About messages

When you first send a message to an 8x8 Work contact, the message changes from white to filled with color, indicating that it was successfully sent, and is labeled with the time it was sent. Once the other party reads the message:

• In a one-on-one chat conversation, the message is labeled as Read next to the time it was sent.
• In a chat room, the message is labeled with the profile images of the people who have read the message.

If you send a message to an external number or personal contact, the message is sent as a green SMS rather than a blue IM; you can only see whether the message was sent successfully.

To access your messages with a specific user or group of users, open your Messages list to bring up all of your chats. Then, tap the desired user or group of users in the list to view your messages with them.

You can go to 1-1 to view only your IM chats with individual contacts without SMS, or go to Rooms to view your list of chat rooms, MMS group messaging or 1:1 SMS messages .

When you first install 8x8 Work for Mobile, you receive a prompt asking to allow the application to send you device-based notifications. If you decline the prompt, notifications are disabled by default. To enable notifications again, tap your profile image icon in the app header to open your Profile screen, and go to Settings .

If you do not see notifications despite being logged in, go to your device settings to enable notifications. You can then fine-tune your notification preferences from within the app.

Note: In order to stay up-to-date on communications in 8x8 Work, it is highly recommended that you enable notifications on your device.

To enable notifications on your device:

1. Go to Profile > Settings > Device settings to open 8x8 Work permissions in your device settings.
2. Enable 8x8 Work notifications, and edit the notification settings as needed.

To manage notification settings in 8x8 Work:

1. Go to Profile > Settings .
2. Under Notifications, enable or disable notifications for:
   • Missed Calls: Incoming calls that timed out and went to voicemail, or were hung up before being answered
   • Voicemails: Voice messages following a deflected or missed call
   • Messages: IM and SMS chat messages
3. Go to Ringtone to select the ringtone to play on an incoming 8x8 Work call; you can select from , or one of our 8x8 ringtones to tell your incoming 8x8 calls apart from incoming calls to your device number or another app. Your selection does not affect the notification sound for your 8x8 non-call notifications, or your ringtone for calls to your device number. 8x8 Work for Mobile follows your device-set vibrate settings for notifications.

Note: In order to see notifications in real time, you must be logged in to 8x8 Work for Mobile on your device. If you are logged out of 8x8 Work for Mobile, notifications are only visible once you log back in.

You may not be hearing your 8x8 Work notifications for one of the following reasons:

• If you have set your status to Do Not Disturb, notifications for messages, faxes, and voicemails are visible but muted on your device, and all your calls are sent to voicemail.
• Regardless of your in-app sound settings when you tap the profile image icon in the header to open your Profile screen and go to Settings  > Notifications > (which control only the ringtone on incoming calls), if you disabled notification sounds under Profile > Settings  > Device Settings, you hear no sound upon receiving a notification for a new message, fax, or voicemail.

You can easily send a message to a company contact by writing a new message from scratch, looking through your list of existing chats, or searching your company directory. You can also send messages to multiple colleagues at once via Team Messaging chat rooms.

To write a new message:

1. Open your Messages list to open your list of SMS and IM chats.
2. Tap the option to bring up a menu.
3. In the menu that pops up, select to open a blank chat.

4. Enter the name or extension of the company contact you want to chat with, and begin writing the message.

To write in an existing conversation:

1. Open your Messages list to open your list of SMS and IM chats.
2. From the list, select the desired contact to chat with, and begin writing the message.

To send a message from company contact details:

1. Go to Contacts > Company to open your company directory.
2. Tap the desired user to open their contact details.
3. In the contact details, tap Chat next to the contact’s extension number to begin writing the message.

When you send a message to a company contact, it becomes an IM (displayed in blue), which allows you to see the contact’s availability status, and whether the message has been successfully sent, received, and read.

Sending a message to an external number or a personal contact results in an SMS (displayed in green), which shows you whether the message has been successfully sent, but does not allow you to track the contact’s availability status or whether the message has been read. You can send an SMS by writing a new message from scratch, looking through your list of existing chats, or searching your personal contacts. Note that SMS is only supported for phone numbers in the United States and Canada.

To write a new message:

1. Open your Messages list to open your list of SMS and IM chats.
2. Tap the option to bring up a menu.
3. In the menu that pops up, select to open a blank chat.

4. Enter the external number, or the name or number of the personal contact that you want to chat with, and begin writing the message.

To write in an existing chat:

1. Open your Messages list to open your list of SMS and IM chats.
2. From the list, select the desired contact to chat with, and begin writing the message.

To send a message from personal contact details:

1. In the Contacts tab, go to My Contacts to open your list of personal contacts.
2. Tap the desired user to open their contact details.
3. In the contact details, tap Chat next to the contact’s mobile number to begin writing the message.

Starting with the 11.0 app release, you can communicate at the same time with a small group of people - coworkers (internal 8x8 users) and clients (external participants) as well - via the option. You can create group messaging with up to 10 members, internal and external numbers/contacts, including the group creator.

In your Conversations list, you can create persistent group messaging that you can access in addition to your individual 1:1 chats and rooms.

If you want to quickly find an existing group messaging, you can search for the desired chat room by name as you would search for a contact.

To sent a group text message (group MMS):

Important! When using the :
- Sending a message to a group messaging results in an MMS.
- Sending a message to a single person at a time results in an SMS.

1. On the navigation menu, tap Messages .
2. Tap .

3. In the menu that displays, tap .

4. To add a contact/number to the group messaging:

   • In the Text Message window, under Contacts, select the contacts you want to add to the group messaging.

   • Tap Add phone number and enter the number you want to add to the group, then tap Add number.

     Notes:
     - A group messaging can include only domestic external numbers, from US and Canada. An online notification displays for numbers not supported, outside of the US and Canada.
     -To create a group messaging you have to include at least one external contact/number in order to complete the creation of your group messaging.

   • You can search for contacts in the search box by name or by number.
5. Tap Ok. Once the group messaging is created, it displays in the Conversations list a unique name containing the members of the group messaging.
6. Optional: You can change the name of the group messaging anytime.

Important! Once the total number of the members is reached, you cannot add more members.

To change a name of a group messaging:

Once the group messaging is created, it displays a unique name containing the members of the group messaging. You can change the group name anytime.

Note: On the mobile application you cannot edit group members.

To change the name of a group messaging:

1. Go to the Messages tab and tap the group messaging whose name you want to change.
2. On the selected chat room conversation screen that displays, tap the group name.
3. On the Group details screen that displays, tap and enter the custom name of the group under Name.
4. Optional: you can change the avatar/picture of the group.
5. Tap Save.

Let's say you are looking for a conversation with an unsaved contact, you can now search for a SMS conversation by its number.

To quickly search for an SMS conversation by number:

1. While on the Messages , Calls or Contacts tab, in the Search bar of the current page, enter the number you are looking for.
2. On the Contacts & rooms page, under Rooms, all the numbers containing the sequence of numbers you entered are displayed.
3. Tap the number you are interested in to see the SMSs for this contact.

Note: All the numbers listed under Rooms display SMS detail under the number.

Let's say you're replying to a specific message in a busy team chat, or perhaps you want to reply to a one-on-one message written a few conversations ago with a colleague. You can reply to a specific past message in a way that quotes the message, and gives context to your reply!

To reply to a specific past message:

1. In a chat, scroll back to the message you want to reply to, and .

2. Once you are finished typing, send the selected message accompanied with your answer to it.

3. If you want to jump back to the original message and see its context, simply tap in the reply.

If you paste the wrong content into a chat or spot a sentence-altering typo in a message you sent, you can quickly edit the message to correct it and prevent confusion in the chat. Simply press and hold on a message to bring up a menu, and select the Edit option to begin editing. As you edit and once you finish editing, the timestamp for the message changes to indicate its status as currently or previously edited.

Note: You can edit IMs with company contacts, but not SMS messages with personal contacts and external numbers.

If you enter a message into a chat with the wrong contact or group of people, you can delete the message to prevent confusion or distraction in the chat. Simply press and hold on a message to bring up a menu, select the Delete option, and confirm to delete the message. Once you delete the message, the content and timestamp of the message change to indicate that its content has been deleted, and what time the message was deleted.

Note: You can delete IMs with company contacts, but not SMS messages with personal contacts and external numbers.

Let’s say you need to share important in-chat information with a colleague who can’t access 8x8 Work. If the information you need to share is spread across multiple messages, or even with some irrelevant messages in between, you can select multiple messages from a chat to share to another app!

Press a chat message you want to share, and in the menu that pops up, select Select messages to select any additional messages you need. Tap additional messages to mark them, and tap Share at the of your screen to bring up your device’s menu of sharing options!

Let’s say you want to send a chat message to all members of your team, rather than sending one at a time. Using Team Messaging with , you can create a purpose-made chat room to streamline your communications with your company contacts. In your list of Messages , you can create persistent chat rooms that you can access in addition to your individual chats. These rooms can be public or private, allowing you to collaborate with any colleague in your organization at any time, or keep confidential information secure within a small group of people.

If you want to quickly find an existing chat room, you can search for the desired room by name as you would search for a contact.

Note: By using the search bar in 8x8 Work, anyone on your phone system can find and access public chat rooms, while private rooms are only visible to people who have been invited to the room.

Before you create a chat room, consider whether to make it public or private:

• Public chat rooms (labeled as public next to the room name) are ideal for fully-collaborative discussions with anyone in your organization:
  • Public rooms are visible to all users listed in your company directory, and can be accessed by any user who finds them.
  • Mentioning any user in a public room brings their attention to the conversation, and displays the chat room in their list of rooms.
• Private chat rooms (labeled as private next to the room name) are best for discussions of confidential information that is currently secure within a small group of people:
  • Private rooms are visible and accessible only to room members who have been invited.
  • Only users who have been invited to a private room can be mentioned in it to bring their attention to the conversation.
  • If the wrong person has been invited to a chat room by mistake, or if a person in the chat room is moving to a different team in your organization, you can remove the person from your chat room.
  • Private rooms display the avatar for three members in addition to the remaining number of members included in the room. Clicking on the avatars opens the Members window.

Collaborate with colleagues by creating a chat room from scratch, or by using an existing chat room. Once you create a chat room, you can invite members to private chat rooms, and quickly view details on any chat room you have access to.

To create a chat room:

1. In your Messages list, tap the > to start creating a new chat room.

2. In the New room window that displays, select the room type by switching the Public room toggle to the right:

   • Public (default): A public chat room can be found by anyone in your company contact list by using the search bar of 8x8 Work, and can be accessed by anyone at any time. To invite co-workers, use "at" mentions. For example, to get Alice Fox's attention, post @Alice Fox. Alternatively, you can ask Alice to search for this room by name.
   • Private: A private chat room can only be found and accessed by room members who are invited. A member who has been invited can later be removed from the room for security reasons; once a person has been removed from a chat room, they no longer have access to the message history of that room.

   Note: If you are creating a private room on behalf of someone else, you cannot remove yourself from the list of room members while still creating the room. To remove yourself from a private room, you must do so after you finish creating the room.

3. Once you have selected the room type, tap Next.
4. In the additional room options that open, enter the room name and select or upload an avatar for the room, as you wish.
   • If you are creating a public room, tap Next.

   • If you are creating a private room:

     •  Invite participants to the room. Only people who have been invited to a private room can find and access it.
     • Optional: If you are creating a private room, you can use the pre-generated room name based on the people you invited.
5. Once you are finished setting up additional room options, tap Create. The new room now appears in your Conversations list under Messages > All and Messages > Rooms.

To view and update chat room information:

1. In a chat room, tap the room name.
2. In the chat Room Details window that opens, you can view information on the room, such as the room type, name, room creator, and members.

   Note:
   -If you are viewing the details of a private room, you also see how many members have been invited into the room.
   

3. As a participant in the room, you can edit the room name or the avatar. If you are in a private room, also invite people to the room when needed. If you accidentally invited the wrong person, need to remove a person who has moved to a different team, or have created the room on behalf of someone else and need to remove yourself, you can remove people from existing private rooms.

To invite participants to a chat room (private rooms only):

1. In your Messages list, open a private chat room.
2. In the private room, tap the More option next to the room name to bring up a menu.
3. From the menu, select Add member .
4. In the contact directory page that opens, search and select users to invite to the room.
   
5. When you have selected all the desired users, tap Done to invite your colleagues. Existing members of the chat room see a notification that new members have been invited.

Note: For added security, an invited colleague has access to the chat history of the private room starting with the time they were invited.

By mentioning a colleague, you can bring the colleague's attention to a discussion in a room they have access to, or simply reference their name if you need to reference them in a private room they don't have access to. Depending on the room or conversation where you try to mention a colleague, you can:

• @mention and notify your colleague: If you need a particular person to weigh in on the subject of your current discussion in a chat room, simply tap the @Mention  option before typing their name (for example, <@John Smith>) to get their attention at any time. In a public room, you can @mention any of your company contacts, while in a private room, you can only @mention colleagues who are currently members of the room.

  

  When you are @mentioned in a chat room, you receive a special notification with an @ label to indicate that a colleague is requesting your attention in a chat room. To ensure that you are always up to date on your tasks, you always receive notifications when you are @mentioned.

  

• Silent-mention your colleague: Let’s say that you are chatting in a group and a colleague asks whether anyone in the room knows the person responsible for a certain project; you may want to respond by saying "Yes, it's @Robin Shasta" with an @mention of Robin. The mention is useful not only as a way to introduce colleagues to one another, since now Robin receives a message notification, but it's also useful as a quick and accurate way to share contact information.

  

To @mention and notify colleagues in a chat room:

1. In a public or private chat room, type <@> before the name of a user (for example, <@John Smith>) to bring up a list of users with matching names; the list narrows as you continue typing.
   • In a public room: You can @mention any colleague in your phone system to bring their attention to the current conversation.
   • In a private room: You can only @mention colleagues who are members of the private room.
2. Select the desired user from the list to bring their attention to the chat room.

To silent-mention colleagues in a chat room:

1. In a public or private chat room, type <@> before the name of a user (for example, <@John Smith>) to bring up a list of users with matching names; the list narrows as you continue typing. You silent-mention a colleague instead of @mentioning them if they are currently not a member of the one-on-one chat or private room you are in.

   Note: If multiple people visible in the mention suggestion list have the same name, 8x8 Work shows you any information that can be used to differentiate them, such as email address.

2. Select the user from the list to reference them in the chat room without calling their attention.

Let’s say you've created a new public chat room, and want to let people in an existing related room know about the new room; you can share the new public room as a link to your colleagues!

To share a public room as a link:

1. While in a public chat room you want to share, open the More options menu.
2. From the menu, select Share room to open a selection screen.

3. In the selection screen that opens, choose which rooms and/or one-on-one chats you want to share the room to, and confirm.
   The link to the shared room, accompanied with pre-generated text, appears in the chats you shared to.

Now that you are part of a discussion in a chat room, you can choose how frequently you receive notifications for the room. With Team Messaging, you can toggle between receiving notifications for all messages in the room or, if you receive too many notifications for discussions that are not relevant to you, you can choose to receive notifications only when you are mentioned in the chat room. Your notification settings are unique to each room you have access to.

To set up chat room notifications:

In a chat room under Messages , the button next to the room name to change your notification settings for that chat room:

• If you are currently Following a chat room:  to receive notifications only for messages where you are mentioned.
• If you see the option to Follow a chat room: to receive notifications for all messages in the chat room.

Regardless of how frequently you receive notifications for a room, you can access the room to view its full history of messages and changes at any time.

For example, if the name of the chat room is updated, or if a new colleague is invited to a private chat room you are part of, you can see these changes listed as system messages in the chat history for that room. Any such change is listed along with the time the change was made, as well as the name of the person who made the change.

If the wrong person has been invited to a chat room by mistake, a person in the chat room is moving to a different team in your organization, or you created the room on behalf of someone else and need to remove yourself, you can remove the person from your chat room.

To remove a person from a private room:

1. In your Messages list, open a private chat room.
2. In the private room, tap the name of the private room to view room details.
3. In the chat room details page that opens, you can view information such as the room type, name, and description.
4. From the list of room members, tap X next to the person you want to remove, and select the option to remove them from the private room.

Let's say your colleague sent you information on a meeting you need to join instead of inviting you directly, or that you want to quote someone without retyping everything that was in the message; simply press on the desired message, and confirm to copy the message text. Similarly, if your colleague sent you a message containing text and a hyperlink, press on the hyperlink in order to copy just the link without the surrounding text!

Note:
-If you press down on non-URL text in the message, you bring up a menu with an option to copy the full message.
-If you press down on a URL in the message, the link is copied to your clipboard and a confirming notification pops up on your screen.

To copy the text of a message:

1. In your Messages list, open a chat.
2. In the chat, press on the message you want to bring up a menu.
3. From the menu, select the option to copy the text of the message. You can now paste the text of the message where needed.

To copy a hyperlink in a message without the surrounding text:

1. In your Messages list, open a chat.
2. In the chat, press on the link in the message to copy it. Once the link is copied, you see a Link copied confirmation on your screen.

If you have yet to get around to an action item that came up in a chat, simply mark a message discussing that item as unread so that you can quickly return to it the next time you open the conversation!

To mark a message as unread:

1. In your Messages list, open a chat.
2. In the chat, press on the desired message to bring up a menu.
   
3. From the menu, confirm to mark the message as unread and return to your Messages list. The conversation now shows up as unread; the next time you open the conversation, you have the option to jump to the message you marked by tapping Go to first unread.

Let's say your colleague sent you a message you haven't read yet, and encountered you in person; they mention that they messaged you earlier, and you have a quick chat that clears up the task your colleague messaged you about. Since your colleague discussed the message with you in person before you could read it in 8x8 Work, you can simply mark these now-unnecessary messages as read without needing to open it to prevent clutter in your chat history. You can mark SMS messages as well, such as spam or messages mistakenly sent to your number.

To mark a conversation as read:

1. In your Messages list, on the desired chat to select it.
2. If needed, select additional chats to mark.
3. When you are finished selecting messages, tap the Mark read option to mark the messages as read.

If you receive spam messages via SMS, or find that your chat history is cluttered with old messages, you can easily clean up your chat history. If you hide a message, you do not delete it; other people you chatted with still have access to the conversation in their chat history.

To hide conversations from your personal chat history:

1. In your Messages list, on the desired conversation or chat room to select it.
2. If needed, select additional conversations to hide.
3. When you are finished selecting messages, tap the Hide option to hide the messages from your chat history. Any conversation you hide this way is now hidden from your personal chat history, but continues to exist on our server and show up in the chat history of the people in the conversation.

Note: Hidden conversations reappear in your list of messages when you receive a message in a hidden chat with a colleague, a message is posted to a hidden room you are following, or you are @mentioned in a hidden room you are not following.

Via 8x8 Work for Mobile, you can quickly and easily access images and files that you or your colleagues sent in a chat, as well as send images of your own.

Note: At this time, you can send only images from 8x8 Work for Mobile. However, you can still access non-image files that were sent by colleagues from 8x8 Work for Desktop.

In addition, if you need to forward a file to someone with limited 8x8 Work access; once you access a file attached in chat, you can share it in just a few taps!

To share images in a chat:

1. Open your Messages list, and open a chat.
2. While in a chat, you can:
   • Tap the Share Image option to attach a still image that is saved to your mobile device.
   • Tap the New Image option to take a new image and attach it.
3. If desired, enter a message to accompany your attachments, and send.

To access attachments in a chat:

While in a chat, tap the thumbnail of an attached file to open the file.

To share attachments received in a chat:

1. While in a chat, tap the thumbnail of an attached file to open the file.
2. While viewing the file, tap the option to bring up a list of applications (such as a messaging or email app) that you can use to share the file.
3. Select the desired application, and continue to share the file with the intended recipient.

SMS is enabled for all 8x8 users under the North American Numbering Plan (in the United States and Canada).

Currently, 8x8 does not support SMS chat on phone numbers from outside the United States and Canada.

Since SMS is currently supported only in the United States and Canada, contacts with international phone numbers are unable to receive or send SMS with North American users.