Starting a conversation in a workspace

Start a conversation that your workspace members share, with the Mate of your choice.

Last updated About 6 hours ago

A workspace conversation is a conversation that the members of a workspace share. You start it from the composer of the workspace page, with the Mate of your choice. Your colleagues can read it, write in it and mention other Mates. This article is for every member who has access to at least one workspace.

Before you start

  • You need access to a workspace. If the sidebar has no Workspaces section, your plan does not include workspaces. Ask an Owner or Admin of your organization.
  • You need the workspace role User or higher. With the role Viewer, you can read the conversations but you cannot start one.

Start a conversation

  1. In the sidebar, under Workspaces, click the name of the workspace. The workspace page opens.
  2. To put the conversation in a folder, open that folder first. You can click the folder in the sidebar or on the workspace page.
  3. Above the composer, click the Mate picker and choose a Mate. You can search the list with Search Mates…. The picker keeps the last Mate you chose.
  4. In the composer (Ask anything), write your message.
  5. Send the message.

allmates.ai creates the conversation in the workspace, or in the open folder, and opens it. The Mate you picked answers. You do not need to type @ in this first message.

The conversation gets a name from your first message. allmates.ai then replaces it with a short title. To change it, click the conversation title and choose Rename.

If the message cannot be sent, the app shows "Error while sending message". Your message stays in the composer, so you can send it again.

Bring in more Mates and colleagues

In the conversation, use mentions:

  • @ a Mate to get an answer from it. You can mention several Mates in one message: each one answers, one after the other.
  • @ a colleague to send them a notification in their Inbox.
  • @@ a Mate or a colleague to name them without an answer or a notification.

The mention list shows the colleagues who can read the conversation: the members of a private workspace, or all the members of the organization for a public workspace.

When a person or a Mate writes in the conversation for the first time, a chip shows above their message: "{name}" joined the conversation.

For the full rules, read "Communication Best Practices: Mastering Mentions".

Who can see the conversation

  • Private workspace: every member of the workspace sees all its conversations.
  • Public workspace: every member of the organization sees all its conversations.

There is no access setting per conversation. To keep a conversation for yourself, use a private chat instead.

Mate access stays personal. When a colleague mentions a Mate in the conversation, the Mate answers only if that colleague can use it. Otherwise the Mate replies "I can't reply to you: you don't have access to this Mate." Ask an organization admin to grant you access.

Manage the conversation

Open the menu next to the conversation, in the sidebar tree or on the workspace page, or click the conversation title. The menu has these actions:

  • Rename
  • Pin / Unpin: a pinned conversation shows first in the list. The pin is shared: every member of the workspace sees the conversation as pinned.
  • Archive: moves the conversation to Archived at the bottom of the workspace page. Archiving removes the pin.
  • Copy / Move: moves the conversation to another workspace or folder. Turn on Keep a copy to duplicate it instead.
  • Delete: asks you to confirm, then deletes the conversation.

On the workspace page, you can search the conversations with Search chats... and sort them by Created, A-Z, Z-A or Manual.

Good to know

  • A new conversation always starts with the Mate you picked. If you have access to no Mate, the workspace page shows "No Mates available" instead of the composer.
  • Mates use the workspace description, and the organization description when the workspace includes it. See "Organization settings" and "Creating Your First Workspace".
  • A conversation created by a schedule shows "Created by a schedule" in the list.
  • You can see which colleagues have the app open and who is writing. See "Who is online and who is writing".