Communicate with private messages
A private message is a quick and easy way to communicate with one or more users - only the selected recipients can view and respond to the message.
If the feature has been enabled on your instance of Collaborate, the
Private Message
option is found in the top navigation bar, which reveals how many unread messages (if any) you have received:
note
The number of private messages shown in the top navigation bar is only updated when the page is refreshed.
You can only message or chat with users of sites where you are also a member. You cannot message anyone else unless you are a system admin, in which case you can see every user on the instance.
Select
Messages
to reveal the list of recent private messages (both sent and received).
Unread messages have a blue background. Each message shows who sent the message, the content of the message and when it was sent.
View all private messages
Select
See all messages
to display the Messages
window; this lists all private messages, sent and received:
From the
Messages
window, you can create a New Message
, perform a full-text search of all messages, mark a message as read, unread or archived with the More Actions
button and filter messages by Active
, Unread
or Archived
.View and answer messages
Click anywhere on the message to view the full contents of the message in a new window. The
Messages
window shows the entire message thread:
note
When a reply is sent, every recipient in the initial private message thread is included. It is not possible to remove existing recipients from the reply, add new recipients, or reply to an earlier thread in the message.
Create a new private message
To create a new private message, navigate to
Messages
> New Message
:
The
New message
screen opens:
To create a new message, enter the recipient's name in the
Recipients
field.
Select a user from the list.
note
More than one recipient can be added.
- Type the message in theMessagefield.
- Optionally, you can add links to content on a site, uploaded files or images that have been uploaded; similar to creating a microblog post.
- SelectSend.
@mentions and #hashtags
Private messages comments and microblog posts can include @mentions and #hashtags.
note
A user who is @mentioned in a reply to a private message will not see the message, or be notified about it, unless that user is already included as a recipient of the message.
Private message notifications
Notifications about private messages can be configured in the
Settings
> System Notifications
settings page. You can choose to receive notifications about private messages via email, from an online notification (shown above), both or neither:
An email notification looks like this:
Private message access on a smartphone
You can access messages on a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. Open
More Actions
> Messages
: