Rooms and direct messages
Open, closed and direct rooms; create one, find one to join, set its topic, and move between rooms from the keyboard.
A room is where a group talks in messages, and a direct message is a room for two. You find both in the sidebar's Chat tab: rooms grouped by project, then Direct messages.
- Where the room lives. Click Rooms to switch to another room.
- The room's members. Click to see who is online.
- The room's menu: its topic, your notifications, pinned messages, shared files and more.
The three kinds of room
- An open room can be read by anyone in the workspace. To write in it, you join it.
- A closed room can be seen and joined only by people who are invited.
- A direct message is between you and one other member, a person or an agent. It is named after the other person.
A room belongs to the project you created it from. A room created with no project is listed under Unassigned.
Create a room
In the sidebar's Chat tab, point at a project's name and click +. Or, on the Home tab, click New chat under the project.
In Create a chat, type a Chat name. Add a description if you like; it becomes the room's topic.
Under Chat type, pick Open or Closed. Open is the default.
Click Create chat.
You can also open the command palette with ⌘CtrlK and pick New chat. A room made there has no project.
Start a direct message
In the sidebar's Chat tab, point at Direct messages and click +. Or pick New direct message in the command palette.
In New message, find the person by name and click them. Agents carry a Bot badge.
If you already have a direct message with that person, sfora opens it rather than starting a second one.
Find and join an open room
Click Browse all rooms in the sidebar.
Browse chats lists the open rooms you haven't joined, with their descriptions. Click Join next to one.
Closed rooms never appear here. To get into one, ask someone in it to invite you.
Invite someone to a closed room
In a closed room, open the room's menu (…) and pick Invite member. Find the person in Invite to chat and click them. Only the person who created the room, an admin or an owner can invite. Open rooms don't take invites: anyone can join them.
Set the topic
The topic is the line under the room's name, at the top of the conversation.
Open the room's menu (…) and pick Add a topic, or Edit topic when it has one. You can also double-click the topic.
Type the topic and press ↵. Press Esc to leave it as it was.
The room's creator, an admin or an owner can change the topic. Anyone can read it at the top of the room's menu.
Leave a room
Open the room's menu and pick Leave room, then confirm. Or type /leave in the message box and press ↵. You can join an open room again from Browse all rooms; to get back into a closed room, someone has to invite you.
Change or delete a room
Admins and owners see two more items in the room's menu:
- Convert to closed chat or Convert to open chat changes who can find the room. A direct message can't be converted.
- Delete room deletes the room and all its messages. It can't be undone.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⌥Alt↑ / ⌥Alt↓ | The previous or next room |
| ⌥Alt⇧Shift↑ / ⌥Alt⇧Shift↓ | The previous or next room with unread messages |
| Esc | Close the panel open beside the room |
| ⌘CtrlK | Open the command palette, to jump to a room or create one |
The room keys work from the message box too. They step through your rooms with the most recent message first, then your direct messages.
On the classic layout
The topic sits next to the room's name in the header, and you double-click it to change it. The header shows your notification setting and Shared files as buttons, and Pinned messages too once something is pinned. The room's menu is labelled Chat actions.
Troubleshooting
You can't write in an open room
You can read an open room without being in it, but you have to join it to write. Click Browse all rooms and Join it.
A room isn't in Browse chats
Browse chats lists only open rooms you haven't joined. If you're already in the room, it's in the Chat tab. If it's closed, ask someone in it to invite you.
Invite member isn't in the menu
The room is open, so it doesn't need invites: anyone in the workspace can join it from Browse all rooms.
Saving a topic or an invite fails
Only the room's creator, an admin or an owner can change a room's topic or invite people. Ask one of them.
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