Welcome to the “Chat” portion of the app. If your administrator has granted you access to the Chat option, you will see this in the main menu.
There are three different types of chat messages, which we will go over in detail on this page.
By default, you will see your chats for the past 10 days. You can change that for Direct and SMS Messages using the date filter at the top left of the screen. (Channels are always visible and do not change based on the date filter.)
You can also use the 3 dots beside the date filter to clear all unread chat messages and SMS texts.
To begin a new Direct Message between you and another user within your organization:
A new conversation has now been started and you can begin typing your message. Any previous conversations with this user will appear when you click the start button.
You will find the following options below the message field:
Once you have sent your message, it will appear on the left side of the screen under the Direct Messages heading. New incoming messages will be indicated by a blue badge showing the number of unread messages; you can select that conversation to read the new messages and continue the conversation. You can also use the 3 dots beside the date filter to clear all unread chat messages.
There is a blue phone button at the top right of the screen which can be used to make a call directly from the chat screen. On the desktop version of the app there is also a blue video button at the top right of the screen which is only enabled if you have Intulse Meetings. You can use this button to quickly create a video call directly to the other user you’re chatting with.
The bell button allows you to mute chat notifications for this specific conversation. Conversations can be muted for 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 24 hours, indefinitely, or a selected date.
There are two types of channels: Private and Public.
Private channels are only visible to users who have been invited to join them.
Public channels are visible to everyone in your organization.
To begin a new Private Channel:
If you want the channel to be Public, meaning everyone in your organization will be a member on the channel, give it a name and click “Create.”
Once a channel has been created, it will appear on the left side of the screen under the Channels heading. Click on the channel to read and respond to a message.
Like direct messages, channels also have the following options at the bottom of the screen:
New incoming messages will be indicated by a blue badge showing the number of unread messages, and each new message will show up with the name of the user who sent it. You can use the 3 dots beside the date filter to clear all unread messages.
At the top right of the screen, you are able to view the members of that channel. The bell button allows you to mute chat notifications for this specific conversation. Conversations can be muted for 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 24 hours, indefinitely, or a selected date.
Only the owner of the channel has the ability to add or remove users, or delete the channel.
All Intulse phone numbers can be enabled for SMS Text messaging if desired. Once enabled, you can then send texts using those numbers. Enabling a phone number for messaging in the Intulse App is accomplished in the Intulse Account Center. Instructions for managing your phone numbers can be found here.
To send a new SMS text message to an external phone, such as a cell phone:
Once you have sent your message, it will appear on the left side of the screen under the SMS heading.
Be aware that other users in your organization will likely be able to see your SMS conversations. Which users will have access to phone numbers for SMS texting is controlled by “Chat Number Access” permissions in the Admin section of the Intulse App. Specific information about Admin settings can be found here.
If multiple users have access to view a conversation, they can all send messages to participate in that conversation. You will be able to see which user has sent each outgoing message in a conversation. However, the recipient will not know that they are talking to multiple people. They will simply know they are texting with a number owned by your organization.
New incoming messages will be indicated by a blue badge showing the number of unread messages. Select that conversation to read and respond to the message. There is a blue phone button at the top right of the screen, which can be used to make a call directly from the chat screen. The bell button allows you to mute chat notifications for this specific conversation. Conversations can be muted for 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 24 hours, indefinitely, or a selected date.
Individual messages can be hidden within SMS text conversations. While messages cannot be completely removed, they can be hidden from view in your conversation thread. Click on the icon beside the contact's name in the message and select “HIDE” to remove it from your view. It will be replaced with a message indicating the date and time it was hidden. All messages will still appear in the Text Message Activity report, even if they have been hidden in the conversation. Full SMS conversations cannot be removed.
You can now customize your automated messages. Any customizations will still need to comply with the FCC rules about A2P text messages. There are 4 automated messages which can be customized: START (keyword), STOP (keyword), HELP (keyword), and FIRST MESSAGE (keyword). Changes can be made in the Account Center on the Manage Phone Numbers page.
Once a message has been sent, any user on the system who has access to see the conversation can claim it. Everyone will still be able to view the conversation, but when a conversation has been claimed there is a blue banner at the top of the page letting everyone know you are taking the lead in the conversation. You can remove your “claim” at any time.
When a conversation has not been claimed there will be a yellow banner at the top of the page letting everyone know that it has not been claimed. There is no requirement for anyone to claim a message; however, if you want to let everyone on your team know that you will be handling the message, or if you want to make it a private conversation, the claim button is there as an option.
Once you claim a conversation, you can also mark it as private, meaning that you are now the only one who can view that conversation thread. This private setting can also be removed at any time. Making a conversation private does not stop other users from seeing that the conversation exists, it just makes the content invisible to anyone other than the user that has claimed it.
System administrators have the ability to view any conversations that have been claimed and marked as private. Clicking the drop-down arrow beside the eye icon will allow system admins to choose to either view the message or remove the private setting.
You can manage which SMS conversations are visible in your conversation list by clicking the 3 dots beside the date filter.
You will notice several different Delivery Reports on outgoing SMS messages.
There are several Profile settings related to Chat notifications. You can find these settings by selecting the “More” menu and then selecting the “Profile” screen. You can learn more about these notifications in the Profile video.
You are able to select whether you want to receive notifications: