Chat
Chat is where your organization talks: to each other in channels and direct messages, and to AI, meaning the Quanty assistant and the agents your team builds. It sits next to the tables, boards and documents you work on, so a link to a record is one paste away. Audio and video calls happen in Chat too, and a call can be recorded and summarized for the people who missed it.
This page is the overview. The details are on Channels and direct messages, Writing messages, Calls and recordings and, for AI, AI assistant.
Before you start
- Chat is part of every plan. Everyone in the organization can use it, Viewers included: they read and write in channels and direct messages, react and send files, but cannot create channels, use Ask AI, bring in AI with @Quanty or an agent, or record calls.
- How far back messages stay visible and how many people fit in a call depend on the plan (see Who sees what, and for how long).
People and AI, always told apart
AI rows carry an AI marker and an orb instead of a photo, and an AI conversation opens with "You are talking to AI. Check important facts." People have a photo or initials with a status dot. An AI answer inside a team conversation is marked the same way, with asked by and the person's name.
Open Chat
| Way | What opens |
|---|---|
| Chat in the sidebar | The Chat page: the list on the left, the conversation on the right. |
| The Chat button in the bottom-right corner of any page | Chat as a panel on the right (the whole window on a narrow screen). Drag its left edge to resize it; Open the Chat page expands it. |
| Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac) | The panel on the AI conversation; again closes it. |
| Alt+M (Option+M) | The panel on the list of conversations. |
The Chat button and the sidebar entry show a red number for mentions and unread direct messages, and a dot when there is only something new in your channels. The panel is not shown on the Chat page itself or in the settings.
The list
| Section | What it holds |
|---|---|
| AI | Quanty ("Asks, summarizes, builds tables, dashboards and presentations"), the built-in Wsparcie (Quanty's product help) and your organization's active agents, each with the AI marker. Your earlier AI conversations are inside the AI conversation, under its history, not in this list. |
| Threads | Every thread you started or replied in. |
| Unread direct messages | People who wrote to you, with the number of unread messages. |
| Starred | Conversations you starred (Add to starred). |
| Channels | Your channels, Browse channels, and + (Add a channel) for New channel or Browse channels. |
| Direct messages | Your conversations with one person or a group. |
| Other channels | Channels you can open but have not joined. Administrators also see private channels here. |
| Archived | Archived channels you are in. |
Find a conversation or a person at the top filters the list as you type. Each section folds, and Chat remembers how you left it. A conversation's menu (right-click or ⋯) holds Mark as read / Mark as unread, Add to starred, Mute conversation, Copy link and, for direct messages, Close conversation.
The icons at the top of the list are Focus (see Focus mode), Messages settings and New message.
Notifications
Messages settings (the gear at the top of the list):
| Setting | Choices | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Notify me about | Everything ("Every new message."), Mentions ("Direct messages too."), Nothing ("Unread stays marked."). | Everything |
| Browser notifications | "Show a notification on your screen when a message arrives." Your browser asks once. | On |
| Sound | "Play a short sound when a message arrives." Play the sound tests it. | On |
| Show message text in notifications | "When off, a notification says who wrote, not what." | On |
| Notify me when I am away | "While Messages is closed, new messages appear under the bell." Direct messages and mentions only. | On |
| Do not disturb | Quiet hours From and To, with a Time zone: "No sounds or notifications during these hours." | Off |
| Pause notifications | For 30 minutes, For 1 hour, For 2 hours or Until tomorrow morning; Resume notifications ends it. |
Each conversation can override your choice: Notifications in this conversation in its ⋯ menu offers Use my default setting, All messages, Only mentions and Nothing, and Mute conversation silences it completely, mentions included. Unread messages are always counted, whatever you choose. Chat never sends e-mail.
Focus mode
Focus at the top of the list: "Focus mode: no sounds, pop-ups or desktop notifications for messages. Calls still show a Join banner, without ringing." Turn it on until you turn it off or until a time; the button then says "Focus mode on, until 15:30". Unread messages keep counting.
Your status
Colleagues see a dot on your picture everywhere in Chat:
| Status | How it is set |
|---|---|
| Active | Automatically while Quanty is open; after a while without activity you show as Away. |
| In a call | Automatically while you are in a call. |
| Away, Do not disturb | Chosen by you in Set your status, For how long: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, Until the end of today, Until tomorrow morning, Until the end of the week or Until I change it. Do not disturb also silences notifications and incoming-call rings. |
| Out of office | Last day away (up to 180 days ahead, or No end date) and a Note (optional) of up to 200 characters, for example "On holiday. For anything urgent, write to Marta." People who write to you directly or mention you see "Kasia Próbna is out of office." with your note. |
| Offline | No Quanty open. "Last seen 5 minutes ago". |
You can also set a status line with an icon and text ("What are you working on?"), or a preset: In a meeting, On the road, Working remotely, Off sick, On holiday, Focusing. When the time is up, your status goes back to automatic by itself. Do not disturb and Out of office stay visible while you are offline.
Who sees what, and for how long
- Channels. A channel's messages, files, calls and threads are seen by its members. A public channel can be previewed by anyone in the organization before joining.
- Administrators can open every public and private channel, including ones they are not in; a private channel says so: "Administrators of your organization can see this private channel and its messages." Opening a channel as an administrator does not add them to it.
- Direct messages are seen only by the people in them. Administrators can never read other people's direct messages.
- AI answers from the messages the person asking can see, never more.
- Quanty support. While Quanty support has temporary access to your organization (your admins see it and can revoke it, see Security and MFA), the support person appears in Chat with a Quanty support badge. You can write to them and add them to a channel. During that time they hold the administrator role, so like any administrator they can open public and private channels, but not direct messages they are not in. They disappear from Chat when the access ends.
- Read-only organizations. "Your organization is in read-only mode. You can read messages, but not send them."
How far back messages go
The plan decides how far back team messages stay visible. Nothing is deleted: upgrading shows older messages again.
| Plan | Visible history |
|---|---|
| Silver | 90 days: "Messages older than 90 days are hidden on the Silver plan. Upgrade to Gold to keep a full year." |
| Gold | 365 days |
| Platinum, Custom | Unlimited |
The window applies to the conversation, threads, search, pins, files and unread counts. AI conversations are kept separately and are not affected.
Privacy and security
Everything in Chat is encrypted in transit. On the server, the text of messages, the names of files and the previews in notifications are encrypted with a key of your own organization, wrapped by AWS KMS; files, call recordings and transcripts are stored encrypted with AWS KMS and bound to your organization. Channel names, topics and reactions are not encrypted this way. Everything is stored in AWS in Frankfurt (eu-central-1). The encryption is server-side: Quanty can still search messages, show previews and file attachments for you. Calls travel between the participants' browsers, encrypted in transit, and are not stored unless someone records them. Files sent in Chat are also filed in Files, under Messages and the channel's name (direct messages under Direct messages, visible only to their participants).
Related pages
- Channels and direct messages: creating, owners, members, settings and archiving.
- Writing messages: mentions, links, threads, files, pins and search.
- Calls and recordings: audio and video calls, recordings and summaries.
- AI assistant: Quanty and your agents in Chat.
- Organizations and roles: admins, members and viewers.