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Chat and Channels

The Team App has chat built in, so your team can talk without a separate WhatsApp group. There are three kinds of conversation:

  • Direct messages between two people.
  • Group conversations, started by staff in the Team App.
  • Channels, which you set up on the web for a site or a chosen group of people.

Managing Channels on the Web​

Channels are managed in StaffBrik > Team App, on the Channels tab. This is for owners and admins only. Anyone else sees "Only owners and admins can manage Team App channels."

Creating a Channel​

Channels are created as you, so your web login needs linking to your own employee record first. If it is not, New Channel says so: "Your web login isn't linked to an employee record yet, and channels are created as you. In StaffBrik, open your own employee record (add yourself as an employee if you don't have one) and choose Link web account, then try again." See Employee Profiles.

  1. Click New Channel.
  2. Give it a Channel name.
  3. Choose the Membership type:
    • Manual: choose the people. Pick at least one person from the searchable list. You join the channel too.
    • Location-based: everyone at a location. Choose the location (see below).
  4. Click Create Channel.

Location-Based Channels​

A location-based channel contains everyone with Team App access whose primary location is the chosen site. It is filled straight away, and it keeps itself up to date: when someone starts, moves to another site, gains or loses Team App access, or is archived or restored, they join or leave within seconds. Closing a site clears it as anyone's primary location, so those staff leave its channel.

Nobody can be added or removed by hand, and nobody can leave it. To change who is in it, change the Primary Location on their employee record.

Managing Members​

Manage Members lists everyone in a channel. The person who created it is marked Created the channel, leavers are marked Archived, and people without Team App access are marked No Team App access.

On a manual channel, owners and admins can add and remove people here. The creator cannot be removed. On a location-based channel the members are listed but cannot be changed, because membership follows each person's primary location.

Renaming and Archiving​

From a channel's menu you can rename, archive or unarchive it. An archived channel is read-only: everyone can still read it, but nothing new can be sent. If a change does not go through, a message says why.

Team App Settings on the Web​

The Settings tab, also for owners and admins only, holds:

  • Allow team members to create group conversations. "When off, only people with owner or manager access in the Team App can start a group conversation".
  • Your logo and colour for the Team App. A logo can be a PNG, JPG or WebP image up to 2 MB. A file of the wrong type or too large is refused with the reason, and you can pick it again once it is fixed.

If a save fails, a message says why.

Chat in the Team App​

What your team sees:

  • Groups can have up to 25 people, including the person who starts it. A bigger group is refused, for example "A group can have up to 25 people, including you. Choose fewer people."
  • Leaving. Anyone can leave a group or manual channel they did not create. Site channels have no Leave ("Everyone at this site is in this channel. It changes when someone's site changes."), and nor does the person who created a group or channel.
  • Removed from a conversation. It drops out of their list, and if they have it open it says "You're no longer in this conversation."
  • Archived channels show "This channel has been archived. You can read it, but new messages can't be sent." in place of the message box.
  • Deleted messages keep no text or files. Everyone sees only that the message was deleted, and any attached files are removed.
  • Photos can be up to 10 MB. Files can be a PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), CSV or text file, up to 25 MB. Anything else, or anything bigger, is refused with the reason, for example "Photos can be up to 10 MB, and this one is 12.0 MB. Send a smaller photo."
  • If a chat screen cannot load, it shows Retry instead of spinning.

Staff who are archived, or whose Team App access is switched off, are disconnected from chat at once and get no more chat notifications. A leaver archived by the payroll sync leaves their site's channel too.

tip

A location-based channel per site is the simplest way to reach everyone working there. Keep primary locations up to date on each profile, and the channels look after themselves.