Use team chat

Channels belong to the selected team and are shared by its members. A direct message belongs to the two people in it, not to a team: it is the same conversation whichever team you have selected, and it is listed under Direct messages in every team. Start one from someone's name, or with + beside Direct messages: pick a teammate, or type anyone's exact handle under Message by handle. Switch between Personal and your teams from the top of the channel list. Create a channel from the channel menu and use a short name that describes its subject. Team administrators can also create channels in the mobile app from the Messages menu.

On the web, select a channel's name above the conversation to open Channel details: who can read it and, for its team's administrators, letting people in. An administrator archives a channel from the bottom of Channel details; in the mobile app, open the channel and choose Archive channel from its menu. An archived channel stops taking new messages and is hidden from the channel list. Restore it from Archived channels in the Chat menu (⋯) on the web, or the Messages menu in the app. General cannot be archived.

Write a message in the composer. In the mobile app, + beside the message field attaches a photo from the library or the camera, up to five PDF, Office, text or archive files of up to 25MB each, or a voice note of up to two minutes. Attachments waiting to be sent appear above the field, where each can be removed, and can be shared or played once they are on visible messages. Attachments are visible to the conversation's members, not to the general public. Message length, storage quota and upload validation still apply.

The mobile app saves a bounded recovery copy of message and thread-reply text on this device. Copies are scoped to your account, team and conversation; thread replies also include the thread. A copy is removed after the message is sent. It is not an offline send queue.

In the mobile app, tap or long-press a message, or choose … beside its author, to react, reply in a thread or delete it. Reactions a message already has appear under it; tap one to add or remove your own.

Use a thread when a reply belongs to one message rather than the main channel. Thread replies stay attached to that parent message. You can delete a message from its thread when you have permission; deleting the first message also deletes the thread replies. Reactions provide a short acknowledgement from the supported reaction set. A profile card on a member's name or avatar shows the identity and team details available to you and can open a direct message.

Free plans retain a limited amount of channel history and have fewer channels; Pro limits are shown on Billing. Removing a member stops their team access but does not rewrite message history.

Group conversations

A group is a conversation between three or more people. Like a direct message, it belongs to its people rather than to a team, and it is listed with your direct messages in every team.

To start one, choose + beside Direct messages, then New group. Tick two or more people, or add someone by their exact handle, and choose Start group. In the app, choose New message, then New group. Starting a group with exactly the same people as an existing one opens that group again.

Select a group's name above the conversation to open Group details (in the app, Group details in the conversation's menu). Everyone in the group can:

• rename it. A group without a name is named after its people;
• add people by handle: someone you share a team with, or already talk to in a direct message. A group has no request step, so to add someone outside your teams, message them first;
• leave it. Someone still in it can add you back.

Only a message's author can delete it, as in a direct message. Messages, threads, reactions and attachments work as they do everywhere else in Chat.

Talk about a document or a recording

A document and a podcast recording session each have their own conversation. Choose Chat at the top of a document, or of a recording session, and it opens in a panel beside it, so you can keep writing or recording while you talk. In the app, choose Chat from a document's menu.

There is one conversation for each document or session, and anyone who can open the document or session can join it. Opening it joins you. Everyone who joins sees the whole conversation, including what was said before they joined. A document's conversation belongs to the document's team: someone who leaves the team leaves the conversation too.

These conversations are kept. They are listed in Chat under Discussions, named after what they are about, so you can go back to what was said about a document or a session later. A discussion with no messages for two weeks moves behind Show older; it is not deleted.

A guest in a recording session joins with a link and does not need a Magpie account to record. To use the session's chat, they choose Sign in to chat on the studio page. Sign-in opens in a new tab, so recording in the studio tab carries on; once signed in, they go back to the studio tab and choose Open chat.

Message requests

A direct message from someone who shares none of your teams arrives as a request, listed under Requests in Chat (and in Messages in the app) rather than with your direct messages. Its sender sees your handle, and you see theirs. Until you accept, they can send three messages and no attachments, and neither of you can see whether the other is in the conversation.

• Accept, or reply, to talk as in any direct message.
• Ignore moves it out of sight. The sender is not told; to them it stays a request. Show ignored under Requests brings it back, where you can still accept it.
• Block also hides that person's messages everywhere and stops them starting a conversation with you. They are not told.

To message someone outside your teams you need a handle of your own; you can choose it when you send the first message. One person can start at most 20 new conversations of this kind a day.

Who can message you in Account settings (Privacy) decides who can start a conversation with you:

• Anyone (the default): people outside your teams send a request;
• People in my teams: only current teammates;
• Nobody: no new conversations.

Conversations that already exist are not affected by the setting.

Bring people from outside the team into a channel

On a paid plan, a team administrator can let people who are not in the team into one channel. Open the channel, choose Channel details (its name, at the top; Members in the app), then Invite people from outside the team. The channel becomes members only: everyone in the team now stays a member, and people who join the team later can join it from the channel list. This cannot be undone. General, and channels in Personal, cannot have guests.

Then, from Channel details:

• Add people takes a handle. Someone in the team is added at once. Anyone else is sent an invitation and joins as a guest once they accept it.
• Create invite link makes a link anyone signed in to Magpie can use to join as a guest, for seven days and up to 25 people. The link is shown only when it is made; copy it then. Revoke a link or cancel an invitation from the same list.
• Remove takes someone out of the channel. Their messages stay.

A guest needs a handle, so the other members can tell who they are; someone without one chooses it when they join. A guest can read and post in that channel, react, reply in threads and leave it. They see its member list and nothing else of the team. Their invitations, and the channels they are in, are listed in Chat whichever team they have selected, under Invitations and Shared with you.

Anyone can leave a members-only channel from Channel details. A guest needs a new invitation to come back; a team member can join it again from the channel list.

Report a message or block someone

In the mobile app, tap a message from someone else and choose Report message or Block. A report goes to the Magpie team for review, and content that breaks the Acceptable Use Policy is removed. Blocking hides that person's messages from you, in channels and direct messages, and shows a short note where each one was. They are not told. Undo it under Account settings, Blocked people. If a message appears in the wrong team, stop and check the current selection. For a conversation that fails to load or send after reconnecting, Contact support.