Chats Basics

Chats is the place where your team communication lives and turns into action

Overview

One of the core ideas of Orchestra is that team communication is the foundation for all further work: every idea, task, project, or goal begins with communication. Orchestra is designed to make communication structured and reduce friction between messaging and task tracking.

As the result:

• Team communication becomes structured and manageable;

• Information from messages never gets lost in chats and is always available in the relevant tasks and projects;

• Employees are no longer overloaded and distracted by irrelevant messages.

Because we believe that communication is central at all work, we have created a comprehensive and flexible chat structure in Orchestra. This structure helps efficiently distribute communication across all team activities.

Orchestra offers 7 types of chats:

1. Workspace chat: Brings all workspace members together in one place. Use it for company-wide news, updates, and any discussions that involve everyone in the workspace.

2. Project chat: Dedicated to each project in Orchestra. It’s the space for project members to collaborate, discuss common questions, share project-related information, and provide updates relevant to the project.

3. Task chat: Every task in Orchestra comes with its own chat, where only those directly involved with the task can communicate. It’s the most commonly used chat type, perfect for focused discussions and updates related to the task at hand.

4. Team chat: Team members can be grouped into teams, each with its own chat. This is where team members can discuss any topics or issues relevant to their specific team, making it easy to collaborate within a smaller group.

5. Personal chat. This chat is for one-on-one communication between two workspace members. Perfect for private conversations, quick questions, or discussions that don’t require involving a group. Personal chats are cross-workspace, meaning they remain accessible across all workspaces that the two members share.

6. Group chat: Not tied to any specific project or task. It’s a space for casual conversations, team bonding, or any work-related discussions that don’t need to be confined to a particular task or project. Use this chat for general communication or informal discussions among team members.

7. Channel: A space where members can view messages, but only designated publishers can post updates. It’s ideal for sharing company-wide news, announcements, kudos, customer feedback, or any information that needs to be broadcast without open discussion.

With these diverse chat options, Orchestra ensures that communication flows smoothly across all levels of your organization — from task-specific conversations to workspace-wide announcements.

Select the right chat type based on your needs and keep your team connected and informed.

Navigating Chats

Since chats are a core entity in Orchestra, they can be opened across all major Orchestra pages: Chats Page, Tasks Page, Teams Page. Also, you can open chats from the global blocks: Info Sidebar and Chat Sidebar.

Open Сhat on Chats Page

On the Chats page, you will find all chats you have access to. There are several ways to open a chat on the Chats page:

• FromChat list. Left-click on any chat.
• From Chat block

  • Right-click on a mention (Mentions), in opened Context Menu select Open chat;
  • Right-click on a member name or avatar, in opened Context Menu select Open chat.

Open Сhat on Tasks Page

On the Tasks Page, you can access several types of chats:

• Project chat: Hover over a project in the Projects Block and click the chat icon that appears. Alternatively, you can right-click on the project and select Open Chat from the context menu.
• Task chat: Hover over a task in the Tasks Section, and click on the chat icon that shows up. Another way to open a task chat is by right-clicking the task and choosing Open Chat from the context menu.
• Team chat: Hover over a team in the Teams Block and click the chat icon. You can also right-click on the team and select Open Chat from the context menu.

You can also access chats on the Tasks page through the Info and Chat sidebars.

Opening a Сhat on the Teams Page

On this page, you can open the following chat types:

• Team chat: Hover over a team in the Teams Block and click the chat icon. Alternatively, right-click on the team and select Open Chat from the context menu.
• Personal chat: To open a chat with a teammate, hover over the member in the Members Section and click the chat icon . Alternatively, right-click on the member and select Open Chat from the context menu.

You can also open chats on the Teams page using the Info and Chat sidebars.

Opening a Chat from the Info Sidebar

• Left-click on the chat icon in the top right corner of the sidebar;

• In the Info Tab

  • Right-click on a field value with a “chat” type (e.g., Project or Parent chat field). In the Context Menu that appears, select Open chat. Learn more about field types: Fields

  • In the Projects, Tasks, Subtasks, and Related tasks blocks at the bottom of the Info tab.

• In the Members Tab. Right-click on a member name or avatar, in opened Context Menu select Open chat.

Opening a Chat from the Chat Sidebar

• Right-click on a mention, in opened Context Menu select Open chat ;

• Right-click on a member name or avatar, in opened Context Menu select Open chat .

Creating a Chat

• Click the Create New Chat icon in the top right corner of the left sidebar;

• In the dropdown menu, choose the type of chat you want to create;

• Enter a name for the chat and press Enter.

Renaming a Chat

You can rename any chat in the following ways:

• From Chat Header

  • Open the chat you want to rename;

  • Double-click on the chat name;

  • Edit the chat name and press Enter on your keyboard;

• From the Info Sidebar header

  • Open the Info sidebar of the chat you want to rename;

  • Click on the chat name;

  • Edit the chat name and press Enter on your keyboard.

Deleting a Chat

There are several ways to delete a chat:

• From Chat list

  • Find the chat you want to delete;

  • Right-click on the chat;

  • In the context menu choose Delete;

  • Click Yes to confirm;

• From the Chat Header

  • Open the chat you want to delete;

  • Right-click on the Chat Header;
  • In the opened context menu choose Delete;

  • Click Yes to confirm;

• From the Info Sidebar

  • Left-click on the ... icon in the top right corner of the Info Sidebar;

  • In the opened context menu choose Delete;

  • Click Yes to confirm.

Joining a Chat

If you are an Owner or Editor of an entity in Orchestra, you have access to its chats, even if you're not a member. Here’s how to join a chat:

• Open the chat you want to join by searching for it in theChat list or clicking on a chat mention in theChat block;
• Click the Join button at the bottom of the Chat block.

Leaving a Chat

You can leave a chat in several ways:

• From the Chat list

  • Find the chat you want to leave;

  • Right-click on the chat;

  • In the opened context menu choose Leave ;

• From the Chat Header

  • Open the chat you want to leave;

  • Right-click on the Chat Header;
  • In the opened context menu choose Leave ;

• From the Info Sidebar

  • Left-click on the ... icon in the top right corner of the Info Sidebar;

  • In the opened context menu choose Leave .