Team chat

Message one person or a group, in your teams or anyone on Magpie by their handle.

A direct message or a group belongs to the people in it, not to a team, so it is the same conversation whichever team you have selected. Teammates message each other at once, and a first message to anyone else arrives as a request. Each person chooses who can message them, whether read receipts show, and whom to mute or block.

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Direct messages and groups

A direct message is a conversation between two people, and a group is one between three or more. Both are listed under Direct messages in Chat in every team.

Starting a conversation
Choose from the people in Personal or the selected team, type someone's exact handle, or choose Message on a person's profile card. Someone outside your teams is found by their exact handle, never by part of a name or an email address.
Running a group
Everyone in a group can rename it, add people and leave it. People you share a team with can be added at once; anyone else first accepts a direct message from you.
In the conversation
Threads, reactions and images work as in channels, and only a message's author can delete it. Its history follows the best plan among its people.

Message requests from outside your teams

Two people who share a team where both can use Team chat message each other at once. A first message to anyone else arrives as a request, listed under Requests.

  1. Send a request

    You need a handle of your own, which they will see. Until they accept, you can send up to 3 messages and no attachments, and one person can start up to 20 requests a day.

  2. Accept

    Accept, or reply, to talk as in any direct message. The sender will become a guest of your Personal with this conversation and nothing else, counted toward Personal's guest limit: 10 on the free plan and 100 on Pro.

  3. Ignore or block

    Ignore moves the request out of sight without telling the sender, and it can still be accepted later. Block blocks the person and ignores the request.

Who can message you

Who can message you, in Account settings under Privacy, is Anyone (the default: people outside your teams send a request), People in my teams, or Nobody. Conversations that already exist stay open whatever you choose. Someone who cannot message you sees You cannot message and your name, whatever the reason.

A direct message stays open while the two of you share a team where both can use Team chat. When one of you leaves that team or is removed from it, the conversation becomes read-only for both. Either of you can then choose Invite as a guest, and once the other person accepts, you can both write again.

Notifications and muting

The tab mark, the sound and the people you mute are set in Account settings, for you alone.

Avatar dot
A red dot on your avatar marks an unread direct message, group or message request.
Browser tab
Each open Magpie tab shows a dot on its icon and the number of unread direct messages and groups in its title, such as (2) Chat. Unread messages on the browser tab turns it off.
Message sound
An open Magpie tab plays a short sound for a new direct message or group message. Sound for new messages turns it off.
Mute one person
Mute notifications, on someone's profile card, stops the sound for their messages, which still count as unread. They are not told, and Muted people lists everyone you have muted.

Read receipts

In a direct message or a group, Seen appears under your newest message once the other person has opened the conversation since you sent it; in a group it names who, such as Seen by Ana and Ben.

Read receipts work both ways: you see when someone has read your messages only while both of you have Read receipts on, in Account settings under Privacy. It is on until you turn it off, and with it off nobody sees when you have read their messages.

Blocking and reporting

Block someone from their profile card, a direct message or a message request in Chat. They are not told, and Blocked people in Account settings lists everyone you have blocked, with Unblock beside each.

Their messages are hidden
Everywhere in Chat, channels included, with a note where each one was. Their posts and comments on Message Boards are hidden from you too.
No new conversations
Blocking stops them starting a conversation with you, adding you to a group or inviting you to a channel. It turns off read receipts between you, and sounds for their messages.

Send your first direct message.

Create a Magpie account, open Team chat and message a teammate, or anyone on Magpie by their handle.

Create account