---
title: "Start a direct or group chat"
description: "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."
category: "Send and find messages"
source_url: "https://www.iotflows.com/docs/messaging/start-a-chat/"
---
# Start a direct or group chat

Direct, group, and cross-organization conversations.

Every chat starts in the same place, the compose button on the chat list at `/chats`. What you pick next decides whether the conversation is between two people, a standing group, or a thread that spans two organizations.

You pick people by handle. A *handle* is a username qualified by its organization, written `maria:acme`. An *external organization* is any organization in a chat other than the one you have selected: a contractor, a customer, or another of your sites that IoTFlows runs as its own organization.

**Before you start:** sign in to the dashboard. See [Sign in to IoTFlows](/docs/get-started/sign-in/).

A chat belongs to the organization you have selected, so switch first if you are in the wrong one. See [Switch organizations](/docs/get-started/switch-organizations/).

## Chat types
| Type | Members | Can add external | Renameable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct | You and one handle you pick, either a person or a team. Membership is fixed once the chat exists. | Yes, when the handle you pick belongs to another organization | No |
| Group | You and every handle you select, with members added and removed afterward | Yes, as many handles as you need | Yes, from the chat's info panel |

Both types carry the same messages, replies, attachments, and pins. See [Send, reply to, edit, and delete messages](/docs/messaging/send-messages/).

## Start a direct chat
1. Select **Messaging** in the top navigation, then the compose button at the top right of the **Messages** heading.
2. Find the person. Your organization's people are listed under **Users** and your teams above them under **Teams**. The **Search** field narrows both lists on a name, a username, an email address, or a handle, so `maria`, `maria@acme.com`, and `maria:acme` all find the same person.
3. Select their row. IoTFlows creates the chat and opens its empty thread.

Selecting a **Teams** row starts the chat with the team instead of one person, which is how you reach a crew whose shift you do not know. See [Teams](/docs/admin/teams/).

A direct chat has no name, no confirmation step, and no way to add a third person later. If you picked the wrong row, open the chat's info panel and select **Delete Chat**.

![The new-chat panel with text typed into the Search field and the matching people listed under Users, each row showing a name above its handle](/images/messaging/msg-start-01.webp)

*Starting a direct chat with someone in your organization.*

## Start a group chat
1. Open the compose view and select **New Group**.
2. Select everyone you want in the group. Each one becomes a chip in the field at the top of the screen, headed **Select Users**, and selecting a chosen row again takes them back out.
3. Remove a chip by selecting the **X** on it. With the field empty, Backspace highlights the last chip and a second Backspace deletes it.
4. Select **Next** to name the group. **Next** stays inactive until at least one member is selected.

A group can mix people and teams, and members can be added and removed after the chat exists. See [Manage chat members and settings](/docs/messaging/manage-a-chat/).

> **Info:**
> **One group per machine?**
>
> You do not need a group per machine. Machine-specific conversation belongs in the work order's comments, where the next technician finds it. Group chats are for the people who work together, not for the equipment they work on.

![The Select Users screen of the group flow with four chosen members shown as chips above the list, and the Next button active at the top right](/images/messaging/msg-start-02.webp)

*Creating a group chat.*

## Add someone from another organization
1. Ask the person for their handle. Everyone finds their own on their profile page. See [Update your profile and handles](/docs/admin/profile/).
2. Type the whole handle into the search field, including the organization after the colon.
3. Press Enter. A comma or Tab does the same thing.

The lookup is exact rather than a search: IoTFlows checks whether that one handle exists. In the direct flow a match creates the chat immediately. In the group flow it lands as a chip alongside the members you picked from the list, and adding the same handle twice reports **User Already Added**.

Someone from another organization you have chatted with before is already in the **Users** or **Teams** list, with a small marker on their avatar. Anyone new has to be typed in full.

> **Warning:**
> **"No matches found" under the search field?**
>
> No account carries that handle. Check the spelling of both halves, and check that you typed the organization part: `maria` alone is not a handle, and `maria:acme` fails if their organization's handle is `acme-mfg`.

![The group flow's member field with an external handle accepted as a chip, sitting next to two members picked from the organization's own list](/images/messaging/msg-start-03.webp)

*Adding someone from another organization by handle.*

> **Info:**
> **Why not email?**
>
> Add a vendor or customer by handle rather than emailing them a PDF. Cross-organization chat keeps the thread with the work, and everyone who joins later reads the whole history. Email does not.

Once the chat exists, its header carries an orange badge with the outside organization's logo and name, so nobody posts to the wrong audience. See [Cross-organization chat](/docs/messaging/overview/#cross-org).

![The header of an open chat, with the chat name on the left and an orange pill to its right carrying an organization logo and the organization's name](/images/messaging/msg-start-04.webp)

*The orange badge in the chat header that marks a chat spanning two organizations.*

## Name a group
1. Type into **Group Name** on the **New Group** screen. A name is required, and it stops at 80 characters.
2. Optional: select the image square to the left of the name, then upload and crop a picture for the group.
3. Select **Create**. IoTFlows creates the chat and opens its thread. **Create** stays inactive while the name is empty.

Name the group after the standing job, not after today's members: `Second-shift maintenance` still reads correctly in six months, `Maria and Jon` does not. Any member can rename a group later, and change its picture, from the chat's info panel. See [Manage chat members and settings](/docs/messaging/manage-a-chat/).

## On mobile
Chats are native on Android and on iOS 18 and later. On iOS 17 and earlier, the app opens the dashboard's web view, so the steps on this page apply as written. See [Install the mobile app](/docs/get-started/install-mobile-app/).

## See also
- [Manage chat members and settings](/docs/messaging/manage-a-chat/)
- [Send, reply to, edit, and delete messages](/docs/messaging/send-messages/)
- [Update your profile and handles](/docs/admin/profile/)
- [Switch organizations](/docs/get-started/switch-organizations/)
- [Overview: messaging in IoTFlows](/docs/messaging/overview/)