Understand live updates, unread counts and notifications

What Online, typing and read mean, and how to mute or quiet a conversation.

In short

While Chat is open, new messages, edits, reactions and typing arrive live, and you see who is online. Each conversation can be set to notify you for all messages, mentions only, or nothing. Messages always arrive; the setting changes only what is announced to you.

Before you start

Who: anyone signed in. The level and favorites are yours alone.
Plan: none.
First: nothing. Chat as a whole is set under Settings › Notifications.

Steps

Open the conversation's menu, "Conversation actions".
Under "Notification preference", choose "All messages", "Mentions only" or "Muted".

In the same menu or a row's menu, choose "Mute".
Choose "For 1 hour", "For 8 hours", "For 24 hours" or "Until I turn it back on".
To end it early, choose "Unmute".

Result: a short message confirms the choice, and the header shows the conversation's quieter setting.

Good to know

Messages are saved on the server first, so nothing is lost while you are away. Chat reconnects on its own; if it cannot, reload the page.
Opening a conversation marks it read for you alone.
The Chat badge in the sidebar adds unread messages across conversations plus contact requests waiting for you. Muted conversations do not count.
When you are away from Chat, a mention, or a message in a conversation set to All messages, also lands in the bell in the header.
Settings > Notifications sets Chat as a whole to Instant, Digest or Muted. It also has the "Chat digest" email, which lists unread messages while you are away. That email comes at most once a day on Digest, and never when Chat is Muted.
The level and favorites are yours alone; nobody else sees them.

If something goes wrong

Messages stop arriving live: the connection dropped. Chat reconnects on its own; reload the page if it does not.
You never get notified about a group: check its "Notification preference" and whether it is muted, and that Chat is not Muted in Settings.
The badge does not clear: open each conversation with an unread count and answer any contact request under "Pending requests".