Start a conversation

Message someone you work with, or add a contact first, and open a private conversation.

In short

Chat lets you write privately to one person. You can message anyone you share an organization, team or API Tester project with, and anyone who accepted your contact request. Press "New message", pick the person, and the conversation opens.

Before you start

Who: anyone signed in whose organization has Chat on. You can message people you share an organization, team or API Tester project with, and your contacts.
Plan: Chat is part of every plan, Free included.
First: nothing. Someone you share nothing with must accept a contact request first.

Steps

Open Chat and press "New message". With nobody you can reach yet, the screen offers "Invite a teammate" first.
Find the person in "People you can message", or type a name to search.
Press "Message" on their row. The conversation opens on the right.
Type in the box at the bottom and press "Send".

In Chat, press the "Contacts" button beside the conversation list. A count on it shows requests waiting.
Under "Add a contact", type at least two letters of a name or email address.
Press "Send request" beside the right person. The row shows "Request sent".
When they accept, they appear under "Your contacts", where "Message" opens a conversation.

Write the message in the box. Send later carries text only, so send files and records right away.
Press the clock beside "Send".
Choose "In an hour", "Tomorrow morning", "Next Monday morning" (not offered on a Sunday, when it is the same morning), or "Pick a time" and set a date and time. Each choice shows the time it stands for, on your device's clock.
Press "Schedule". A line above the box says how many of your messages wait to go there.

Result: a private conversation that only the two of you can read.

Good to know

You can message someone when at least one of these is true. You are contacts. You belong to the same organization or team. You share an API Tester project that one of you owns and the other was added to directly. Or one of you applied to a role the other hires for.
The server checks this when a conversation starts, so someone you share nothing with cannot message you until you accept their contact request.
There is one private conversation per pair of people. Starting it again reopens the same thread. A private conversation cannot be left.
Requests waiting for you show as a count on the "Contacts" button and as a banner above the list with "Review". Answer them with "Accept" or "Decline" under "Pending requests".
After you decline someone, they can send you a new request only after 30 days.
"Remove contact" ends the contact, not the conversation. You can still message each other if you share an organization, team or project.
In Organizations, every accepted member row has a "Message" button that opens the same conversation.
An organization can switch Chat off for its members.
A scheduled message goes as you, at the time you chose, only if you can still write in that conversation then. Until it goes, only you see it. Open the clock button at the top of the conversation list to send it now, change its text or time, or cancel it.
If a scheduled message cannot go - you left the group, the conversation was archived, or the workspace stopped taking messages - your inbox tells you, and it stays in your scheduled messages with the reason so you can copy its text.

Block someone

"Block" is in the menu of a contact, a request, a group member and a private conversation. A blocked person cannot message you, add you to a group or send you a request, and they are not told. Your private conversation keeps its history but takes no new messages either way. In a group you both belong to, you no longer see what they write. Unblock people in Settings, under "Blocked people".

If something goes wrong

"You can't message this person." You share nothing yet, or one of you blocked the other. Send a contact request instead, or unblock them in Settings.
"This person declined your last request. You can send a new one from" a date: wait until that date.
"You can't send this person a friend request." One of you blocked the other.
"You cannot start a conversation with yourself." Pick someone else.

/help/chat/messages
/help/chat/groups-and-channels
/help/chat/find-conversations