Chat
The built-in chat module provides real-time team communication without relying on external tools like Slack or WhatsApp — with the bonus that you can link projects, invoices, and other studio records directly into the conversation.
Channels
Chat is organized into channels, listed in the left panel:
- General — seeded on first setup, open to all team members. The studio-wide room.
- Direct messages — private 1:1 conversations between two team members. Only the two participants can see them.
- Group channels — created for a subset of the team (a project crew, the editing team). Membership is set when the channel is created.
Owners, Admins and Crew can all create a channel — every Crew member, whatever craft they're tagged with. A Bookkeeper can read, write and be added to channels, but doesn't create them. Deleting a channel is an Owner's or Admin's job — or the job of whoever created it: the creator becomes that channel's admin and can close what they opened. Each channel in the list shows an unread badge with the number of messages you haven't seen yet; opening the channel marks it as read.
Messaging
- Text messages — standard chat messages with support for basic formatting.
- Real-time updates — messages appear instantly for all channel members.
- Timestamps — each message shows the sender name and time.
- Reply to a message — hover over any message and click the Reply button (curved arrow icon). The reply appears in the channel with an inline preamble quoting the original message. Click the quoted preamble to jump back to the original message in the thread, regardless of how far up in history it is.
Mentions
Type @ followed by a teammate's name (or pick them from the picker) to get their attention:
- @Name — the mentioned person gets a bell notification and a dedicated push ("… mentioned you in …"), even if they've quieted the channel's regular notifications.
- @All — notifies everyone in the channel except you.
- Urgent mention — the mention picker has a notify urgently toggle for the rare "drop everything" case. An urgent mention additionally emails the person and puts an item on their Needs Attention list that only clears when they explicitly dismiss it — it can't be missed by simply scrolling past.
Referencing Projects, Invoices, and More
You can link any studio record into a message by typing #, the record type, a colon, and its number. The reference renders as a named, clickable chip — so "can you check #invoice:123?" shows the actual invoice name and takes your teammate straight to it.
| Type this | Links to | Short form |
|---|---|---|
#project:42 | A project | #p:42 |
#client:7 | A client | #c:7 |
#invoice:123 | An invoice | #inv:123 |
#offer:45 | An offer | #o:45 |
#contract:99 | A contract | #con:99 |
#task:12 | A task | #t:12 |
#shoot:8 | A shoot | #s:8 |
The number is the record's ID — visible in your browser's address bar when the record is open. If a referenced record is later deleted, the chip keeps the title it had when you sent it, and clicking it does nothing. The message itself is never broken by a deletion.
Attachments
Attach files to any message — contracts to review, sneak-peek images, location PDFs. Images get an inline thumbnail preview; other files show as a download card with the filename and size. Only members of the channel can download an attachment. Each file is capped at 15 MB, and uploads count toward your studio's overall storage quota.
Emoji Reactions
React to any message with an emoji instead of writing "ok" for the tenth time. Click the reaction button on a message (or an existing reaction) to add yours; click again to remove it. Reactions aggregate — you see each emoji with a count, your own reactions highlighted, and hovering shows who reacted.
Notifications
New messages trigger push notifications for channel members who have enabled push on their device — rapid messages in the same channel collapse into a single updating banner rather than a stack. Mentions come through as their own dedicated notification. Configure your devices and preferences under Settings → Application Preferences → Notifications (see Settings).
Access
All authenticated team members can view and send messages in channels they have access to: everyone in General, participants in their direct messages, and members of their group channels.
Related
- Inbox — client email, kept separate from this internal team chat
- Needs Attention — where an urgent mention lands until you dismiss it
- Team — the people behind every @mention
- Settings → Application Preferences → Notifications — per-device push preferences