Visual Space manual, Chat, Participants Presence And Unread

Chat offers several quiet signals that help you answer two different questions: **who belongs in this conversation context**, and **what has changed since you last looked**. Participant lists explain the people around the discussion, while presence, typing, and unread cues help you decide where to focus next. These signals do not change messages or grant access. They reflect the current Activity Chat area or Direct Message conversation, and they stay separate from the conversation itself.

Chat offers several quiet signals that help you answer two different questions: who belongs in this conversation context, and what has changed since you last looked. Participant lists explain the people around the discussion, while presence, typing, and unread cues help you decide where to focus next.

These signals do not change messages or grant access. They reflect the current Activity Chat area or Direct Message conversation, and they stay separate from the conversation itself.

Contributors And Participants Mean Different Things

In Activity Chat, the Contributors panel shows people who have taken part in Chat within the area you are viewing. An activity has its own contributor context; a subspace or space can show contributors from the relevant area below it. This is a record of involvement, not a directory of everyone who could theoretically enter the space.

A contributor row can help you recognize the person and their place in the space. Depending on the available profile information, it may include:

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Their name, avatar, and listed skills.

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Contributor or role cues that help explain how they participate.

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An online cue based on their current presence state.

Select a person to open their profile. On desktop, pointing at an avatar can also show a compact profile preview. Additional person actions are available from the participant menu only when the context and your access allow them; the panel itself does not give you new permissions.

In Direct Messages, Participants means something more specific: the people who currently belong to the selected private conversation. Membership is known before anyone sends a message, so participant avatars can appear in the conversation row and top bar as soon as the conversation exists. The Participants panel gives you the fuller view.

When someone is added, the conversation row, avatar stack, Participants panel, and conversation history update to reflect the changed audience. Review the retained history before expanding a conversation. Adding a person can give them access to messages and attachments already in that conversation.

Participant presence and activity-level attention cues provide context without changing the conversation itself.

Presence And Typing Are Momentary Hints

Participant views begin with the latest online state available when they load and continue to refresh while the relevant view is active. An online cue means Visual Space currently recognizes that person as online in the Chat context. It does not mean they are reading this message, free to talk, or able to answer immediately.

Typing is narrower than general presence:

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In Activity Chat, the indicator describes another person typing in the same activity.

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In Direct Messages, it describes another participant typing in the conversation you currently selected.

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The text may read Mara is typing or combine several names when more than one person is composing.

The indicator disappears after typing signals stop. It is a short-lived coordination hint and never becomes part of message history, so do not treat its disappearance as a sent message or a commitment to reply.

Catch Up In Activity Chat

Activity unread state points you toward conversation added after your previous read point. It works at two levels: area markers help you find where activity happened, then the feed shows where to begin reading.

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An update dot on an activity row identifies an activity with unread Chat changes.

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A space can carry an update marker when one of its activities needs attention.

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Inside the activity feed, New messages marks the first unread position, so you can read forward from the boundary instead of guessing where you stopped.

Opening the matching Activity Chat advances its read state as you read. New messages delivered while you are already viewing that activity are treated as read for the open conversation, so they should not create a separate unread cue for the same view. Sending a message also keeps your own activity from being marked unread by that message.

If you want to clear a broader area without opening every activity, the space and subspace menus offer Mark as Read for their respective scopes. This changes your read state for that area; it does not edit, remove, or hide any messages.

Catch Up In Direct Messages

Direct Message unread state belongs to each conversation and to you. A dot beside a conversation row means that visible, unmuted conversation has unread messages. The Direct Messages shortcut can show its own dot when at least one such conversation needs attention.

Muting changes the attention signals, not the conversation. A muted conversation stays in your list, but its unread dot and message pings are suppressed. Other participants do not inherit your mute or read choices.

Use the read controls according to the scope you want:

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Open a conversation to clear its current row cue and read in context. Messages that arrive while you remain in that open conversation are treated as read.

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Choose Mark as read from a conversation row menu to save that one conversation as read.

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Choose Mark all as read from the Direct Messages shortcut menu to clear unread state across your conversations.

The row menu separates one-conversation read state from personal mute behavior.

Marking a conversation as read does not move it, change its participants, or alter its content. If the conversation receives another message later and is not muted, its unread cue can return.

Return To A Specific Message

Unread boundaries are useful for chronological catch-up, but search and direct links are better when you already know what you need. A Chat search result can open the owning activity or Direct Message conversation around the matching message. Visual Space loads the relevant part of the history, scrolls the message into view, and highlights it so you can quickly reconnect it to the surrounding topic.

The highlight is a navigation aid. It does not mark the message as more important, change who can read it, or create a permanent message state.

Related Guidance

Start with the Chat overview for the relationship between shared and private conversation. Continue with Activity Chat or Direct Messages for the full workspace, and use Organize Direct Messages when you want to connect favorites, mute, and read controls in one practical workflow.

Common Questions

Why is someone missing from Activity Chat Contributors?

The panel represents people who have contributed to Chat in the current space, subspace, or activity scope. It is not a complete space-member list, and a person who has not joined that discussion may not appear.

Does an online cue mean the person is available now?

No. It is a current presence hint, not an availability promise or a read receipt for your message.

Can people outside a Direct Message appear in its Participants panel?

No. The panel follows the selected conversation's participant list. Eligible people appear only after they are added to that conversation.

Why did a typing indicator disappear without a message?

Typing indicators expire after a pause. The person may have stopped, cleared their draft, changed conversations, or simply decided not to send.

Does marking an area or conversation as read delete anything?

No. It clears your attention cue for that scope. The messages and their order stay unchanged.

Why is there no unread dot on a muted Direct Message?

Mute suppresses that conversation's unread indicator and message pings for you. The conversation remains available, and you can open it or unmute it later.