Skip to main content
A private conversation between two colleagues A private conversation between two colleagues Use a direct message for a conversation with one colleague. Select several people for a group chat when the discussion needs a small, specific audience rather than a channel people can discover and join.

​
Start the conversation

1

Choose New message

Open Messages → New → New message.
2

Choose your audience

Select one person for a direct message or several for a group chat. Check the selected names before continuing.
3

Open the chat

Click Start chat for one person or Create group for several. Write your message and send it.
The conversation appears under Conversations. Only its participants can open it. Starting a direct message with someone you already talk to returns you to that conversation.
If you cannot select people or start a chat, ask an administrator to check your member-viewing and conversation permissions. Sending also needs the workspace’s Messages add-on when subscription limits apply.
A direct conversation with a colleague A direct conversation with a colleague

​
Keep a group chat’s audience right

Open a group chat’s menu and choose Edit group to name it and manage its participants, when your role and group-management rights allow it. Save the changes when the selected audience is correct. Choose Leave group when you no longer need to participate. A participant must add you back before you can rejoin. If you created the group chat, you cannot leave it and cannot hand it to someone else: archive it when it has finished. A group chat is not a public channel: there is no browse-and-join option for everyone else. Use a channel instead if people need a place they can find by topic or membership needs to follow a department. A direct conversation does not have a channel’s public/private visibility switch.

​
Finish without losing the history

Archive moves the conversation to Archived. Restore conversation makes it active again. These actions depend on your permissions.
Archiving affects everyone in the conversation and stops further messages until it is restored. It is not a way to hide a chat only for yourself. Delete permanently cannot be undone.
To keep a conversation close without changing it for others, add it to your favourites. To reduce alerts, change your own notification settings.

​
Next

Replies and reactions

Send a message, keep a reply with its question, and correct what you wrote.

Notifications

Choose which conversations notify you and when mobile alerts can reach you.

​
Still need help?

Contact support

Email the Begin team and we’ll get back to you.

Ask Begin AI

Open the AI assistant and get instant answers based on these docs.