Notifications, unread and presence in Internal Chat

Overview

Internal Chat alerts you to what matters and marks what you still have to read, so you don't have to dig through every channel. Three mechanisms work together:

• Notifications — an alert (bell and/or email) when something relevant happens: a mention, a direct message or an announcement.
• Unread — a counter (badge) per channel plus a total in the sidebar, showing how many new messages you haven't seen yet.
• Presence — the online indicator for the colleagues you talk to.

You control how much each channel interrupts you through its notification level and mute, without losing history — anything unread stays marked until you open the channel.

Prerequisites

• The Internal Chat module enabled for the account.
• An active user (agent) on the account, a member of the channel or a participant in the direct message.
• The Internal Chat notification types — mention, direct message and announcement — live on your notification preferences page and can be enabled by bell and by email, each one independently.

Step by step

1. Understand the three notification types

Clicking any of these notifications opens the channel at the exact message that caused it, loading older pages when necessary and highlighting the message. If that message was removed or is not visible to you, Internal Chat safely opens the latest messages and shows a notice instead.

2. Set the level per channel

Each channel has its own notification level, defined by you:

1. Open the conversation's action menu — the ⋮ icon on the list row (or a right-click, or the ⋮ in the header of the open conversation) — and choose Mute notifications.
2. Choose one of the three levels:
   • All — notify on every new message.
   • Mentions only — notify only when you are mentioned.
   • Nothing — do not notify (it still counts as unread).

3. Mute a channel for a period

In the same menu, Mute notifications offers four options: For 8 hours, For 1 week, Only when I'm mentioned and Until I turn it back on.

• A period (8 hours or 1 week) expires by itself and everything goes back to normal; while it is active you receive nothing from that channel, not even mentions.
• Until I turn it back on never expires: to undo it, choose Turn notifications back on in the same menu.
• A muted conversation shows a crossed-out bell next to its name in the list.

4. Read the unread badges

• The number next to each channel/direct message is the count of new messages you haven't read yet.
• The total on the Internal Chat sidebar entry sums the unread across all your channels and direct messages.
• Messages you sent yourself never count as unread.

5. Mark as read or unread

• Just open the channel and view the messages: your read marker advances to the last message and that channel's badge clears.
• Without opening it, use the conversation's action menu: Mark as read clears the badge on the spot.
• Mark as unread does the opposite — it brings the badge back to a conversation you already read, so you don't forget to answer. It rewinds to the last message you received, not to the beginning of the history.

Settings & options

• Notification level per member — all / mentions only / nothing, set by you on each channel (it does not affect other members).
• Temporary mute — pauses the channel's notifications for a period (8 hours or 1 week); it expires automatically. There is also the open-ended mute (Until I turn it back on).
• Conversation action menu — where mute, mark as unread, pin and archive live. Opens from the row's ⋮, from a right-click, or from the header's ⋮.
• Global preferences — the three types (mention, direct message, announcement) can be turned on or off by bell and by email on your preferences page.
• Presence indicator (online) — shows which colleagues are connected; the Internal Chat real-time signaling is bounded to channel/direct-message members, so you see presence and updates only for the people who are part of that space.

Use cases

• Noisy channel: set the "general" channel to mentions only so you are alerted only when someone really calls you.
• Weekend: mute the "general" channel for a few days to rest without losing the history.
• Quick triage: glance at the badges in the sidebar to see at a glance where there are pending messages before opening any channel.

Tips, limits & best practices

• Announcements are meant to be read: posting in an announcement channel notifies those who follow it, precisely so the notice isn't missed.
• A mention pierces the "mentions only" level: even at that level, being mentioned with @ always triggers a notification — only the nothing level skips mention alerts.
• Mute is stronger than the level: while a channel is muted, you receive nothing from it, not even mentions, until the mute expires.
• Unread is not the same as a notification: the nothing level silences the alert, but the message still counts in the badge until you open the channel.

Troubleshooting

• I don't get notifications from a channel: check, in this order, the channel level (it may be "nothing"), whether it is muted, and your bell/email preferences for that type (mention, direct message or announcement).
• The badge won't clear: the count only updates when you open the channel and view the new messages; remember that messages you sent never enter that number.
• I can't see a colleague's presence: presence and real-time updates are bounded to members; you only see the status of people who are part of the same channel/direct message, and they must be connected to show as online.

See also

• Conversation actions: mark unread, mute, pin, archive and delete
• Internal Chat overview
• Channels, direct messages and announcements