Chat | Visual Space

Use this walkthrough to start a one-to-one conversation, expand it into a group when appropriate, and manage the group without losing sight of who can read its history. The most important decision comes before you add anyone: confirm that every new participant should be able to see the conversation's retained messages and attachments.

This walkthrough helps you share files with the right people, follow the upload through completion, and confirm that recipients can open what you sent. It applies to both [Activity Chat](../activity-chat.md) and [Direct Messages](../direct-messages.md), with an important difference in where the files live.

This walkthrough turns one valuable Activity Chat message—or an idea that has grown beyond a chat message—into a reviewed article. Use it when a contribution deserves a durable life outside the rapid conversation, but does not represent the outcome of the whole topic.

This walkthrough takes an Activity Chat topic from an author-only draft to a focused live discussion and a durable summary. Use it when a group is beginning a distinct question, phase, or decision that should remain understandable after the rapid exchange has ended.

Topics turn a flowing conversation into sections people can understand later. Each divider gives readers a clear place to begin, while Activity Chat adds a connected summary for the decisions and useful findings that should outlast the live exchange.

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.

Messages in Visual Space are designed for quick conversation without throwing away the context people need later. The same core experience works in [Activity Chat](activity-chat.md) and [Direct Messages](direct-messages.md): write a short update, shape it with lightweight formatting, point to a person or goal, and reply without leaving the main conversation. This page explains that shared message experience. Files and engagement stay close to messages too, but they have their own guidance so the

Chat helps members keep live conversation connected to shared work, preserve useful outcomes, and continue privately when a one-to-one or group discussion is the better fit. Use this guide to understand the two conversation spaces or follow a complete workflow for topics, messages, files, Direct Messages, and custom emoji.

Files and links let a conversation carry the material people need to understand the work, not just describe it. Chat keeps those items easy to recognize with draft previews, upload feedback, media galleries, file cards, and expandable link details. Where you share an attachment matters. **Activity Chat is part of shared activity work**, while a [Direct Message](direct-messages.md) is private to its current conversation participants. That distinction determines where the uploaded item belongs and

Direct Messages give you a private conversation space with one person or a group. They use the familiar [Chat](chat.md) message experience, but the conversation belongs to its participants rather than to a space activity. Open **Messages** to see your conversations, choose who you want to talk with, and continue the discussion through topics, messages, files, or a meeting. Direct Messages are private to the people in the conversation. They are not published to a space, and Visual Space does not

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 afte

This walkthrough adds a custom emoji to your space, checks that people can use it in Chat, and removes it when it no longer belongs in the catalog. It is useful when your space wants a recognizable symbol, shared joke, or project-specific reaction for live conversation.

Chat administration lets a space shape the expressive tools available in its live conversations. This public administration guide is limited to controls verified for space owners and members with **Manage Chat** access.

Custom emoji give a space its own visual shorthand for live conversation. Members can use the active catalog in Chat and Meetings, while the space owner and members with **Manage Chat** access maintain what appears there. This is a shared space resource, not a personal emoji collection. A space can have up to **50 active custom emoji**, and each name must be unique within that space.

Activity Chat keeps live conversation attached to the work that gives it meaning. Instead of opening a general space-wide stream, members enter an activity, read the discussion around its current topic, and respond with the activity’s goals, files, participants, and progress close at hand. This structure helps both active contributors and people catching up later. Messages carry the immediate exchange, while topic boundaries and summaries preserve what the conversation accomplished.