Understand Chat Channels and Direct Messages

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At a glance

Chat gives your team two ways to communicate inside OneClick: channels (topic-based or role-based group conversations) and direct messages (one-to-one or small-group conversations). Channels are defined by a combination of permission level and area (for example, "all FOH Trainers" or "all Shift Leaders on BOH"), and membership auto-updates as team members are promoted, demoted, or terminated. Leaders get additional visibility into channels they are not part of, translation lets a multilingual team communicate across languages, and per-channel Mute plus the global Silence Chat Notifications toggle give users and stores flexible control over how often chat interrupts them.

Before you start

This is a reference article. Read it once, return when needed.

Core reference content

Channels versus direct messages

A channel is a conversation scoped by role and area. When you create a channel, you pick both a permission level (for example, Team Leader) and an area (for example, FOH), and OneClick auto-populates the channel with every team member who has that permission in that area. A channel's purpose is to reach a role-defined group consistently over time without maintaining a member list by hand.

A direct message (DM) is a conversation scoped by explicit member selection. You create a DM by picking the individual team members you want in the conversation and giving it a name. DMs do not auto-update from role changes; the members you add stay until you change the membership manually or leave the DM.

Both live in the same Chat screen, use the same message types, and share most of the same message actions. The difference is membership: channels follow roles, DMs follow people.

Auto-membership propagation

This is the most important behavior to understand in Chat:

1. When a team member is added to your store with a permission that matches a channel's criteria, they are automatically added to that channel.
2. When a team member is promoted (for example, from Team Leader to Shift Leader), they are automatically added to every Shift Leader channel that matches their area.
3. When a team member is demoted, they are automatically removed from channels they no longer qualify for.
4. When a team member is terminated or archived, they are automatically removed from every channel.

You do not maintain channel rosters by hand. The channel definition (permission + area) is the contract; OneClick keeps membership accurate as roles change. This makes channels reliable for standing communications (announcements, daily huddle recaps, training updates) because you can trust that the right people see them without audit work.

DMs do not have this behavior. A DM with five specific members stays with those five members regardless of role changes. Terminating a team member removes them from the DM automatically, but promotions and demotions do not change DM membership.

Creating channels and DMs

A Shift Leader or higher can create a channel. To create one, press the plus-edit icon in the Chat view, select New Channel, choose the permission level and area, name the channel, and press Create.

A DM can be created by anyone with Chat access (so, anyone who is not on a Service Account; see FAQ). Press the plus-edit icon, select Direct Message, add the team members to include, name the DM, and press Create.

Message types

Messages can be any of the following:

1. Text. Plain text, the most common type.
2. Pictures. PNG or JPEG uploads.
3. GIFs. Animated images.
4. Videos. Video uploads.
5. Links. Pasted links render as tappable links and open in a new tab.
6. Files. PDFs, CSVs, and other document types.

Supported file types beyond the explicit four above depend on the device and the browser. Most common document formats work; when in doubt, try the upload and watch for an error.

Message actions

Tap the three-dot menu next to a message for actions. Available actions vary by role:

1. Add Emojis. Reaction emoji on any message, available to everyone.
2. Quote Reply. References the quoted text in your reply. Available to everyone.
3. Thread Reply. Starts or continues a threaded reply chain from a specific message. Keeps focused conversations organized without splitting into a new channel. Available to everyone.
4. View Read Receipt. Shows who has read a message you sent. Available in both DMs and channels. You can only see read receipts for your own sent messages; other users cannot view read receipts for messages they did not send.
5. Pin Message. Marks a message as important so it surfaces at the top of the channel for easy reference. Available to everyone.
6. Edit Message. Changes the text of a message after sending. Director default; your store may have raised or lowered the permission.
7. Delete. Removes a message. Director default.
8. Copy Text. Copies the message content to the clipboard. Director default.

The "Director default" pattern reflects that edit, delete, and copy are moderation actions in Chat and are Director-restricted to prevent message history from being casually altered. Stores can raise these permissions under Permissions settings if needed.

Leader Chat visibility

Beyond regular messaging, leaders have additional channel visibility:

1. Directors can see every role channel they are not a member of. This is a read-only view; a Director cannot respond in a channel they are not a member of. The intent is oversight (a Director can see what Trainers are discussing without being part of the Trainer-only channel). To respond, the Director would need to use Manage Roles and Areas or Manage Members to include themselves.
2. Operators can see every role channel AND every member channel (DM) they are not part of. This is also read-only. Operators have the broadest visibility because they own the store-level view.

This visibility is for awareness and moderation, not participation. Directors and Operators can monitor communication across their teams without joining every conversation.

Channel editing and moderation

The three-dot menu on a channel (top right of the channel view) gives these actions:

1. Rename. Change the channel name.
2. Manage Roles and Areas. Change the channel's role and area filter, which controls which team members are auto-added based on their role and area assignment.
3. Manage Members. Manually add or remove individual team members from the channel regardless of their role or area assignment. Use this when someone needs to be in the channel who would not auto-qualify through the Roles and Areas filter.
4. Mute. Silence your own notifications for this specific channel. Personal, not store-wide.
5. Freeze/Unfreeze. In a frozen channel, only Shift Leader and higher can post. Use this to make a channel read-only for most team members (for example, announcement channels where only leadership posts).
6. Delete. Removes the channel after a confirmation dialog.

DMs have a similar three-dot menu with Rename, Manage Members, Mute, Leave, and Delete.

Translation

The language dropdown in the chat feature lets you translate messages into a preferred language. Translation applies only to other users' messages, not to your own; your messages always show in the language you typed them. The supported language list is visible in the dropdown. To request additional languages for your store, contact support.

Translation helps multilingual teams communicate without needing every member to work in the same language. A team member can post in Spanish and a coworker can read it in English without anyone needing to translate manually.

Search and filter

Search sits at the top left of the Chat screen. Type a word and matching messages from any channel or DM appear. Clearing the search returns to the normal chat view.

Filters refine matches by relevance, channel, user, or attachment type. Use them when the search returns too many results to scan.

Muting

Per-channel muting is done through the Mute action in the channel's three-dot menu; it is personal and applies to that one channel. You can pick a duration (so the channel stays muted only as long as you need).

The Silence Chat Notifications global toggle in Settings > Notifications is different: it silences Chat notifications across the whole store. A store that needs a quiet period can flip the global switch; an individual who wants to quiet one channel uses the per-channel Mute.

Frozen channels

Freezing a channel restricts posting to Shift Leader and higher. Useful for announcement channels where most team members should read but not respond. Unfreeze when two-way communication is appropriate again.

Video

Not planned for this reference article. The Create a Chat Channel How-To has an associated video.

Common gotchas

A team member is not in the channel they should be in.

Two likely causes. Either the team member has not signed in for the first time and accepted the chat channel (see FAQ below), or the team member's permission or area does not match the channel's configuration. Check their profile for their current permission and area; if they do not match the channel's Manage Roles and Areas settings, that is why.

I was promoted but I still do not see my new Shift Leader channel.

Auto-membership propagation happens in the background. If the channel does not appear after a promotion, log out and log back in to refresh the session.

A terminated team member's name still shows in an old DM.

Termination removes the team member from channels automatically but DMs are member-explicit. Check the DM's member list; if the terminated team member is still listed, use Manage Members on the DM to remove them.

I want to see channels I am not a member of as a Manager.

Cross-channel visibility is a Director and Operator behavior. Managers see only their own channels. If your store structure needs Managers to have broader channel visibility, raise it under Permissions settings.

The Chat feature does not appear in the main menu.

The most common cause is that the user is signed in on a Service Account. Service Accounts are not tied to a specific team member, so Chat would be a privacy breach (everyone on the Service Account would see all chats). Sign in with your individual account or use your personal device. See FAQ below.

A team member cannot see messages in a channel they were just added to.

New team members do not appear as joined in chat until they have signed in for the first time and pressed Accept on the chat channel welcome. Until then, they are on the membership list but have not activated chat on their device.

A Director edited a Trainer channel they were not part of.

Directors can see Trainer channels but not respond without explicitly adding themselves via Manage Roles and Areas or Manage Members. If a Director needed to respond, they changed their own membership first. This is working as designed: visibility is wide, participation is explicit.

I read a message in a channel but the sender says I did not.

Read receipts are per-user and per-message. Confirm you have actually opened the specific message (scrolling past does not always register as a read). The sender sees read receipts via the three-dot menu on their own sent messages; if they do not see your name in the receipt list, the system did not register you as having read it.

Related articles

1. Create a Chat Channel (How-To Guides)
2. Understand Notifications (Reference), for the global Silence Chat Notifications toggle
3. Understand Permission Levels (Reference), for the role-based channel membership model
4. Understand the Team Member Profile (Reference), for how permission and area drive channel membership

Still stuck

If channel behavior does not match this reference or a team member is missing from a channel they should be in, submit a support ticket with your store number, the channel name and configuration, the affected team member's name and current permission and area, and a description of what you expected. Support typically responds within one business day.

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Pre-publish checklist

21 998da33b-7751-48ea-9ece-518096247ec2 complete Seven sections filled (Reference adaptation).

22 0dd0db96-3bed-4dd7-8544-5e71c1259db1 complete At a glance within template spec.

23 2280f31f-16d1-4af7-a26b-71d262c15618 complete No em dashes, no hedge words.

24 6aa23ff2-a42b-41b7-bd6c-909cda1e7adc complete Permission-based role references throughout.

25 971d70fd-a380-43b2-b8e2-34e41fc8d953 complete Auto-membership propagation documented as the headline behavior.

26 910ae1a9-7b7a-4792-86f9-344075a1f59e complete Director / Operator visibility distinction documented.

27 f8138cde-2614-4d09-bdaf-094bdc9e4f38 complete Service Account FAQ surfaced as its own gotcha.

28 09edb433-f069-4df6-8a22-ff505e97bf64 complete 3-dot menu corrected: Manage Roles and Areas + Manage Members documented as separate actions (v2, 2026-05-04).

29 b4e9d2a5-1a36-4e34-8895-4f901994a289 incomplete UI verified against Production.

30 cdc3414e-58c1-44ed-86f8-51883f430c2e incomplete Screenshots to be inserted (channel creation plus-edit icon, role/area selector, three-dot menu actions, frozen channel indicator, translation dropdown).

31 ba52a4df-354c-4982-8bc8-c80e9a4ec003 incomplete Reviewed by Jared and Kevin.