This article describes the Chat feature of a UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT Desktop Application

Overview

There are two different types of chats: Direct messages for a conversation with a single user and Channels for multiple users.

UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT Application: Channels covers the main differences and additional features of the Channels.
To access chats in UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT desktop app, go to the Messaging tab.
messaging tab

Starting a chat / channel

In the first run, the Recent chats list is empty: once a chat is initiated it will be added to the Roster. To start a new chat, you may press the + button or start typing a person's name in the Search bar.

new chat

There are options to create a new SMS, Direct Chat, or Channel.

  • Send new SMS: Click on New SMS and start typing in the name of your contact or the destination phone number for SMS:

    new chat

    Add more than one phone number (up to a total of nine) to the New SMS field to create a Group MMS. Group MMS is a type of chat for users which will show as a "group MMS chat". In Group MMS chats, users can receive a group MMS message and answer it.

    The functionality of these chats are mostly identical to channels, with the only difference being that the chat can include external phone numbers (non-UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT users) and, because of this, some functions are disabled (no mentions, no reactions, no replies).

Once a new SMS is sent or received from a new contact or number, a conversation will be created in the UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT application. SMS can not be deleted or edited; however, an SMS conversation can be hidden by right-clicking on it and selecting Hide. The only way to fully delete a chat or SMS conversation is disabling UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT for a user. To learn more about the process and consequences, refer to the Knowledge article on Disable UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT for a User.

  • Initiate a direct chat: Choose New Direct Message and enter the name or email address of the contact you would want to chat with:
  • new chat

  • Create new Channel: Click on the New Channel option. A pop-up will appear asking you to enter the Channel name, add members and choose if the channel is going to be private or public. For more information, see UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT Application: Channels
     

    new channel

Managing messages

If you have an unread message, that chat would be displayed in bold and have the Number of unread messages indicator:

Dot

If that chat is favorited and the Favorites pane is minimized, it will have a blue outline with the Number of unread messages indicator:

fav_new

If the favorited chat is muted, it will show the Mute indicator:

mutefav

You can also see the number of chats with unread messages on the Chats icon on the left navigation panel. 

When the new message is received, a pop-up notification appears.

Popup

If that message is read on any User’s device where the UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT app is running, the other User’s devices will show this message as read.

Sent messages can have different delivery statuses as shown below:

  1. Sent
     

    Status

  2. Read
     

    Status

  3. Not delivered
     

    Status

To delete an outgoing message that you sent in chat hover the cursor on the message. You will see two options - delete or reply:

by pressing the delete option, you start deletion then you will see a toast with the option to undo the deletion. The option to undo the deletion is available for 5 seconds:

Once the message is deleted all users will see the message is deleted text:

Note: If there was a reply to the message and the original message is deleted, part of the original message will be visible in the reply. 

Deleted users

When a user is deleted, 1-to-1 chats with them are deleted automatically.

Deleted users are automatically removed from the channels (You will see the notification Unknown user left the channel), and their username changes to Unknown on all their messages.

Chat notifications

You can choose if you wish to receive notifications about incoming calls and messages. This could be managed under Profile > Application settings. Here you can find separate settings for visual and audio notifications:

Audio

Features

Here are the features that are available within UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT chat:

  • Reply: You can respond to some particular messages in a chat by hovering over any text message, attachment, or GIF. The Reply button will appear next to the message allowing you to click on it and add text/attachment to the response message. 

 
  • Edit Message: This feature allows the user to correct a typo, replace the original message with another text or paraphrase the original message. For more information kindly visit this article.
     
  • Emoji: Customize your chat with your favorite smiley face icons. You can also choose skin tone and search for emojis. Read the Knowledge article on Emoji Conversion For UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT for more information.
  • Emoji

 
  • Copy: you can copy a message by hovering over it and clicking the copy icon. Any UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT text message, attachment, link, GIF, or UNIVERGE BLUE® MEET invitation, will be saved to the clipboard and you will be able to paste it anywhere. Only one message can be copied at the same time.
    copy
  • Reactions: you can react to messages with emojis. To react to a message with an emoji, hover your mouse over the message you want to react to and choose one of the reactions.

    Reactions

  • GIF: send GIFs to show your mood, joke, and ideas in motion. Find more information here.

GIF

  • Call (only for direct chats): place call to the chat partner through UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT App.
  •  Search: in order to search in chat/channel, use the right panel in the app. Refer to UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT Desktop App: Search in Chats for more information. There is another Search field available on the left for People/Channels/Messages:
  • search

    You can search for People, Channels or Messages using the Search panel in the left upper corner of the UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT app. You can also search for messages in a particular chat, use the Search button located in the right panel of each chat. You can cancel the search by pressing the X symbol. This will return the chat list to the default view.

    Global messages search allows users to find messages containing search requests and display chat history around. The search is initiated in the same search input that is used to search contacts and channels

    To start a search:

    1. Type or paste a search request in the Search bar above the chats. The search will start automatically.
    2. Go to the Messages tab to see the results.
    3. Found messages will be displayed in chronological order.
    4. Tap on the found message to see it in the chat history.

    The first 50 found messages are displayed on the Messages tab, you can scroll down in the tab to see older results. Search entry must be 3 or more symbols. If you enter 2 words separated by space, messages containing both words in any order will be found. Messages containing the full word will be found (if you enter "hell" then messages containing "hello" will not be found).

  • Add members: Use the right panel in order to invite new people to the channel.

    invite

 
  • Favorites: add your chats to the Favorites section. In the chat roster or in the chat window click on the star icon near the user avatar to make contact Favorited.

    favorite


    Favorited contacts and chat names will be displayed on top of the chats list. You can switch to the minimized version of the Favorites pane and back by clicking the arrowhead button on the right from the Favorites section name. 
     

    favnew

     

    favname

     
    When using the UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT desktop application (this feature is not available in the mobile application), favorited contacts and channels can be sorted by clicking and dragging the contact or channel to the desired location. Contacts and channels cannot be mixed together.
    Note: in the Mobile app, Favorited contacts will be listed on the top under the Contacts list when the Chat list will display recent messages on top instead. In the Mobile app, use the Pin function to prioritize conversations. Read the Knowledge Base article on UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT Desktop App: Contacts for more information.
     
  • Rich Text Editor: format your chat messages. To enable the Rich text editor, click on A at the bottom of the input field. It will open up the list of formatting options.

    Note: Rich text editor is available only in the direct chats and channels and is not available in SMS.
     

    richtext


    Rich Text Editor allows you to:

    bold

     

    list

    • make text bold/italic/underlined
    • create multilevel bulleted or numbered lists
    • copy and paste formatted text from other apps (to some extent)
    • copy and paste formatted text to other apps (to some extent)
  • Files in chats: attachments list: review a list of files sent in chat. This feature is available in 1-1 chats and channels for users who have the UNIVERGE BLUE® SHARE service enabled. Files become available to new members once they’ve been added to the chat. The list of those files can be checked by clicking Files on the right of the chat screen.

filesinchats

 
All shared filed will be listed here. You can edit files directly from Files in chat in two ways:
  • Edit Office files with the Edit Online option. It is similar to the Office on the web edit in the UNIVERGE BLUE® SHARE tab and requires an Office on the web license. Click here for more info. 
  • Edit different types of documents (Office documents, graphical, text) locally, using installed applications. To do so, you need to select Edit in the desktop app option and have UNIVERGE BLUE® SHARE desktop app installed and running. Click here for more info
 
Edit
  • To pin a file to the top of the file list in chat, select Pin. Pinned items are shared with all chat/channel members. Every chat member could change pins.
  • To share a file, create a link to it. The link has view & download permissions and inherits UNIVERGE BLUE® SHARE Sharing Policy in the organization if there are any (password protection, period of expiration, etc.). 
  • To add existent UNIVERGE BLUE® SHARE folder to the chat space, click the Share existing folder option at the top-right. Select a folder or sub-folder to share (or create a new sub-folder to share) and level of access (View/Modify). Once shared, chat members will be able to view, download, edit online, create files, or upload files to this folder (the user's access level determines which of these options are available to them). Every chat member can unshare the folder.
    Note: The folder cannot be added to SMS chat files or files in Company messaging chats.

filelist

Note: currently, Files chat folder cannot be accessed via the UNIVERGE BLUE® SHARE desktop client or UNIVERGE BLUE® SHARE web interface, files sent in chats cannot be deleted or unshared; however, chat files size is not included in the UNIVERGE BLUE® SHARE account disk quota (except existing folder shared to chat).
 

  • Mention: You can draw a person's attention to a particular channel by mentioning their name. To do that, click the @ symbol icon below the "Type a message..." box and select a person you would like to mention. Alternatively, you can type in the symbol and a list of channel members will pop up. After you select a person to mention, their name will appear in blue in the message box. You can continue typing your message after that.
     


    A person whose name was mentioned will see a notification about it in the contacts and chats pane as a blue "@" symbol near a chat name. Also, they will see their name highlighted in blue in the chat. The notification will appear even if the person who was mentioned has muted the chat. 
     

     
  • Spellcheck: in the Desktop app, the auto-enabled spellcheck feature highlights misspelled words in the chat message box and provides potential corrections from a predefined dictionary according to the system language that is set in your OS. A custom dictionary is not supported yet.
     

    spellcheck

    Note: spellcheck is not supported on Windows 7.
  • Mute: you can mute any direct chat or channel by navigating to ••• More button at the top right and selecting Mute:

    mute1

    To unmute - simply select Unmute in the same dropdown. The muted chats and channels will have a Muted icon next to them:

    mute2

    The mute feature stops incoming notifications on the specified chat or channel. This setting will be synchronized between all User's devices.
     
  • Hide: users can hide a conversation from a list of recent conversations until a new message appears in that conversation. Works for personal chats, group chats (both private and public), SMS and MMS chats, and company messaging.

    mute2

  • Mark as unread: this feature allows users to mark any chat as unread so they can still have it highlighted in the chat list.

    mute2


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