Team Chat is built-in messaging for your team — the account owner plus every teammate you've invited. Open it with the chat-bubble button in the top bar (next to the light/dark toggle). Keep deal talk next to the deals instead of bouncing out to texts or another app. Team Chat is included with Pro and Scale plans.
Channels and direct messages
- Channels (the # list) start open to your whole team. Every account starts with #general; click the + next to CHANNELS to add more — "deals", "wins", whatever fits how you work.
- Private channels: open a channel's ⋯ menu → Members… to see who's in it — and, if you manage it, to add or remove people. Click "Limit to specific people…" to make it members-only (it starts with everyone still in; remove whoever shouldn't see it), or "Open to the whole team" to undo. Private channels show a 🔒, and people you remove immediately lose the channel and its history; people you add see the full history.
- Direct messages are one-to-one. Click the + next to DIRECT MESSAGES, pick a teammate, and start typing. Either person can delete the conversation from the ⋯ menu in its header — that permanently removes every message for both of you.
Your profile picture
Add a photo in Settings → Profile → Upload photo (JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP up to 2MB) and it shows beside your messages, in the conversation list, and in the DM picker. No photo? Your initials show instead.
Sending, editing, deleting
- Enter sends; Shift+Enter adds a line break. Each conversation keeps its own unsent draft, so switching channels never loses what you typed.
- Hover your own message for ✎ Edit and 🗑 Delete. Edits show an (edited) marker; deleted messages show "This message was deleted" to the team.
- @mention a teammate: type @ and a list of the people in the conversation pops up — keep typing to narrow it, then click a name or use ↑/↓ and Enter (Esc closes it). Their name goes in the message, highlights in the thread and pings them (see notifications below). In a private channel or a DM the list only shows its members; @Oliver is in the list too on Pro and Scale.
Threads
Threads keep a side conversation out of the channel, like Slack. Hover any message and click the speech-bubble (Reply in thread) button: the thread opens in a panel on the right (on a phone it slides over the conversation) showing the original message, every reply, and its own reply box. Replies live only in the thread — the channel shows a "N replies · Last reply 5m ago" line under the original message with the repliers' avatars; click it to open the thread again.
- Also send to #channel: tick the box under the thread's reply box and that reply is posted in the channel too (it shows a small "↳ replied to a thread" line there). Use it when the whole team should see one answer without following the thread.
- Threads view: the Threads row at the top of the channel list shows every thread you started or replied in, newest reply first, with a blue dot and a count for threads that have replies you haven't seen. Opening a thread marks it read.
- Who gets pinged: a reply in a thread notifies the person who started it and everyone who has replied in it (plus anyone @mentioned) — in-app, on the desktop, and by push if you've turned notifications on. New thread replies don't bold the channel or add to its unread count; they count under Threads instead.
- Everything else works in a thread: reactions, pictures and files, linked CRM records, edit and delete. Threads don't nest — replying to a reply lands in the same thread. Threads in a private channel are members-only, and search results inside a thread open it directly.
Ask Oliver in the chat
Type @Oliver anywhere in a message — "@Oliver how many replies did the Polk County texts get this week?" — and Oliver answers in that message's thread, marked with a green ✦. It works as the person who asked, so it sees and does only what they can, and anything that spends money or needs approval waits for them in Oliver. Oliver is on the Pro and Scale plans. The account owner can delete an Oliver answer from its 🗑 button.
Reactions
- Hover any message and click 😊 to react with an emoji — 👍 ❤️ 😂 🎉 👀 ✅ 🔥 😮. Reactions stack under the message with a count; click a reaction chip to add yours or take it back. Hover a chip to see who reacted.
- To answer a specific message, use Reply in thread (above) — the reply sits underneath that message instead of in the channel. Some older messages show a small quote of what they answered; click it to jump back to the original.
Search
The Search messages… box above the channel list searches your whole team chat — every channel plus the DMs you're in (nobody can search into DMs they don't belong to). Click a result to jump straight to that message. Press Esc or ✕ to get the channel list back.
Pictures & files
Click the + beside the message box and choose Attach pictures or files — or just drag a file into the conversation — to attach pictures (JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP, 5MB each) or documents (PDF, Word, Excel, CSV, or TXT, up to 10MB). Up to 3 attachments per message, and you can send one with no text at all. Pictures render right in the thread; files show as a named link teammates click to download.
Talk instead of type
Click the microphone next to Send (in a channel, a DM, or a thread reply) and start talking — your words appear in the message box as you speak. Nothing sends until you press Send, so you can fix a word first. Click the microphone again to stop; it also stops on its own after a pause. The first time, your browser asks to use your microphone. It works in Chrome, Edge, and Safari (on Safari, Dictation must be turned on in your Mac's settings); the button doesn't show in browsers that can't do it, like Firefox.
Linking contacts, deals, campaigns & more
Click the + beside the message box and choose Link a contact, deal or record to attach a CRM record to your message — search your contacts, deals, properties, campaigns, and tasks, pick one (up to 3 per message), and it sends as a labeled chip. Teammates click the chip to open that record right from the conversation, so "can you call this seller?" carries the seller with it instead of a name someone has to go find — and "who owns this task?" or "pause this campaign?" opens the exact record. Anyone who can post can link records — clicking a chip only opens data your team already sees in the CRM. If a linked record is later deleted, the chip stays as a label but says so when clicked.
Meet right now
Click the + beside the message box and choose Start a video call. Your default meeting link (Settings → Profile → Meeting links) is posted in the conversation right away — no title, no time — with a Join the call button for everyone there. It works in a thread too. Haven't saved a link yet? Paste it the first time and it's saved as your default, so next time it's one click. In a direct message, the other person gets a notification.
Set up a meeting
Click the + beside the message box and choose Schedule a meeting (you pick the time) or Find a time everyone is free (a poll — everyone marks when they're free, then the person who started it picks the time). It's for the people in the conversation unless you choose people, you can invite outside guests and add a video link, and a card is posted in the chat that opens it (Pro and Scale). See Meetings: set a time, or find one everyone's free.
Unread badges & notifications
- The red pill on the top-bar chat button is your total unread count; each conversation shows its own count pill. Opening a conversation marks it read.
- New messages from teammates appear live while the app is open — plus an in-app toast when you get a DM or an @mention while you're working elsewhere in the app.
- Click the 🔔 button at the top of the channel list to turn on desktop notifications for DMs and @mentions (per device; your browser will ask permission once). They fire while DirectREI is open in any tab.
Who can do what
- Everyone on the team — including viewers — can chat in channels, start DMs, react, reply in threads, and search. Talking is never a data write.
- Members and up can create channels and attach pictures or files.
- Admins (or a channel's creator) can use the ⋯ menu on a channel: Members… (add/remove people, make it private or open it up), Rename…, Edit topic…, and Archive channel… (archiving hides it and stops new messages, but keeps the history). On a private channel a manager has to be a member themselves — except the account owner, who can always manage any channel. One quirk: a manager can't remove themselves from a private channel — ask another manager or the owner to do it.
- Only the account owner can Delete channel… — that permanently removes the channel and all of its messages.
Getting your team in
Team Chat needs a Pro or Scale plan. Teammates come from Settings → Team — invite them by email and they appear in Team Chat once they've joined. Pro plans include 3 seats (you + 2 teammates); Scale is unlimited.