Chat

Chat puts the conversation in the same place as the work, and it is free on every plan. Channels, direct messages and threads live next to your tasks, so a decision made in a message can become a task or a call without leaving the thread.

Chat is not gated. A workspace on the Free plan gets all of it.

Channels and direct messages

The chat rail has these groups:

Workspace channels are open to everyone in the workspace.
Project channels belong to a project and follow project membership.
Private channels are invite-only. Only people who have been added can see the channel or its messages, and it stays hidden from everyone else's rail.
Direct messages are one to one, or a group DM between three or more people.

Every workspace starts with a default #general channel, so chat is never an empty cold start. Every channel has a name and an optional topic, both shown in the header. Search covers message bodies and returns the matching snippet, not just a list of hits.

Creating a channel

Anyone with Member access can create a channel. Pick the scope (workspace, project, or private) and a name. For a project channel you choose the project; for a private channel you pick the initial members (workspace members only). The creator becomes the channel owner.

Direct and group messages

Start a direct message from a person, or add several people to open a group DM. Opening a DM with the same set of people always returns the same conversation, so you never end up with duplicate threads for the same group. A group DM shows a stacked-avatar title with everyone in it.

Threads

Replying to a message opens a thread in a side panel rather than adding to the channel. The parent message keeps a reply count, so a long discussion stays in one row instead of pushing the rest of the channel off screen. If you have replied in a thread, you keep getting notified of new replies to it regardless of the channel's notification setting, because you are following it.

Mentions

Type @ to mention someone. A mention notifies that person even if they have turned the channel down to mentions-only, and it shows a dot on the channel in their rail.

Two group mentions reach more than one person at once:

@channel notifies every member of the channel.
@here notifies only the members who are currently active.

Use them sparingly in busy channels: they cut through a muted channel the same way a direct mention does.

Task chips

Type a task identifier and it becomes a live chip:

Type #ATL-4 and the run collapses into a chip as soon as you finish the digits.
Type # on its own to open a picker that fuzzy-searches recent tasks by title or identifier.
Paste a bare ATL-4 or an in-app task URL and it converts on paste.

The chip is not styled text. Hovering shows the task name, current state, priority and the first few assignees; clicking opens the task. The same chip works in task descriptions, task comments, wiki pages and board nodes, so an identifier means the same thing everywhere.

Slash commands

Two commands reach out of the message and into the work graph:

Command	What it does
`/task`	Turns the message into a real task in the project, with the message body as the description.
`/huddle`	Starts a huddle in this channel. Anyone in the channel can join from the header.

Reactions, pins and attachments

Reactions: any emoji, grouped with a count, click to add or remove yours.
Pins: pin the messages that matter (a sprint goal, a decision) and read them back from the pin panel in the header. Anyone in the channel can pin or unpin, and a short system line notes who pinned.
Attachments: drag a file onto the composer or use the paperclip. Links to public pages unfurl into a preview card.

Editing and edit history

You can edit or delete your own messages. An edited message is marked (edited). Clicking that mark opens the edit history, which shows the prior versions of the message, newest first, so a later edit never quietly rewrites what was originally said. Deleting a message removes it from the channel for everyone.

Managing a channel

The member panel in the channel header lists everyone in the channel with their role. What you can do depends on your role:

Join and leave: workspace and project channels are open, so you can leave one to hide it from your rail and rejoin later without losing anything. Leaving a DM closes it, and a new message reopens it.
Add and remove members: a channel owner or admin, or a workspace admin, can add workspace members to a channel or remove them. Adding someone to a private channel is what grants them access. The channel owner cannot be removed.
Archive: a workspace admin can archive a workspace or project channel, which hides it for everyone. Archiving keeps the history; it just takes the channel out of the rail.

Notifications and unread

Each channel has its own notification preference:

Preference	What you get
All	An inbox notification for every message (the default).
Mentions	Notified only when someone @-mentions you or replies in a thread you are in.
Muted	No notifications and no unread count. A direct mention still shows a dot so you do not miss being named.

Set the preference per channel, so you can turn a busy channel down without leaving it.

Unread is tracked with a monotonic sequence number per channel rather than a timestamp, so the new-messages divider lands in the same place on every device and does not drift when messages arrive out of order. The rail shows a per channel badge, and the workspace nav shows the total.

Read receipts and presence

In a one-to-one direct message, the header shows a Seen receipt once the other person has read up to your latest message. Group DMs do not show a per-person receipt.

Members who currently have the app open show an online dot next to their name, so you can tell at a glance who is around before you @-mention or start a huddle.

Keyboard

Keys	Action
`Alt` + `Up` / `Down`	Previous or next channel
`Alt` + `Shift` + `Up` / `Down`	Previous or next channel with unread messages

Huddles for the calls that start from a channel.
Task autolinks for the chip behaviour in every other editor surface.