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Team Chat

Team Chat lets you message your teammates directly inside FSM Navigator. Send a quick note to one person, start a group conversation, or check in with the dispatcher — all without leaving the app.

Pro and Enterprise feature

Team Chat is available on Pro and Enterprise plans. Compare plans to upgrade.

How Team Chat works

Team Chat is a person-to-person messaging tool for your team. Conversations are between team members, not attached to a specific job or work order. Use it for general coordination, quick questions, and team updates.

There are two types of conversations:

  • Direct chat — a one-on-one conversation with a single teammate.
  • Group chat — a conversation with multiple teammates at once.

All messages are encrypted in transit and at rest, and only members of your company can see them. There is no external access — customers and outside parties cannot view Team Chat.

Where to find Team Chat

You can open Team Chat from anywhere in the app:

From the sidebar

  1. Click Chat in the sidebar menu.
  2. The full chat dashboard opens, showing your conversations on the left and the active conversation on the right.

From the mini chat drawer

A floating chat panel is available on every page in the app. Click the chat icon to slide the panel open without leaving what you were doing — useful for sending a quick message while reviewing a job, customer, or schedule.

Starting a conversation

Start a direct chat

  1. Open Chat from the sidebar or the mini drawer.
  2. Click New chat (or the equivalent + button).
  3. Pick the teammate you want to message.
  4. Type your message and press Send or hit Enter.

If you've messaged that person before, the existing conversation opens instead of creating a new one.

Start a group chat

  1. Open Chat and click New group chat.
  2. Add the teammates you want to include.
  3. Give the group a name so it's easy to find later.
  4. Send your first message.

Who can see messages

Team Chat is internal to your company. Messages are only visible to the people who are part of the conversation:

Conversation type Who can read it
Direct chat The two participants.
Group chat Everyone added to the group.

No external access

Team Chat is for your team only. Customers do not see chat messages — use the Customer Portal for customer-facing communication.

Sending messages

To send a message:

  1. Open the conversation.
  2. Type your message in the text field at the bottom.
  3. Click Send or press Enter.

Messages appear in real time for everyone in the conversation. There is no need to refresh the page — new messages are delivered instantly on both web and mobile.

Real-time updates

Team Chat delivers messages as soon as they're sent:

  • Web dashboard — new messages appear in the open conversation right away.
  • Mini chat drawer — incoming messages show up in the floating panel from any page.
  • Mobile app — push notifications alert you when a new message arrives, even when the app is in the background.
  • Unread indicators — a badge on the Chat menu item shows when you have unread messages.

Chat history

Every message is preserved so you can scroll back through past conversations.

  • Open any conversation and scroll up to load earlier messages.
  • History is kept at the company level, so leaving and returning to a conversation always shows the full thread.

When to use Team Chat (and when not to)

Team Chat is best for short, in-the-moment team coordination. It is not the right place for permanent records about a specific work order.

Use Team Chat for Use something else for
Quick questions to a teammate Permanent notes about a specific job — use Dispatcher Notes
Group coordination across the team Customer-facing updates — use the Customer Portal
Sharing a status update with the office Detailed work reports — use the job's notes and attachments
Asking the dispatcher a fast question Long-term audit trails — use the job record itself

If you need the message preserved as part of a job's history, write it as a job note instead of a chat message.

Examples

Quick check-in with the dispatcher

A technician sends a direct chat to the dispatcher:

"On my way to the next stop. Should be there in 20 minutes."

The dispatcher sees the message right away and updates the schedule view.

Group coordination

The owner starts a group chat with the dispatchers and shares a heads-up:

"Two techs are out sick tomorrow — let's regroup at 8am to redistribute the schedule."

Everyone in the group sees the message and can reply in the same thread.

Asking about parts

A technician messages the office:

"Anyone know if we have a 40A contactor in the warehouse?"

The dispatcher checks inventory and replies in the same chat.

Mobile app chat

The mobile app includes the same Team Chat features as the web dashboard:

  • Push notifications — get alerted when a teammate sends you a message.
  • Direct and group chats — start or continue any conversation from your phone.
  • Same history — your conversations stay in sync across web and mobile.

For more about the mobile experience, see the Mobile App guide.

Best practices

Practice Why it helps
Use chat for short, fast coordination Keeps everyone aligned without phone tag.
Put job-specific details in job notes Permanent job history belongs on the job record, not in chat.
Name your group chats clearly Makes it easy to find the right thread later.
Check chat before calling A quick scroll often answers your question without interrupting a teammate.