Messaging

Messaging is your internal team chat inside Arcus. It opens as a dock that slides in from the right side of any page, so you can talk about the record you are looking at without navigating away. Messaging is for your Arcus team only. Customer-facing emails and document resends live in Communications, not in Messaging.

​

Open the Messaging Dock

You can open the dock three ways:

1. Click the Messages icon (the speech bubble) in the top header bar.
2. Press Cmd+Shift+M (Ctrl+Shift+M on Windows) from anywhere in Arcus.
3. On an order, account, or purchase order, click the Discuss button to open the conversation tied to that record.

Press Esc to close the dock. Your place in the conversation is kept, so reopening the dock returns you where you left off.

​

What You Can Message About

• Direct Messages: private conversations between two Arcus users in the same entity.
• Channels: shared team conversations for operations, projects, departments, or exceptions.
• Resource chats: conversations tied to a specific record, such as an order, account, product, invoice, purchase order, or return.

​

Find and Open a Conversation

1. Open the dock.
2. Use the search box at the top of the inbox rail to filter by teammate, channel name, or record.
3. Expand or collapse the Direct Messages, Channels, and Resource Chats sections as needed.
4. Click a conversation to open its message history in the dock.

Unread conversations show an indicator in the rail. Opening a conversation marks it read.

​

Start a New Conversation

1. Click the plus button at the top of the inbox rail.
2. Choose Group Channel for a shared channel, or Direct Message for a one-to-one conversation.
3. For a group channel, enter a clear channel name and an optional description.
4. For a direct message, search for the user and select them.
5. Confirm. Arcus opens the new conversation in the dock.

​

Send a Message

1. Open the conversation in the dock.
2. Type your message in the composer at the bottom.
3. Use @ to mention a teammate.
4. Use / to link an Arcus record such as an order, account, product, invoice, purchase order, or return.
5. Use the formatting buttons for bold, italic, code, or emoji when helpful.
6. Attach an image or PDF with the attachment control when you need to share a file.
7. Press Enter to send, or Shift+Enter to start a new line.

​

Link a Record in a Message

1. Type / in the composer.
2. Choose the record type you want to link.
3. Search for the record.
4. Select the result. Arcus inserts a linked chip into your message.
5. Send the message.
6. Click the chip later to open the record preview when available.

Object links keep a conversation tied back to the order, account, product, invoice, purchase order, or return being discussed, and they are safer and easier to audit than pasting sensitive values.

​

Discuss a Specific Record

On an order, account, or purchase order detail page, click Discuss to open the conversation attached to that record.

• If a conversation for the record already exists, the dock opens it.
• If none exists yet, posting your first message creates the record conversation.
• Everyone on your team who can see the record can read and join the discussion.

This keeps record-specific decisions attached to the record instead of scattered across channels.

​

Threads, Pins, Reactions, and Search

• Reply in thread: use a thread when a reply should stay attached to one message instead of interrupting the main conversation.
• Pin: pin messages that contain decisions, references, or next steps the team needs to find again.
• React: add a quick emoji reaction when acknowledgement is enough.
• Search: use search to find a message when you remember a word, order number, customer name, or topic.

​

Notifications and Unread Signals

Messaging has its own signals, shown on the Messages icon in the header, not on the notifications bell.

• Interrupt signals show a count and can play a sound. You get these for direct messages, for messages that @mention you, and for channels you have set to Loud.
• Ambient signals show only a dot, with no count. You get these for regular channel and resource-chat activity you follow.
• Per-channel level: open a channel and set how loud it is. Choose All for normal activity, Mentions only to hear about it only when you are mentioned, Loud to count every message, or Mute to silence it.
• Snooze: snooze a channel to suppress its count and dot until the snooze expires.

Opening a conversation clears its unread count.

​

Manage Channel Members

1. Open the channel in the dock.
2. Open the member controls in the channel header.
3. Search users to add people who should be in the conversation.
4. Remove members who no longer need access.
5. Leave owners and admins in place unless your team intentionally changes channel responsibility.

​

What Happens Behind the Scenes

• Messages are scoped to the current entity, so teams in other entities do not see them.
• Direct messages, group channels, and resource chats are separate conversation types.
• Unread counts update as messages arrive and clear when you open the conversation.
• Mentions and record links are stored as structured content so Arcus can render them as chips.
• Editing a message updates it for everyone, and removing a mention in an edit stops it from counting as an unread mention.
• Deleted messages remain visible as deleted placeholders so the conversation history stays understandable.
• Links in mention and direct-message emails open the same conversation in the dock, so you never land on a dead page.

​

Safe Internal Communication Rules

• Use resource chats for record-specific work: keep order, invoice, account, product, purchase, and return discussions attached to the right record.
• Keep customer-facing decisions in the workflow: use documents, emails, invoices, returns, or order actions for customer commitments.
• Do not use chat as an approval substitute: approvals, credits, refunds, cancellations, and voids should use their workflow controls.
• Pin decisions: pin important internal decisions so teammates can find them later.
• Link records instead of pasting private data: object links are safer and easier to audit than copied sensitive values.

​

Common Blocks

• I cannot find Messaging in the menu: Messaging is a dock, not a page. Open it from the header Messages icon, Cmd+Shift+M, or the Discuss button on a record.
• No conversations yet: start a new direct message or group channel from the plus button.
• User not found: confirm the person has an active Arcus user account for the entity.
• Create is disabled: enter a group channel name or select a direct message user.
• Record search has no results: type at least one searchable term and confirm the record type.
• Message did not send: retry after checking your connection and the current conversation.
• All users are already members: there is nobody else available to add to that channel.

​

Related Articles