Quickstart: start a chat with your team
One chat, one message, one reply.
A chat is a conversation between people you choose. This page walks the shortest path: open the chat list, start a direct chat with one colleague, send a message, and reply to their answer.
Before you start: sign in to the dashboard on the web. See Sign in to IoTFlows. For the same job on a phone, see On mobile.
Open Chats
- Select Messaging in the top navigation. The dashboard opens
/chats. - Read the list on the left, headed Messages. Each row is one chat, and the count on a row is how many messages in it you have not read.
- Select a row to open that chat's thread on the right.
The list holds the chats for the organization you are signed into. See Switch organizations.
The chat list at /chats, headed Messages, with an unread count on the one row holding unread messages and the compose button at its top right.
Start a chat
- Select the compose button at the top right of the Messages heading. The left pane switches to the new-chat view.
- Find the person. Everyone in your organization is listed under Users, your teams above them under Teams, and the Search field narrows both lists as you type.
- Select their row. IoTFlows creates the chat and opens its empty thread.
There is no confirmation step and nothing to name. If you pick the wrong person, the empty chat stays in the list until you open its info panel and select Delete Chat. See Manage a chat.
One question, or a standing team?
You do not need to create a group for a one-off question. Start a direct chat. Groups are for teams that keep talking, like the second-shift maintenance crew.
To reach someone outside your organization, type their handle, a username qualified by its organization, into Search, for example maria:acme, and press Enter. See Start a direct or group chat.
The new-chat panel, with the Search field at the top and the organization's people listed below it under Users.
Send a message
- Select the box at the bottom of the thread, which reads Write a message....
- Type what you want to say, for example
Line 3 press is down, I'm heading over now. - Press Enter. The message appears at the bottom of the thread with the time under it.
Shift+Enter starts a new line instead of sending, so a two-line note goes out as one message.
Nothing sent, and a "Waiting for Network" toast?
Messages travel over a live connection the dashboard holds open in the background, separate from loading the page. If it has dropped, the send fails with Waiting for Network and your text stays in the box. Wait a few seconds and press Enter again.
A sent message in the thread, aligned right in its own bubble with the send time beneath it.
Reply
A reply is a message that carries a quote of the one it answers. Use it once a thread covers two things at once.
- Right-click the message you are answering. On a phone or tablet, press and hold it instead.
- Select Reply. A preview of that message appears above the message box.
- Type your answer and press Enter. The reply posts with the quote attached, and selecting the quote jumps to the original.
To drop the quote before sending, select the X on the preview. The same menu carries Copy Text, Edit, and the two delete actions. See Send, reply to, edit, and delete messages.
See also
IoTFlows carries two kinds of conversation: chats, which hang off the people in them and live at /chats on web and natively in both mobile apps, and work-order comments, which hang off one job. This page says which one a message belongs in, and explains cross-organization chats and the orange badge that marks them.
Start any IoTFlows conversation from the compose button on the chat list at /chats: pick one person or team out of the Users and Teams lists for a direct chat, select New Group to gather several and name them, or type a full handle like maria:acme to pull in someone from another organization, which marks the chat with an orange external badge.