Chat basics

CheapMeet opens on Chat. Your conversations are listed on the left and the open conversation fills the rest of the page. Chat in the navigation on the left shows how many unread messages you have, and a blue @ when someone mentioned you.

Each conversation takes one line with its name. A bell with a line through it means the conversation is muted, and Draft means you left a message there without sending it. Hover over a row for Call, or Join when a meeting is running in that chat, and More options.

• Pinned keeps the conversations you pin, in your own order.
• Your own sections: choose New section at the bottom of the list and name it (you can type emoji in the name). Use Section options to rename it, move it up or down, or delete it. Drag a conversation onto a section, or use More options on its row, to move it.
• Chats holds everything else, newest first.
• Meetings holds meeting chats. It sits at the bottom and starts collapsed.

Up next above the list shows your next meeting today, with Join. Press Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac) anywhere in the app to search people and chats from the top bar.

Drag the divider between the list and the conversation to resize the list (between 240 and 480 pixels). With the divider focused, the Left and Right arrow keys resize it too. Your browser remembers the width.

When you open a conversation with unread messages, a New messages line shows where they start. If the line is above what you can see, choose Jump to first unread at the top of the conversation to scroll to it.

The line stays in place while the conversation is open, even as more messages arrive. The next time you open the conversation it is gone, because you have read those messages.

1. 1In Chat, choose New chat (the pen button).
2. 2Search for people in your workspace and pick them. Pick one person for a direct message, or several for a group (up to 49 others).
3. 3For a group, you can type a Group name (up to 64 characters), such as "Design team". Without a name, a group is called by its members' names.
4. 4Choose Start chat for one person or Create group for several.

Starting a direct message with someone you already have one with opens the existing conversation. You can also choose Chat on someone's contact card: on the People page, or by selecting their name.

Type in Filter by name at the top of the list. From the first letter, conversations are filtered by name. From two letters, a Messages section adds matching messages and attachment file names, with the match highlighted.

• Search covers the last 60 days, and shows up to 50 messages.
• It skips deleted messages and messages held for review (other than your own).
• Choosing a message opens its conversation.

If nothing matches you see "No messages found".

Open More actions on any message and choose Save for later. A bookmark appears next to its time. Choose Saved at the bottom of the chat list to see saved messages, newest first. Only you can see them.

Choosing a saved message opens its conversation at that message. To remove one, use Remove from Saved on the message or in the list. You can keep up to 500 saved messages per workspace.

Open More actions on a message, or right-click it, choose Remind me, then In 20 minutes, In 1 hour or Tomorrow at 9:00. Tomorrow means 9:00 the next morning in the time zone of your profile.

When the time comes, the reminder appears in Activity with who wrote the message and what it says, and pops up in the corner of the app. Selecting it opens the conversation at that message. With desktop notifications on, you also get a desktop alert, which doesn't show the message. Do not disturb skips the pop-up and the desktop alert, and quiet hours keep the alert silent.

To see the reminders you have waiting, choose Saved at the bottom of the chat list, then Reminders. To cancel one, use its cancel button there, or Remind me → Cancel reminder on the message. Choosing a new time on the message replaces the old one. Only you can see your reminders, and you can have up to 100 waiting per workspace.

If you can no longer see the message when the reminder is due, for example because you left the conversation or the message was deleted, nothing arrives. If the message is deleted after its reminder arrived, the reminder leaves Activity.

Reminders aren't available in a conversation another organization started.

Open More actions on a message from someone else and choose Mark as unread. The conversation counts that message and every later one as unread again, shows in bold with its count, and appears under the Unread filter. You can also choose Mark as unread from More options on a conversation's row, which marks its newest message from someone else.

The conversation stays unread while you have it open, until you leave it or send a message. Your other tabs and devices update at once. To clear it without opening it, choose Mark as read from More options on its row.

Marking a conversation as unread is only for you. It doesn't change what others see: messages they already saw as Seen or Read by stay that way.

Open Details in a conversation and choose Hide from my Chat list. The conversation leaves your list until someone sends a new message in it, and its unread count no longer adds to the badge. Choose Undo on the toast to bring it back at once.

You can also hide a conversation from More options on its row. To see hidden conversations, choose Show hidden at the bottom of the list. A direct conversation can be hidden but not left; a group can be left (see Group chats).

In a direct message, choose Call (audio) or the video button in the header. In a group, choose Meet now to start a meeting in the chat and ring everyone in it. Messages you send during the call go to the same conversation and stay there afterwards. See Calls.

While a meeting runs in a group or meeting chat, a red Live banner shows who started it, how long ago and how many people are in it, with Join. People added to the group while the meeting is running can join it too.

A meeting chat with no meeting running shows Start again in its header, or Join before and during a scheduled meeting's time. Both open the meeting's lobby, with the same link and the same chat. When it can't be started, a short line under its name says why. See Start a meeting again.

People using Do not disturb cannot be called, including by favorites. Group calls skip them and can still ring the other people. If someone is already in an app call or presenting, you can choose to leave a voice message immediately when they belong to a paid workspace. Recording starts only when you choose Record message; you can also choose No thanks. People on a free plan are unavailable while in a call.

Each call leaves a line in the conversation, worded from your side: "Call · 4m 32s" for a completed call, or "Missed call", "No answer", "Declined", "Busy" or "Cancelled".

Only the people in a conversation can read it. Workspace owners and admins cannot read conversations they are not in. People added to a group later see only the history they were given (see Group chats).

Workspace guests can use chat too, in the conversations they are part of.