Team chat · UCaaS (Business Phone)

Team Chat is where your colleagues talk to each other. It's internal only; texts to customers live in Messages. Open Team Chat in the sidebar.

The left side lists your Channels and Direct messages. Select one to open it.

Channels

Every workspace starts with #general, a team-wide channel everyone can see.

Create a channel

Any member can create a channel.

Start

Select Create channel.

Name it

Enter a Name of up to 40 characters. Names are lower-case, and spaces become dashes, so Field Crew becomes #field-crew. If the name is taken you'll see "#name already exists."

Add a topic (optional)

Describe what the channel is for in Topic, up to 140 characters. For example: "Daily scheduling for the install crews."

Choose who can see it

Leave it public so everyone in the workspace can see and join the conversation. Or tick Private — only invited members can see it and pick the people to include.

Channel members

Open the Members panel to see who's in a channel. The person who created it is tagged as its owner. The panel is hidden when the chat area is narrow, so widen the window if you can't see it.

Private channels have Add teammate, to invite someone else, and Leave channel.
Public channels are open to the whole workspace, so there's nothing to join or leave.

Direct and group messages

Select New message.
In Search teammates…, pick one person and select Message, or pick several and select Start group (N).

Opening a conversation with the same person, or the same group of people, takes you back to your existing conversation. Group conversations are named after their members.

The people in a direct or group message are fixed. You can't add someone or leave. To bring someone else in, start a new group with everyone you need.

Writing messages

Messages can be up to 4,000 characters.
Press Enter to send, or Shift+Enter for a new line.
Each conversation shows its latest 100 messages.

Select the paperclip, Attach a file (image, PDF or text — max ~1 MB). You can send one file per message, with or without text.

Types: JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP images, PDFs, and plain-text files.
Size: up to about 1 MB.

Images preview in the conversation. Other files show as an attachment with Open and Download. Files are only visible to signed-in members of your workspace.

Unread messages and presence

Each conversation shows a count of messages you haven't read, and Team Chat in the sidebar shows your total.
Your read position is saved to your account, so it's the same on every computer and browser.
New messages arrive instantly.
A colored dot next to each person shows whether they're available, away, busy or offline. It matches their status on the Phone page.

Huddles: calls inside a conversation

Start a video call with everyone in a channel or conversation, without scheduling a meeting.

Start the call

Select Call in the conversation header. A message, "📹 started a call", lets everyone know, and you become the call's host.

Others join

While a call is running, the header button changes to a green Join · N, showing how many people are in it.

Talk

The call appears above the conversation with the full set of meeting controls: microphone, camera, screen sharing, chat and more. Everyone in a huddle can share their screen.

Leave

Select Leave. Opening a different conversation also takes you out of the call.

Bring phone callers into a huddle

Select the phone icon in the header:

Join by phone shows a number and Meeting ID that anyone can dial into once the call has started.
Call a phone into the meeting dials a phone number and connects that person straight into the call. The conversation shows "📞 invited N to the call".

These phone options are available when phone dial-in is set up for your workspace. If you see "Start the call first — phone dial-in turns on automatically (if configured for this workspace)", start the call first. If they still aren't available, ask your administrator to contact intSignal.

Tips for a tidy workspace

Create channels by team (#support, #installs) or project, and use the topic to say what belongs there.
Keep customer-specific work in Messages, where the whole team can see the customer's history.
Use a private channel for sensitive topics, such as HR or finance, and invite only the people who need it.
Messages can't be edited or deleted after sending, so check before you press Enter.