Chat keeps conversation close to the work and people it belongs with. Members can discuss an activity in shared space context, preserve what matters in a topic summary, or move to a private one-to-one or group conversation without learning a different message experience.
The result is more than a stream of short updates. Live discussion can point to goals, carry useful files, become an article, or lead into a meeting, while topics give the conversation a structure that people can understand after the moment has passed.
Activity Chat And Direct Messages
Visual Space offers two connected forms of chat, each with a different kind of context.
Activity Chat belongs to an activity. Messages sit inside the activity's active topic, alongside the work, participants, and materials that give the discussion meaning. At the space or subspace level, Chat can show relevant topic updates from the areas below it, but it does not combine messages from several activities into one general feed. To send messages, enter an activity with a published topic.
Direct Messages belong to their participants. Open Messages for private one-to-one and group conversations that are not attached to a space activity. Each conversation has its own participants, topics, message history, presence, and meeting context. Starting a new one-to-one conversation with the same person returns to the existing history instead of creating a duplicate conversation.
Direct Messages are available between people who share an eligible chat participation context. In a group, participants can add eligible people, rename the conversation, or leave it. Adding someone turns the selected conversation into a Group DM and keeps its existing history, so review the conversation before expanding its audience.
Activity Chat and Direct Messages explain the two workspaces in more detail.
Activity Chat keeps the live exchange visibly attached to its activity and topics.
Direct Messages keeps personal conversation navigation beside the selected participant-owned discussion.
Topics Make Conversation Durable
A topic marks the beginning of a focused discussion. Its divider gives readers a clear place to start and makes it easier to understand where one subject ended and the next began. Messages always belong to an active topic, in both Activity Chat and Direct Messages.
In Activity Chat, every topic has a connected summary article. The live messages hold the back-and-forth; the summary is where contributors preserve decisions, discoveries, links, and useful conclusions in a form that does not disappear into scrollback. A well-maintained summary helps someone who missed the discussion learn the result without reading every message. It can also be published as a post when the update should reach a wider space audience.
Activity topics can only be created inside activities. This keeps summaries attached to a clear body of work. When a discussion belongs elsewhere, its author, a space owner, or a member with chat-management access can move the complete topic to another accessible published activity in the same space. The summary and messages move together.
Topics inside Direct Messages are deliberately lighter. They divide a private conversation into understandable subjects, but they are not activity-backed summary articles and are not published to a space. Conversation participants can create and remove them as the private discussion evolves.
See Topics and Summaries for the complete topic model, or follow Create and Summarize a Topic when you are ready to turn a live discussion into a useful record.
A Shared Message Experience
The composer says Type a message when the current conversation is ready. Activity Chat and Direct Messages then share the capabilities people use most often:
Messages can contain up to 3000 characters and up to 20 attachments. If a draft is too long, it cannot be sent as a message. Eligible members in Activity Chat can move that longer idea into the article editor without losing the chat draft. Upload progress and failure states help you see whether attached files are still transferring, ready, or need attention.
Activity-chat messages can also receive Awards: quick item-level appreciation for a valuable contribution. Reactions work in both forms of chat, while Awards belong to shared Activity Chat.
For focused guidance, continue with Messages and Replies, Files, Links, and Previews, or Emoji, Reactions, and Awards.
Bring Goals Into The Conversation
Chat can refer to an accessible goal without reducing that goal to pasted text. Type /goal to search, or begin with a space key such as /VS- and a reference such as /VS-42 to narrow the choice. Selecting a result creates a readable reference that opens the goal in its current location.
Access still applies after a reference is shared. If the goal is deleted, cannot be resolved, or is not available to a particular reader, Chat shows the non-clickable label Goal unavailable instead of revealing its former title or location.
This makes goal references useful for coordination: the message can explain what needs attention, while the goal remains the durable home for the objective and its progress. Compose, Reply, and Reference connects these tools in one practical workflow.
Stay Oriented As Conversation Moves
Chat opens near the latest activity, while older messages remain available by scrolling upward. Day and unread dividers show where time or unread conversation begins, and a jump-to-present control returns you to the live edge after exploring earlier context. Search results can open the relevant conversation around a specific message rather than leaving you to find it manually.
Participants, presence, and typing signals provide lightweight awareness without becoming permanent message history. Activity Chat identifies people who have contributed in the current area; Direct Messages lists the selected conversation's members. Online state and the typing indicator help you judge whether a response may be in progress.
In Messages, personal organization stays personal:
Participants, Presence, and Unread develops these attention and access signals without turning them into noise.
Carry The Conversation Forward
A strong message sometimes deserves a life beyond the feed. In shared Activity Chat, a space owner or member allowed to create posts can choose Publish as article. The article editor receives the message content, original author credit, visual attachments, and links so the publisher can review and develop the material before publication.
This handoff is available only from shared chat. Direct Message content does not offer publication as an article, regardless of who participates in the conversation. See Publish a Chat Message for the complete permission and review flow.
When text is no longer the best medium, an activity conversation or Direct Message can start a meeting when meetings are available. An existing conversation meeting can be joined or reopened from its chat context, keeping the route back to the discussion clear.
Common Questions
Where can I start an Activity Chat topic?
Inside an activity. If you begin from a space or subspace view, Chat asks you to choose an eligible activity rather than creating a general space-wide message stream.
Why does Chat require a topic before I can send?
Topics give every message a clear subject and starting point. In Activity Chat, they also connect live discussion to a durable summary.
Are Direct Message topics published to a space?
No. They organize the private conversation for its participants and do not create an activity-backed summary article.
Can I add anyone to a Direct Message?
No. The picker is limited to eligible people with a shared chat participation context, and blocking rules still apply. Adding someone to an existing conversation creates a Group DM while retaining that conversation's history.
Can I publish a Direct Message as an article?
No. Publish as article is limited to shared Activity Chat and appears only for space owners or members allowed to create posts.
What happens when a goal reference is no longer available?
It becomes the non-clickable label Goal unavailable. Chat does not reveal the inaccessible goal's previous title or location.
Do muted conversations disappear?
No. They remain in Favorites or Conversations, but their unread indicators and message pings are suppressed for you.
How much can I send in one message?
A message can contain up to 3000 characters and 20 attachments. If you exceed a limit, the composer explains the problem before the message is sent.