Messaging

A team chat is the shared conversation for one team. Membership is automatic -- as soon as someone joins the team they appear in the chat, and when they leave they drop out. You cannot create or delete a team chat by hand.

What a team chat is

There is exactly one team chat per team. The chat carries the team name and the team picture, and every current member of the team can read and post in it. Use a team chat for things the whole team needs to see: announcements, daily updates, kit shortages.

Because membership is tied to the team, you cannot leave a team chat or add an outsider to it. To change who can see a team chat, add or remove people from the team itself.

Opening a team chat on the web app

1. Open the Workflow runs view and pick the Chats tab.
2. Use the All Types filter to show only Teams if you want to narrow the list.
3. Click the team chat row. The chat panel opens on the right.

The chat panel shows the team picture and name at the top, the message history in the middle, and the message input at the bottom. Newest messages are at the bottom. Scroll up to load older messages -- Pilla fetches more in batches as you reach the top.

Sending a message on the web app

1. Click into the message box at the bottom of the chat panel.
2. Type your message. You can attach images and files with the paperclip and image buttons, and use @ to mention a specific teammate or @everyone to ping the whole team.
3. Press Send.

You can reply to a specific earlier message by hovering over it and clicking the reply icon -- the message you are replying to is shown above the input until you send or clear it.

Reactions on the web app

Hover any message to reveal a small action bar. Click the smiley face to open the emoji picker, then click the emoji you want to add. The emoji appears as a chip under the message with a count.

• Click the same chip again to remove your reaction.
• Hover over a chip to see who reacted -- the tooltip lists up to three names, then "and {n} others".

Read receipts on the web app

The chat panel itself does not show a "Seen by" indicator next to each message. To see who has read a message, use the Chats tab list -- the unread count on each row tells you how many messages are still unread for you.

For a more detailed view of who has read what, use the mobile app's message info screen (see below).

Opening a team chat on the mobile app

1. Tap the chat bubble icon on the floating action bar at the bottom of the screen. The chats popup opens.
2. Tap the Teams pill at the top to show only team chats.
3. Tap the team chat you want.

The team chat opens with the team name at the top. The empty state reads "No messages in this team channel yet" if no one has posted before.

Sending a message on the mobile app

1. Tap the message input at the bottom of the screen.
2. Type your message. Use the paperclip icon for files, the image icon for photos from your gallery, and the camera icon to take a new photo.
3. Use @ to mention a teammate or @everyone to ping the whole team.
4. Tap the Send button.

To reply to a specific message, long-press it and tap Reply in the action sheet that appears. The message you are replying to is shown above the input.

Reactions on the mobile app

• Long-press a message to open the action sheet.
• Tap an emoji from the row at the top to add it. The sheet closes and your reaction appears as a chip under the message.
• Tap the same chip again to remove your reaction.
• Tap a chip to open a popup that shows exactly which teammates reacted with that emoji.

Read receipts on the mobile app

Long-press a message and tap the Info action. A read receipts screen opens listing the teammates who have read the message. Each name has a double-tick next to it and the time they read it (for example "5m ago"). People who have not read the message yet are not listed. If no one has read it, the screen reads "No reads yet".

This screen pulls from the same data as the unread counts you see in the chats list.

Tips

• Tag the team chat by its team -- a quick way to find it is to filter the chats list by Teams.
• @everyone sends a push notification to every team member. Use it sparingly.
• The team chat picture comes from the team picture. To change it, edit the team, not the chat.
• If someone is on more than one team, they are in more than one team chat -- one per team.

A direct message (DM) is a private 1-on-1 conversation between you and one other person in your Pilla account. Only the two of you can read or post in it.

What a DM is

DMs are intentionally simple: two people, no extras. If you want a private chat with more than one other person, use a group chat instead.

Pilla only ever keeps one DM thread per pair of people. If you start a "new" DM with someone you have already messaged before, Pilla opens the existing thread rather than creating a fresh one. This means your message history with anyone in the account is always in the same place.

Starting a DM on the web app

1. Open the Workflow runs view and pick the Chats tab.
2. Tap the blue New Chat button next to the search box. A side panel titled New conversation opens.
3. A user picker is shown:
   • Search (text, optional) -- a search box labelled Search. It matches on name, email, and job title as you type.
   • User list -- every active person in your account, with avatar, name, and a circle tick. Your own row is pre-ticked and locked.
4. Tap the person you want to DM. A single tick appears next to their name.
5. Tap Create at the top of the panel.

If you already have a DM with that person, Pilla opens it and shows "Opening existing conversation". Otherwise it creates the new DM and opens it.

Starting a DM on the mobile app

1. Tap the chat bubble icon on the floating action bar.
2. Tap the + button at the top right of the chats popup. The New conversation screen opens.
3. Search for the person you want and tap them. Their row shows a filled tick.
4. Tap Create at the top right.

As on web, if a DM with that person already exists Pilla opens it instead of creating a duplicate.

Reading and sending messages

A DM works the same as any other chat:

• Newest message at the bottom. Scroll up to load older messages.
• Type into the message input at the bottom and press Send.
• Attach images, photos, and files using the icons on the input bar.
• Reply to an earlier message by hovering it on web (reply icon) or long-pressing it on mobile and tapping Reply.

Reactions and read receipts in DMs

Reactions work the same as in team chats: hover and click the smiley face on web, or long-press the message on mobile, then pick an emoji.

For read receipts in DMs, long-press a message on mobile and tap Info. The screen lists the other person with a double-tick and the time they read it once they have read your message. Until then the screen reads "No reads yet". The web chat panel uses the unread count on the chat row in the Chats tab to indicate unread messages.

When a DM is blocked

If you have blocked the other person, or they have blocked you, the message input is replaced with the text "You can't send messages in this conversation." You can still read the existing history, but you cannot send anything new until the block is lifted.

See Chat settings and read receipts for how blocking works.

Tips

• The user picker only shows active users in your account. People who have been removed do not appear.
• Want to message someone about a specific workflow run? On mobile, swipe left on a work card or open the run and use the chat actions -- see Adding workflow context to messages.
• DMs are private to the two participants. Managers and admins cannot read them.
• You can mute a DM the same way as any other chat. Muting stops push notifications but keeps the chat in your list.

A group chat is a custom chat with two or more teammates that you pick yourself. Unlike team chats, you choose the members, the name, and the picture. Use group chats for cross-team groups, project-specific chats, or any conversation where the team chat is the wrong scope.

What a group chat is

Group chats live alongside team chats and DMs in your chats list. Each one needs a name and a picture when it is created. Membership is fixed only at the moment of creation -- after that, any member can edit the group: change the name, swap the picture, add new people, or remove existing ones.

Creating a group chat on the web app

1. Open the Workflow runs view and pick the Chats tab.
2. Tap the blue New Chat button next to the search box. A side panel titled New conversation opens.
3. In the side panel, tick the teammates you want to add. As soon as you select two or more other people, the button at the top changes to Next.
4. Tap Next. The panel switches to a Group info stage.
5. Fill in the group fields:
   • Group image (picture upload, required) -- tap the image button on the left to pick a picture from your computer.
   • Group name (text, required, placeholder: "Kitchen Team") -- the display name for the group.
   • Participants (list, read-only at this stage) -- the people you picked. Tap the X next to any name to remove them. You cannot remove yourself.
6. Tap Create at the top right.

A confirmation pops up with the title "Group Created" and the message "{group name}" has been created., and the new chat opens.

Creating a group chat on the mobile app

1. Tap the chat bubble icon on the floating action bar, then tap the + button.
2. Pick two or more other people from the list. The button at the top right changes to Next.
3. Tap Next. The Group info screen opens.
4. Fill in the same three fields:
   • Group image (picture upload, required) -- tap the image button and pick a photo from your gallery.
   • Group name (text, required) -- the display name for the group.
   • Participants (list) -- tap the X next to any name to remove them. You cannot remove yourself.
5. Tap Create at the top right.

The chat opens immediately after creation.

Editing a group chat on the web app

Any member of a group can edit it.

1. On the Chats tab, find the group chat row.
2. Open the row menu (the three dots) and pick Edit Group. The edit panel opens.
3. Stage one (Edit participants) lets you change who is in the group:
   • Search (text, optional) -- filter the user list.
   • User list -- tick people to add, untick to remove. Your own row stays ticked and locked.
4. Tap Next when you have at least two other people selected.
5. Stage two (Edit group) lets you change the name and picture:
   • Group image (picture upload, optional) -- tap the image button to upload a new photo. The existing photo is shown if you do not change it.
   • Group name (text, required) -- edit the current name.
6. Tap Save at the top right.

The Save button only enables when you have made at least one change and the group still has a name plus two or more other members.

Editing a group chat on the mobile app

When you open a group chat on mobile, an edit icon (the pencil square) appears on the header. Tap it to open the Edit group screen. The fields work the same as the web edit flow:

• Group name (text, required, placeholder: "Kitchen Team")
• Group image (picture upload, optional) -- tap the image button to pick a new photo
• Participants (tickable list) -- tap people to add or remove them; search to filter

Tap Save at the top right when you are done. The screen closes back to the group chat.

Leaving a group chat

To leave a group chat, edit the group and untick yourself from the participants list... but Pilla does not let you do this. Your own row in the participants list is locked. To leave a group chat, ask another member to remove you, or remove yourself by having a member of the group save the changes for you.

Tips

• Group chats need a picture as well as a name -- there is no way to create one without both.
• Anyone in the group can edit it. There is no "owner" or admin role for group chats.
• A group needs at least three people in total (you plus two others). For a 1-on-1, use a direct message instead.
• The group picture and name show in the chats list and at the top of the chat. Keep names short and the picture recognisable.

This page covers the controls that change how chats behave for you: read receipts, muting, and blocking. Two of these (mute and block) need to be turned on by an admin for your whole Pilla account before anyone can use them.

Read receipts

Pilla shows read receipts on a per-message basis. There is no global on-or-off toggle -- everyone sees the same information.

On the web app

The web chat panel does not display a per-message "Seen by" line. Unread counts on each chat row in the Chats tab tell you how many messages are still unread for you in that chat.

On the mobile app

Long-press any message in a chat and tap Info in the action sheet that appears. A read receipts screen opens listing the people who have read the message. Each name has a double-tick next to it and the time they read it (for example "5m ago"). People who have not read the message yet are not shown, and if no one has read it the screen reads "No reads yet".

The same screen is used for team chats, group chats, and DMs.

Muting a chat

Muting a chat stops push notifications for it, but the chat stays in your list and you still receive messages -- they just arrive silently. Mute is per-user; muting a chat only mutes it for you.

This option is only available if your account admin has enabled it in chat settings (allow_mute_chats -- see below). If it is off, the mute button does not appear.

On the web app

Each chat row has a three-dot menu on the right.

1. Open the menu on the chat you want to mute.
2. Pick Mute.

A confirmation reads "Chat muted" and a bell-off icon appears next to the chat name. To unmute, open the same menu and pick Unmute.

You can also mute or unmute several chats at once: tick the rows you want, then pick Mute X chats or Unmute X chats from the bulk actions menu that appears.

On the mobile app

Each row in the chats popup has a bell icon on the right. Tap it to toggle mute. The icon switches between a bell (not muted) and a bell-off (muted).

Blocking a user

Blocking is one-way: when you block someone, they cannot send you DMs and their messages in your DM with them are hidden from you. They still appear in any team chats or group chats you share.

Blocking is only available in DMs and only if your account admin has enabled it (allow_block_users -- see below).

On the web app

1. Open the Chats tab and find the DM with the person you want to block.
2. Open the row menu (the three dots).
3. Pick Block User.

A confirmation reads "User blocked". A ban icon appears next to the chat name. To unblock, open the same menu and pick Unblock User.

While a DM is blocked, the message input in the chat panel is replaced with "You can't send messages in this conversation."

On the mobile app

Blocking and unblocking is done from the web app. The mobile app respects the block state -- if a DM is blocked, the input is replaced with "You can't send messages in this conversation." -- but does not currently expose a block toggle in the chats list.

Filtering chats by mute and block state on the web app

The filter bar above the Chats tab lets you focus on muted or blocked chats:

• Your Mute Status -- pick "Muted" to see only your muted chats, "Not Muted" to hide them, or leave it on the default to see everything.
• Your Block Status -- pick "Blocked" to see only chats with blocked users, "Not Blocked" to hide them, or leave on the default to see everything.

These filters are useful for spring-cleaning: filter to "Muted" to remind yourself which chats are silenced, or to "Blocked" to find DMs you may want to unblock.

Admin: turning mute and block on or off

Two account-wide settings control whether mute and block are available at all:

• allow_mute_chats -- if off, no one in the account can mute a chat.
• allow_block_users -- if off, no one in the account can block another user in a DM.

These are controlled by the Edit chat settings command on the Chats tab, available to admins only. It is a setting for the whole Chats tab, not something you pick on an individual chat row. Opening it brings up a panel headed Chat Settings with two yes/no questions:

• Should users be allowed to mute individual chats?
• Should users be allowed to block other users from DMs?

Pick Yes or No for each and tap Save in the top-right corner.

Changes apply to everyone in the account.

Tips

• Mute is the right tool for chats you want to keep but don't want pinging your phone. Block is the right tool for stopping someone from messaging you.
• Block only works on DMs. To stop someone seeing your messages in a team chat or group chat, they have to be removed from the team or group instead.
• If mute or block buttons aren't showing up, ask your admin whether the account-wide settings are switched on.
• The mobile bell icon and the web Mute/Unmute menu item are the same toggle -- if you mute on one, the other reflects it instantly.

When you want to chat about a specific workflow run -- "we missed step 3 on this morning's open", "the photo on this safety check is wrong" -- Pilla can attach the run to your message so there is no ambiguity about which one you mean. The reader sees the run name as a clickable card inside the chat and can tap through to the run itself.

What workflow context is

A normal chat message is just text. A message with workflow context has the workflow run pinned to it, shown as a small card under the message bubble with a tick-square icon and the run's name. Tap or click the card to open the run.

Workflow context can be attached to:

• A team chat (so the whole team sees the message tied to that run), or
• A DM (so a single teammate sees the message tied to that run).

The context is set up when you start the message -- you cannot retroactively add it to an existing message.

Starting a message with workflow context on the mobile app

The mobile app has two ways to do this.

From a swipe on a work card

On the Work Items tab, every workflow run is a card. Swiping the card sends you straight into a chat about that run:

• Swipe right -- opens the team chat for that run's team, with the run already attached as context. The next message you send will carry the workflow context.
• Swipe left -- opens the DM picker. Pick a teammate; the next screen opens a DM with that person and the workflow context attached.

This is the fastest way to start a contextual message because you do not have to retype which run you mean -- the swipe tells Pilla for you.

From inside the workflow run

When you have a workflow run open on mobile, a floating action bar sits at the bottom of the screen. The chat bubble icon on the left opens the team chat for the run with the workflow context already attached, the same as swiping right on the card.

What the recipient sees

Whichever way you started the message, the result looks the same to the reader:

• The message bubble shows your text as normal.
• Underneath the text, a card with a tick-square icon shows the workflow run's name.
• Tapping or clicking the card opens the workflow run directly. On mobile this opens the work details screen; on the web app the run's panel opens on the right.

If someone replies to your contextual message in a team chat, the reply keeps the same workflow context attached -- so the whole thread stays anchored to that run.

Starting a message with workflow context on the web app

The web app has a row menu on every workflow run in the Workflow runs view's data table. The menu includes two actions for messaging:

• Message team about this -- opens the team chat for the run, with the run pinned as context.
• DM user about this -- opens a DM picker so you can message a specific teammate about the run, with the run pinned as context.

Both options only appear for runs that have actually started (not for templates and not for runs scheduled far in the future).

Tips

• The context card always links to the workflow run, so anyone joining the chat later can click straight through to the run for full detail.
• Swipe-to-chat on mobile is much faster than the manual "open chat then describe which run" flow. Once you get used to it, it becomes the default for run-specific questions.
• Workflow context only attaches to the next message you send after opening the chat. After that one message, the context clears and you are back to a normal chat.
• The team chat picks up the context automatically when you swipe right or use the chat bubble inside the run. You do not need to choose the team -- Pilla uses the run's team.