---
title: "Messages: chat, forum & DMs"
description: "One messaging system, three renderings — chat rooms, forum boards, direct messages, and managing rooms and policy."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://peoplematter.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Messages: chat, forum & DMs

Chat, the forum and DMs are **one system underneath**, rendered differently: chat rooms
scroll live, forum boards organize by topic and reply, and a DM is a conversation between
you and one or more colleagues that only its members can open. Editing and deleting follow
the same rules in all three, so they only need saying once.

## Chat & DMs

**Messages** puts the channel list on the left (company/branch rooms and your DMs,
each with an unread badge) and the conversation on the right — oldest at the top,
scroll up for history. Opening a conversation with unread messages marks it read and
clears its badge; reading never notifies the other side. Enter sends; Shift+Enter breaks
the line.

- **New message** — starts a DM: tick one or more people and **Start conversation**. When
  the org has DMs switched off, the button simply isn't there.
- **Edit / delete** — in a channel that isn't archived, your own messages can be edited
  (marked "edited") and deleted: the delete asks you to confirm first, and there is no
  undo. Anyone holding **Moderate messages** can delete anyone's message — which is why
  some messages offer delete but not edit.
- **Formatting & mentions** — the composer formats as you type: `**bold**`,
  `` `code` ``, `-` lists, `>` quotes; typing `@` offers your colleagues, and the people a
  message mentions when you send it are notified (in DMs too).
- **Attachments** — the paperclip, drag-drop, or pasting an image all work; a photo
  can be sent on its own, and images render right in the conversation with a tap to
  enlarge.
- **Reactions** — hover a message for the emoji button (or tap a reaction someone
  already added) to join or leave it; anyone who can read the channel can react, no
  posting permission needed (except in an archived channel).
- When the connection drops, a warning strip appears above the panes; the pane stays
  readable, and reconnecting catches up what was missed.

## The forum

**Forum** is the same data at a slower pace: **boards** hold **topics** (title +
body), topics hold replies. For discussions that need to stay findable — chat flows
away, a topic stays put.

## Managing: rooms, boards & policy

**Company ▸ Settings ▸ Messaging** (under Policy in the settings list) has three blocks:

- **Messaging settings** — three switches: chat rooms, forum boards, allow direct
  messages. Switching chat rooms or forum boards off makes them disappear from
  **Messages**, and deletes nothing; the catalogs below still list them, but adding,
  editing, archiving or deleting one waits until the switch is back on. Switching direct
  messages off removes the **New message** button.
- **Chat rooms** and **Forum boards** — each a catalog: create (name, description,
  **Visible to** — the whole company or one branch — and **Who can post**), edit, archive
  (no more posting afterwards; nothing is deleted). **Visible to is fixed at creation** —
  moving a room would move who can read its history.
- **Delete** sits at the bottom of the edit dialog, confirming by name, and cannot be
  undone. DMs are never in this catalog — membership is the only key that opens a DM,
  admins included.

Source: https://peoplematter.app/en/docs/messaging/index.mdx