Chat: Messages, Groups, and Sky

Chat is where the community talks inside SkySuite — one-to-one messages, group channels, and a direct line to Sky, the in-app assistant. Find it at Office › Community › Chat · /office/community/chat (the page is headed “SkyChat”; there’s also a chat icon in the top bar and a “Chat” tab on phones). The icon “Pop chat out into a floating window” keeps it open while you work elsewhere.

Direct messages

1. In the left menu, click Office › Community › Chat.
2. Click “New Conversation”, then “Direct Message”.
3. Search for the person by name or @handle and pick them.

Your conversations are listed down the side; unread ones carry a badge.

Group channels

1. Go to Office › Community › Chat.
2. Click “New Conversation”, then “Group Channel”.
3. Type a name in “Group name…”.
4. Set “Visibility” — “Private — invite only” or “Public — anyone can find & join” — and “Who can post” — “Everyone” or “Admins only”.
5. Add people and click “Create Group”.

To add or remove people later, open the channel and click the person-plus icon (“Manage people”). To find public channels to join, click “Discover channels”.

System Chat and Sky

Everyone has a personal System Chat channel at the top of the list (on older accounts it may be called “Sky Chat”). That’s home to Sky, SkySuite’s friendly assistant — just type your question there and Sky answers. Sky is grounded in SkySuite’s own help guides, so it’s good for “how do I…” questions about the app and will point you to the right guide. If a question is outside what it knows, it says so rather than guessing.

Presence, muting, and notifications

• Presence — a dot shows who’s online. Want to stay quiet? Click the eye icon in the top bar, next to the “Online” count (“Appear offline”), and you drop off the online list while still being able to read and send.
• Mute a conversation (bell icon on its row) to stop it pinging you, and pin the ones you want at the top (pin icon, “Pin to top”).
• Notifications — the bell next to “SkyChat” turns sounds on or off. The gear next to it opens “Notifications”: tick “Text me when I’m away”, enter your “Mobile number”, and click “Save”.

Sending a message

The message box has “Emoji”, “Photo”, and “Attach a file”, and you can @mention a channel member. On any message you can “Reply” and “React”, and “Edit” or “Delete” your own.

Common questions

How do I ask Sky something? Go to Office › Community › Chat, open System Chat at the top of the list, and type your question. Sky replies there. It answers from SkySuite’s help guides and links you to the full one when there’s more.

Can I go quiet without logging off? Yes — click the eye icon in the top bar (“Appear offline”) to hide from the online list, and mute any conversation you don’t want notifications from.

What’s the difference between a private and public channel? Private is invite-only. Public can be found and joined by anyone with “Discover channels”. You pick this when you create the group, under “Visibility”.