This guide is for you if a company that uses Avaza has invited you to chat with its team as an external contact. For example, you might be one of the company's customers or partners. In Avaza Chat, you can reply to direct messages from the team. You can also take part in the channels that the team adds you to.

If you're a member of the company's own team, see getting started with chat instead.

Accept your invitation

  1. Open the invitation email and click Accept Invite. The email lists Chat User among the roles you've been given.

  2. Follow the steps to set up your login.

  3. Click Chat in the left menu to open your messages.

After that, you can sign in at any time at the web address in the invitation email. A red dot on Chat means new messages have arrived since you last looked.

Is Chat missing from your menu? You need the Chat User role, and the company must have chat switched on. Ask your contact at the company to check.

Your conversations

Your messages are on two tabs: Direct and Channels. On both tabs, your most recent conversations come first. Use Search to find a conversation. Click a conversation to open it on the right. The newest messages are at the bottom, so scroll up to see earlier ones. The ⋮ button at the top right has the options for that conversation.

The top of a conversation shows who the conversation is with. A green dot on a person's picture means they're online. In a channel, the top shows the channel's name, purpose and number of members. A padlock means that the channel is private.

An Avaza Chat channel conversation, with a checklist message and replies from Marcus Lee and Sofia Alvarez above the message box

Direct messages

The Direct tab lists the conversations that the team has started with you. A conversation can be with one person or with a small group. As an external contact, you can't start a new direct conversation. But you can reply in any conversation you're in. To see who is in a group conversation, choose ⋮ › View Chat Members.

Channels

A channel is a group conversation about one topic, such as your project. The Channels tab only shows the channels that the team has added you to. These channels can be public or private. In a channel, the ⋮ menu has these options:

  • View Channel Members: see and search everyone in the channel.
  • View Channel Details: see the channel's name and purpose in full.
  • Notification Settings: mute the channel for a while (see below).
  • Leave Channel: remove yourself from the channel. A message in the channel shows that you've left. To come back, ask a team member to add you again.

Everyone in a channel can read what you post there. If you're not sure who is in the channel, check the member list.

Task discussions

The team may also give you the Project Collaborator role, so that you can work on tasks in their projects. Then you see a third tab, Tasks. The Tasks tab lists tasks from the projects you're a member of. It doesn't show tasks that the team hides from external contacts. Anything you post there is added to the task as a comment. See collaborating on tasks.

A task discussion in chat for the Design landing page task in the Marketing Campaign project

Write messages

Type in the box at the bottom. To send, press Enter or click Post. Press Shift+Enter to start a new line. On a phone, tap Post.

  • Format: the toolbar has emoji, bold, italic, links, strikethrough, lists and quotes. Some of these are under ⋮ in the toolbar. You can also press Ctrl+B for bold and Ctrl+I for italic (Cmd on a Mac).
  • Mention: type @ and choose a person in the conversation to get their attention.
  • Attach files: click the paperclip, paste the files, or drag them onto the conversation. In the Upload File(s) popup, you can add a message to go with the files. Then click Upload. You can add up to 8 files, each up to 10 MB.
  • Reply, react or edit: click ⋮ on a message, or long-press it on a phone. Then add a reaction, or choose Reply to Message or Copy Text. On your own messages, you can also choose Edit Message and Delete Message.

Notifications and the chat apps

Avaza notifies you about new messages and @mentions in your conversations. Notifications can appear in Avaza, as browser notifications, and on your phone if you use the mobile app. To choose which notifications you get, click your profile picture and choose Notification Settings. On that page, you can:

  • switch each event on or off for each delivery method
  • choose a sound for each event
  • turn off Play notification sounds to stop all sounds.

See notification settings.

To mute one conversation, open it and choose ⋮ › Notification Settings. Pick Mute for 1 day, 1 week, 1 month or 1 year, and click Apply. To turn notifications back on, choose Receive Notifications.

Chat works in any modern browser. There are also Avaza Chat apps for iOS, Android, Mac and Windows: see the Avaza Chat apps.