The chat is accessible to all participants within a Session room no matter the theme of the room. Use it to send the usual text as well as images (GIFS included), emojis, and share links! Messages sent in the chat can also be highlighted on the stage by the room owner or host if you are in a room that has a stage.
Sending Messages in a Session
Here's how to access the chat and send messages within a Session Room!
- Join a Session room
- Click on the chat icon
at the bottom right of the room to open the chat panel. - Type your message within the field at the bottom.
- Click on the send icon or press the Enter key on your keyboard to send the message.
Tip: Press Shift+Enter on your keyboard to start a new line when typing up a message.
The limit is 5000 characters for messages. If you try to send a message that exceeds this amount, the message will not be sent and you will be presented with an error message like the one below. This message will only be visible to you within the chat. No one else will be able to see it.
Receiving Chat Messages
You don't have to do anything special in order to receive chat messages. If your chat panel is closed, a toast will show at the bottom of the page with a preview of the messages as they come in. There will also be a counter next to the chat icon to indicate how many new unread messages are there.
If the chat panel is opened, the system will automatically scroll down to new messages to make sure that you don't miss a thing.
There is no in-app or browser notification sound for messages.
What's Supported In the Chat Panel?
Send way more than just text messages in the chat. Here's a list of the other things that you can do within the chat:
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Send links
Share links to websites as well as media and documents hosted online. When a link is shared in the chat, the system will display the link preview by default. This cannot be removed.
Clicking on a link shared in the chat will take you to the website in a new tab within the browser being used.
If a link is shared within the chat for content that can be presented on screen (these are currently links to YouTube videos) the participant that shared the link will see a Present under the link preview. Clicking on this will share the content on the screen for everyone to see. Otherwise, participants can choose to play YouTube videos in the chat window or open the link to navigate to the website in a different tab by clicking on it.
In Workshop and Interactive Webinar-themed rooms, the Present button will only be shown to individuals in the chat if they are on stage or the room owners and hosts.
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Send images and GIFs
You can use the Attach image button to send images located on your device. You may also drag and drop images into the chat window, or copy and paste them in. A total of 10 images can be sent at once using any of the three methods.
Photos and gifs sent within the chat can be clicked on by all participants to enlarge them.
The supported image file types are .jpe, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .ico, .svg, .tif, .tiff, .ai, .drw, .pct, .xcf, and .webp.
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Send Giphys
Apart from sending a GIF file as an image as described above, you can also add one by typing “/giphy searchterm” command in the chat and hitting Enter (e.g. /giphy celebrate). You will get a preview of the GIF and the option to shuffle. Once you find a suitable GIF, hit Send.
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Send Emojis
You can send emojis via chat. Simply click on the Emoji button at the bottom right, select the emoji(s) of your choice.
You may also copy and paste emojis from an external website such as getemoji.com and paste it into the chat.
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Send Files
The Attach image button can be used to share PDF and Text files within the chat. You may also drag and drop them into the chat window to add them as attachments, then send them.
Clicking on a file shared within the chat will allow you to save it to your device.
Reacting to Chat Messages
See a message that you agree with and want to react to it? You can. Here's how:
- From within the chat panel, simply hover over the message that you would like to react to
- Click on the Add a reaction icon (which resembles a smiley)
- Select the reaction that you would like to react with
- If you've changed your mind about reacting, click on Cancel below the list of emojis.
The emoji reaction for messages below messages that you have reacted to will be highlighted.
To remove your reaction to a message, simply click on the emoji for the reaction that you added. Your reaction will be highlighted. Opening the reaction panel and clicking on a reaction that you have already added will remove it as well.
Tip: See who has reacted to messages within the chat by hovering over the reaction with your cursor. 
Deleting Session Chat Messages
Room owners and hosts can delete any message that is sent within the chat, while participants can only delete messages that they sent. Here's how to delete chat messages in Session:
- From within the chat panel, simply hover over the message that you would like to delete.
- Click on the Delete message icon (trash can)
- Click on Delete within the pop-up that appears to confirm
- That's it!
Deleted messages cannot be recovered and will not be stored in the Session history.
Sending Broadcast Messages When Using Breakout Groups
If you are in a breakout group, you will be able to send broadcast messages within breakout groups. These messages will be visible to everyone in the Session.
- From within the breakout group, click on the chat icon at the bottom right to open the chat panel
- Check the box next to "Broadcast message to all breakout groups."
- Type your message and click on the Send icon or press Enter on your keyboard.
Broadcast messages are highlighted with the message, "Message broadcast to all breakout rooms" below it.
Room Owners and Hosts: Highlighting Messages On-Stage
Room owners and hosts can highlight messages sent by participants in the chat on stage by hovering over the message and clicking on the Show message on stage icon that will appear.
The message will be displayed on stage for everyone to see until it is removed by the room owner or host. The message, the name of the participant, and their avatar will be displayed on the stage at the bottom left while the message being promoted/highlighted on stage will have a blue background when viewed from the room owner and host's perspective.
Only 1 chat message can be highlighted on stage at a time and this feature is only available in Session rooms that have a stage, i.e, Workshop and Interactive Webinar themed rooms.
Please view Managing the Stage for more details on how to moderate/manage the stage.
Other important things to note
- You can tag participants in messages using the @ sign. For example, @Rayne.
- There is no limit to the number of messages that can be sent within a specific Session room, or the platform itself.
- Participants will be able to see messages that were sent before they joined the Session.
- Messages that are sent in the Session room will be cleared automatically once the Session ends (when everyone leaves). They will not be carried over to a new Session in the same room.
- It is not possible to manually bulk delete messages.
- Emojis can be copied from other platforms and pasted into the chat, however, they will be sent as images, not emojis. It is best to copy emojis from a website such as getemoji.com to send in the chat.
- Only PDF and TXT documents are supported within the chat panel. Other documents such as PowerPoints, Word docs, Excel docs, etc are not supported. These would have to be hosted online and the URL shared within the chat.
- You may share links to Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides within the chat, however, please make sure that they are configured so that the participants can view and edit them (if applicable).
- It is not possible to change the skin tone for emojis at this time, however, you may copy and paste these into the chat.
- Browser notifications do not apply to chat messages.
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