Message your team in channels and DMs
Channels and direct messages for your team, in one list that covers every company you belong to, so you never switch company to carry on a conversation.
Messages sits in the left rail. It holds two kinds of conversation: CHANNELS, which are named rooms like #general, and CHATS, with one person or a group of people.
If you belong to more than one company, they all appear in the same list. Each channel shows the company it belongs to underneath its name, because two companies can each have a #general. A direct message belongs to the two people in it rather than to a company, so there is one conversation with a person no matter which company either of you is working in.
On this page
- Open Messages on its own
- Create a channel
- Start a chat or a group chat
- Find a chat
- Write a message
- Reply, react, save and copy
- Mark a message Important or Urgent
- Schedule a message
- Call someone
- Schedule a meeting from a chat
- Share your location or a voice message
- Send a file or a link
- Find an old message
- Turn a channel down
- Rename, leave or archive a channel
- Which kind of conversation to use
Open Messages on its own
Go to chat.diract.io and sign in with your Diract account. It opens Messages and nothing else: the same channels, chats and calls as the left rail, without the rest of the workspace.
Click your picture at the top right to switch company or Sign out. Signing in or out there does not sign you in or out of your workspace at diract.io.
There is no separate account to make. Somebody new to Diract clicks Start a workspace on that page, then signs in there.
Create a channel
Open Messages, then click New channel or DM at the top of the list.
Leave the tab on Channel, type a name into channel-name, and add a Topic (optional) if you want one line explaining what the channel is for.
Under COMPANY, pick which company the channel belongs to. Anyone at that company can find and join it. Choosing No company: invite only means nobody can see the channel until you add them, which is the right choice for a conversation that spans two of your companies.
Tick Private: only invited people can see this channel to keep it out of the company's list even for people at that company, then pick who to invite. Click Create channel when you are done.
Start a chat or a group chat
Click New chat or channel, then the Chat tab.
Search in Search people... and tick the people you want. Everyone you share any company with is listed, not only the company you are currently looking at.
Tick one person and click Start chat. If you have messaged that person before, this opens the conversation you already have.
Tick two or more people to start a group chat. You can type a Group name (optional), or leave it empty and the chat shows the names of its members.
Click the chat's name at the top to see its participants, rename a group, add people or leave. Adding people to a one to one chat starts a new group chat, so your earlier messages stay between the two of you.
Find a chat
The list shows Favourites first, then Chats with the newest message at the top, then Channels. Each chat shows who said what last and when.
Hover a chat and click the star to add it to Favourites, or the bell to mute it. Your favourites and mutes are yours alone.
Use the filters above the list: Unread shows only chats with new messages, Mentions shows every message that mentions you, Threads shows the threads you started or replied in, and Saved shows the messages you saved.
Hover a chat and click the eye to Mark as unread. It stays bold in your list until you open it again.
Write a message
Type in the box at the bottom and press Enter to send. Shift and Enter together start a new line instead.
Type @ to mention someone. Pick them from the list and they get a notification, which is how you reach somebody in a busy channel they are not watching.
Type # to link another channel by name. The link is clickable, and takes the reader straight to that channel.
Type ~ to name one of your company's tables, such as your matters or jobs. Pick it from the list, and the reader can click it to open that table.
Click the smiley in the box for emoji. Click + and then Format for bold, italic, code and bulleted lists.
Your messages show on the right and everybody else's on the left. Under your latest message, Seen tells you who has read it, and a line above the box says when somebody is typing.
Reply, react, save and copy
Hover a message for its actions. Reply quotes the message above your answer, in the same conversation. Reply in thread starts a side conversation so it does not fill the main chat.
Use the smiley to react, the bookmark to Save the message to your Saved list, and Copy text to copy its words.
Click Forward to send a copy to another chat or channel, with a note if you want one. The copy says who first wrote it, and its files go with it.
Click Mark as unread on somebody else's message to come back to it later.
Hover a message you sent to edit or delete it. Deleting a message also removes its files for everybody.
Mark a message Important or Urgent
Click +, then Set delivery options, and choose Important or Urgent before you send.
The message shows the label in the chat, and its notification starts with Important: or Urgent:.
An Urgent message in a chat reminds the people in it every two minutes for twenty minutes, until they open the chat. In a channel it reminds only the people it mentions.
Schedule a message
Click +, then Schedule message, choose a date and time, and click Set time. Then write the message and press Send.
The message goes at that time, as you. Until then only you can see it, under scheduled messages above the box, where you can cancel it.
Call someone
Open a chat and click the phone for a voice call, or the camera for a video call. Diract rings everybody else in the chat, wherever they are in the app, and sends a notification to their phone.
When somebody calls you, a bar at the top of the screen says who is calling. Click the green phone to answer or the red one to decline.
In a channel, click Meet now instead. This rings nobody. It posts a card in the channel, and anybody in it can click Join.
In a call, use the bar at the bottom to mute, turn your camera on or off, share your screen and leave. The call ends when the last person leaves. Its card in the chat then shows how long it lasted, or Missed call when nobody answered.
Click Join on a meeting card to start that meeting's call.
Schedule a meeting from a chat
Click +, then Schedule meeting. Type a Title, choose when it Starts and Ends, and add a Location or Details if you want them. Click Book meeting.
The meeting goes in your company's calendar. Everybody in the chat who belongs to your company gets an invitation and a notification. A card for the meeting goes in the chat with Open in calendar.
Share your location or a voice message
Click +, then Share location. Your browser asks to use your location the first time. The chat shows a Shared location card that opens in Maps.
Click the microphone beside the box, or + and then Record a voice message, and click Stop and attach when you finish. The recording goes in the message like a file and plays in the chat.
Send a file or a link
Click + beside the message box, then Attach files, or drag files from your computer and drop them anywhere on the conversation. You can also paste a screenshot straight into the box.
Each file shows in the box with its progress while it uploads, and Send waits until they are all up. Click the cross on a file to take it off before you send.
A message can carry up to 10 files, each up to 25 MB. Pictures show in the conversation as pictures, and any other file shows its name and size with a download button.
When a message holds a link, a card under it shows the page's title, summary and picture. Each message shows cards for its first three links.
Find an old message
Click the magnifying glass in the channel header and type what you remember.
Search covers every message you can see, across every company you belong to, so a conversation from another company still comes back.
Turn a channel down
Hover a channel in the list and click the bell to mute it. A muted channel stops sending you notifications for mentions and direct messages, and stops showing an unread dot.
Muting is yours alone. Nobody else in the channel is affected, and you keep seeing the messages whenever you open it.
Rename, leave or archive a channel
In the mobile app, open the channel and tap the gear in its header. Channel settings opens.
Change the Name or Topic and tap Save.
Tap Leave channel to take yourself out of it. A private channel needs somebody still in it to add you back.
Tap Archive channel to take it off the list for everybody in it. Its messages are kept.
Which kind of conversation to use
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Channel with a company | Anyone at that company can find and join it, unless it is private. This is the normal choice for a team's own room. |
| Channel with no company | Invite only. Nobody sees it until somebody adds them, which is what makes it usable for a conversation across two companies. |
| Private channel | Hidden even from people at its own company until they are invited. Add people from the channel header once it exists. |
| Direct message | Belongs to the two people in it, not to a company. One conversation per person, wherever either of you is working. |