What this does

Lets you message colleagues one-on-one or in groups, from Communicator Desktop, Web, or GO — your chat history stays in sync across all of them, so a conversation you start on your computer is still there when you check your phone later.

What you’ll need

  • Communicator open and signed in.

Steps

Start a conversation:

  1. Click the Chat icon in the main Communicator window.
  2. Find the person (or a whole department) either in the main window or by searching inside the chat window, then click to open or start the conversation.
  3. To message more than one person at once, select multiple people in the main window, right-click, and choose Group chat.

Create and manage a group:

  1. Click Create Group, add participants (search by name, extension, or department — you can add a whole department at once), and optionally tick Allow full history visibility so people added later can see everything said before they joined.
  2. As the group’s creator, you’re its administrator by default — you can rename the group, set its icon, add or remove participants, and hand admin over to someone else using the Transfer button. If a group ever has no administrator, anyone in it can claim the role via Assign myself.

Get someone’s attention or find an old message:

  1. Type @ followed by a name to mention a participant in a group — they’re notified even if they’ve muted the conversation.
  2. Use the search field above your conversation list to find a person, a group, or a past message across your whole chat history. Put a phrase in quotation marks to match it as an exact sequence rather than just those words in any order.

Keep your conversation list tidy:

  1. Right-click (or use the ⋮ menu on) any conversation for options including Search, Call, Pin, mark it Read/Unread, Mute, or close it (including a “close all except this conversation” option). Closed conversations aren’t deleted — find them again via Show Closed Chats, and any new activity brings them back automatically.

Send more than plain text:

  1. Click the folder icon next to send to attach a file (up to 5 at once), or paste an image or file straight from your clipboard (Ctrl/Cmd+V, or right-click paste) — pasted items build up in an attachment list so you can double-check them before sending. Dragging files in from Explorer or Finder works the same way.
  2. Hold the microphone icon to record a voice message (up to 2 minutes) — choose to discard it, stop and preview it before sending, or send it straight away. You can’t send text or files while a recording is in progress.
  3. Hover over any message and click the reaction icon to react to it — your reaction shows next to the message along with the total reaction count, and you’re notified whenever someone reacts to a message you sent.
  4. Right-click a text message and choose Create Thread to start a side conversation inside a group chat, so a side discussion doesn’t clutter the main thread. Only the group admin or the thread’s creator can rename or delete it, and Threads needs to be switched on for your system first — contact us if you don’t see the option.

Manage an individual message:

  1. Right-click any message for Reply, Create Thread, Copy, Show plain text (strip formatting back to raw text, with Show rich text to switch back), Forward (to up to 10 conversations at once), Pin/Unpin, Info (delivery and seen status, group conversations only), Edit (your own outgoing text messages only), and Delete — deleting an outgoing message lets you choose Delete for myself or Delete for everyone; an incoming message can only be deleted for yourself.
  2. Each message also shows a delivery state: Sending, Sent, Delivered, Seen, or Failed (tap Failed to retry).

Find shared files, or start fresh:

  1. Open a conversation’s Chat Info drawer (click the conversation name) for its Options menu — Show Files lists and searches everything shared in that conversation, and Delete conversation removes it permanently, not just from your active list.
  2. The main Options menu (next to Create Group) also has Legacy Chat History (your message history from before Communicator’s chat rework, kept for reference only) and Re-sync the entire chat history (a manual resync — only needed if your chat history looks corrupted).
  3. With a conversation open, the bar at the top also gives you Search (within that conversation only), Ask for attention (nudge the other person — not available in groups), Start/Schedule a meeting with everyone in the conversation, and Add users.

What you should see

Messages send and sync instantly across every device you’re signed in on. A short sync indicator appears briefly after logging in on a new device or after time away, while your history catches up.

Troubleshooting

  • Messages won’t send or arrive. Check for a chat-connection warning in the chat window — if the chat service itself is briefly unavailable, Communicator reconnects and syncs automatically once it’s back, no action needed from you.
  • A colleague isn’t in the mention list. Only people already in that specific conversation can be mentioned — add them to the group first if they need to be included.
  • Can’t find an old message. Search your whole chat history from the search field above the conversation list rather than scrolling — it searches every conversation, not just the open one.
  • Someone you’re chatting with was removed from the phone system. Their conversation shows (Deleted) — you can’t message them anymore, but the existing history stays available.
  • You don’t see Threads as an option. It needs enabling on your system first — contact us if you’d like it turned on.
  • You can’t react to your own message. Reacting to your own outgoing messages isn’t possible in a one-on-one conversation — this is expected, not a fault.

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Done for you

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