Office chat

Office chat is a chat for the people in your office, inside MoveBoard. It works like WhatsApp, so there is nothing to learn. Your crews and your customers are not in it (customers have Job chat).

Open it from the chat bubble in the top bar. An administrator can switch it off in Settings › Communication › Office chat — see Office chat settings.

Open it

Press the chat bubble in the top bar, beside Ed and the bell. The red number is how many unread messages you have. Each chat in the list shows its own number, and they always add up to the red number — except a chat you muted, which adds only the messages that mention you.

Open a chat with unread messages and it starts at the first one you haven't read, under an Unread messages line. If someone deleted that message for everyone, you see This message was deleted in its place. Opening the chat marks it all read, and the numbers go.

The chat opens on the right and the page moves over to make room, so you keep working while you chat. It stays open from page to page, and inside an order window it moves into the window. Drag its left edge to make it wider, or press the arrows to use the whole screen. On a phone it opens full screen; the arrow at the top goes back.

Start a chat

1. Press the pencil at the bottom of the list.
2. Pick one person and press Chat.

The chat joins your list with the first message, like WhatsApp. If you open one and write nothing, it stays out of your list and theirs. Groups show in the list as soon as they are made.

The same message to several people: pick them all, write the message at the bottom and press send. Each person gets it in their own one-on-one chat — nobody sees who else got it.

A group: pick the people and press Make a group, then give it a name. You need the Create groups permission.

With several branches you chat with the people of your branches; the Chat with other branches permission lets you reach everyone. Every branch also has its own group with all its office people, and there is an All branches group — new people join them by themselves.

Write

• Enter sends; Shift + Enter starts a new line. On a phone, press the arrow to send.
• The smiley opens the emoji. The paperclip sends a photo, PDF, Word or Excel file (up to 10 MB). You can also paste a screenshot (Ctrl+V / ⌘V) or drop files on the chat. Photos are made smaller so they send fast.
• Speak instead of typing: press the microphone inside the message box, speak, and press it again. Your words are written into the box for you to check before you send.
• Point at a message (or hold it on a phone) and open its menu to Reply, Forward, Copy, see Info, or Delete.

Mention someone (@)

In a group, type @ in the message box. A list opens with Everyone at the top and then the group's people. Type a few letters to find someone, and press their name — or use the arrow keys and press Enter or Tab. Esc closes the list. It works the same on a phone: tap the name.

• The name goes into your message, highlighted. You can mention several people in one message.
• @Everyone lets everyone in the group know.
• Only the group's people are in the list. In a one-on-one chat there's no list — the other person gets every message anyway.
• If someone changes their name, your old messages show their new name.

The person you mention sees their name highlighted in the message, and the group shows an @ in their chat list until they read it. Inside the chat, the round @ button (above the arrow at the bottom) takes them to each message that mentions them.

Mute a chat

Open the chat, press its name at the top (or the i), and press Mute notifications. Pick 8 hours, 1 week or Always. Press Unmute notifications to hear it again.

A muted chat shows a crossed-out bell in your list, and its number of unread messages is grey. Its messages come in quietly: no sound, no desktop alert, and they're not in the red number on the chat bubble.

A message that mentions you, or @Everyone, always comes through — even in a muted chat: the red number, the sound and the desktop alert ("Dana Lee mentioned you"), the same as a message sent just to you. Muting only quiets the messages that don't mention you. A message that was deleted before you read it doesn't.

Voice messages

When the message box is empty, the round button beside it is a microphone.

• Hold it to record and let go to send. Slide your finger (or mouse) to the left to cancel.
• Tap it to record hands-free. Press the send arrow when you're done, or the bin to cancel.
• While you record you see a red dot, the time and the sound level. A voice message can be up to 5 minutes; 30 seconds before the end you see how many seconds are left, and at 5 minutes it sends by itself.
• The first time, your browser asks to use the microphone. If you said no, press the lock (or the microphone) in the address bar and allow the microphone. On an iPhone: Settings › Safari › Microphone › Allow.

A voice message shows as a bubble with a play button, the sound's shape and its length. Press the shape to jump to a moment. The 1× button switches to 1.5× and 2×. Voice messages play on every computer and phone, in every browser.

The small microphone in the bubble turns blue once the voice message is played — on your own messages, once the other person (in a group, everyone) has played it. The ticks work the same as for any message.

Show text under a voice message turns it into words, only when someone asks. The first time anyone in the chat presses it, MoveBoard's AI writes the words (like the microphone in the message box); after that they're kept, and showing them again — for anyone in the chat — is instant.

You can reply to, forward and delete a voice message like any other message.

When a new message comes in

• The chat bubble in the top bar shows the red number of unread messages and gives a short double pulse. Until you've read them, it keeps beating gently, like a heartbeat. If your computer is set to reduce motion, the bubble turns red with a soft glow instead.
• On a computer, a thin red strip also glows down the right edge of the window, with a red chat bubble on it that holds the number of unread messages. Press the strip or the bubble to open the chat at the first message you haven't read. The strip goes once you've read them, and it isn't there while the chat is open. On a phone there's no strip — the red number and the desktop alerts are enough.
• Every MoveBoard tab shows the number in its title, like (2) MoveBoard, and a red dot on the tab's icon — so you see it from another tab too. Both go once you've read the messages.
• A short sound plays, once however many MoveBoard tabs you have open. Browsers only let a page play sound after you've clicked or typed in it once, so click anywhere in MoveBoard after you open it.
• Desktop alerts (optional): open the chat's ⋮ menu and press Turn on desktop alerts, then allow notifications when your browser asks. When a message comes in and MoveBoard isn't the window you're working in, your computer shows "Dana Lee: new message" — never the words themselves. Press it to go straight to that chat. Each person turns this on for themselves, on each computer. If your browser says alerts are blocked, allow notifications for MoveBoard in the browser's site settings, then press it again.
• While you're Busy, messages arrive without the sound, the desktop alerts, the heartbeat or the red strip — only the red number counts them. Busy quiets mentions too.
• A chat you muted stays quiet, except for messages that mention you or @Everyone (see Mute a chat above).

Ticks

• One grey tick: sent.
• Two grey ticks: it reached one of their open MoveBoard tabs. It doesn't mean they've seen it — the tab may be in the background or on another screen.
• Two blue ticks: they read it (they opened the chat). In a group the ticks turn blue when everyone has read it. Info shows who read it and when.

Order numbers become cards

Write an order number like #218080 or RES-18136, a storage tenant (Storage ID: 1042), an invoice (Invoice #285), a claim (CL-0005) or a trip (Trip #12), and it turns into a link with a small card — the customer, the date and the status. Press it to open the record right there. Each person sees the card only if they are allowed to open that record; anyone else just sees the words.

A customer's phone number or email in a message opens a search for that customer.

Send to Office chat: in an order, storage tenant, invoice or claim window, press the chat button in the title bar, pick people or groups, add a note and send.

Online, Busy and sound

A green dot means the person has MoveBoard open somewhere (it can be a tab in the background); otherwise you see when they were last seen. In the chat's ⋮ menu you can switch yourself to Busy (a red dot; messages arrive without sound or desktop alerts), turn the sound for new messages on or off, and turn desktop alerts on or off.

Delete

Delete for me hides a message from you only — everyone else still sees it as usual. Delete for everyone shows "This message was deleted" in the chat — you can do it any time with your own messages, and an administrator can do it with any message.

Good to know

• Every chat shows Messages are company records. Owners and administrators can read conversations on Review conversations; every look is recorded.
• Messages are kept for a year (or less, as your company set it). Photos, files and voice messages are kept 30 days, or 60 or 90 days if your company chose so; after that the message says "Photo removed after 30 days" or "Voice message expired".
• Ed doesn't read your chats.