in the sidebar keeps what you've set aside for yourself: your reminders and your saved messages. It's private: nobody else sees what's in your Later.

Save for later

Click Save in a message's action bar to bookmark it for yourself. Your saved messages are listed in Later ▸ Saved, newest first. Click Save again to remove it.

Reminders

About a message: choose ⋯ ▸ Remind me about this and pick a time, such as In 20 minutes, In 1 hour, Tomorrow or Next week, or choose your own.
About anything: type a reminder in any composer with /remind, for example /remind me to send the invoice tomorrow at 9am or /remind me to post the agenda every Monday at 10am. Reminders can repeat every day, every weekday, every week or every month.

When a reminder is due, Chat notifies you, and it shows in Activity and at the top of Later ▸ Reminders, with a number on Later. Mark it complete, snooze it to a new time, or delete it. Completed reminders move to Later ▸ Completed, where you can bring one back. You can have up to 100 reminders waiting at a time.

Forwarding a message

To pass a message on to another channel or person, choose ⋯ ▸ Forward message, pick the conversation and add a note if you like. You can also Forward later, which schedules it like any scheduled message.

The forwarded message shows as a card with the original author, the time, the text and the names of any files. View conversation on the card takes people to the original, and only people who can read the original conversation see it.

Forwarding out of a private channel, a direct message or a meeting chat asks you first, naming where it's going, because the people there may not otherwise be able to see it.
Deleting or editing the original doesn't change copies that were already forwarded.

Other message actions

The ⋯ menu also has:

Copy link: a link straight to the message. Anyone who can read the conversation can open it.
Mark unread: marks the conversation unread from this message, so you come back to it. Alt+click a message does the same.
Open in thread: opens the message's thread pane.
Share via email: starts an email in Mail with the message in it.
Send to my inbox: emails the message to your own address, and nobody else's.

Those two, and Discuss in Chat for bringing an email from Mail into Chat, are explained in Chat with Mail, Calendar and Meetings.

Files and images

Attach files with the attach button in the composer, by dragging them onto the conversation, or by pasting an image.

Up to 25 MB per file and 10 files per message.
Files count against the storage of the person who uploaded them. See Storage & Limits.
Images are shown in the conversation; click one to see it full size. Other files show as cards you can download.
ⓘ ▸ Files lists every file shared in a conversation.
Only people who can read the conversation can open its files.
A file you attach but never send is deleted after 24 hours.

To share a document or spreadsheet, choose From Documents in the composer's attach menu, type @ and the start of its name, or paste its link from Writer or Spreadsheets. People open it with the access you've given them in Documents; see Sharing, comments and version history. If some members can't open it, Chat offers to share it with them first; see Files from Documents.

Link previews

When a message has a link to a web page, Chat shows a preview card under it with the page's title, description and picture, and always the site's real address, so you can see where a link goes before you click it.

Chat fetches the page once, from its own servers, after the message is sent. Your browser doesn't visit the site until you click.
Up to 5 links in a message get a preview.
The author of a message can take a preview off with Remove preview.
Turn off previews of text or of pictures for yourself in Preferences. Admins can turn link previews off for the whole organization, or block previews from particular sites.

Links to your organization's own things, such as a Writer document, a spreadsheet, a Documents file, a Chat message or a meeting, get a preview too, but Chat never fetches them. Each person sees the title only if they can open the item themselves; for everyone else it stays a plain link.

Slash commands

Type / at the start of the composer to see the commands, and keep typing to narrow the list. Commands run straight away and aren't posted as messages, except /me and /shrug.

Command	What it does
`/remind`	Sets a reminder for yourself: `/remind me [what] [when]`. See Reminders.
`/status`	Sets your status, for example `/status :palm_tree: On vacation`.
`/clear-status`	Clears your status.
`/away`	Shows you as away.
`/active`	Shows you as active again.
`/dnd`	Pauses notifications, for example `/dnd 30m`, `/dnd 2 hours` or `/dnd until tomorrow`. `/dnd off` resumes them.
`/mute`	Mutes the conversation you're in.
`/unmute`	Unmutes it.
`/topic`	Sets the channel's topic: `/topic [text]`.
`/purpose`	Sets the channel's description: `/purpose [text]`.
`/invite`	Adds people to the channel: `/invite @ana @ben`.
`/remove`	Removes one person from the channel: `/remove @ben`. Channel managers only.
`/rename`	Renames the channel: `/rename [new-name]`. Channel managers only.
`/archive`	Archives the channel. Channel managers only.
`/leave`	Leaves the channel, or closes a direct message.
`/who`	Shows who's in the conversation.
`/search`	Searches messages: `/search [query]`.
`/me`	Posts your text in italics, as an action: `/me is grabbing coffee`.
`/shrug`	Posts your text with ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ on the end.

The channel commands work only in channels. A command Chat doesn't know shows "No command /x — type / to see the list", and your text stays in the composer. Chat has no custom commands or bots of its own.

Huddles

Need to talk it through? Click the huddle button in a conversation's header. Chat starts a SingleSign Meeting for the conversation and posts a huddle card in it. Everyone in the conversation, you included, clicks Join huddle on the card to join the call. A huddle is a regular meeting, so screen sharing and the rest of Meetings work as usual.

Messages from apps and from Slack

Messages posted by an integration, such as a monitoring or build tool, carry an APP badge. See Moving your team from Slack to connect one.
Messages brought over from Slack keep their original author, time, thread, reactions and pins. Authors who don't have a company mailbox show a small imported hint next to their name.