Comms (in the left-hand nav, with an unread-count badge) is TED's internal team chat — separate from a deal's own Chat tab and from email to outside contacts.
Three kinds of conversation
- Channels — bound to one team department or role. Membership is automatic: everyone in that department or role is a member, and the channel updates itself when someone's role or department changes. You never add or remove people from a channel by hand.
- Groups — an ad hoc conversation with whichever people you pick, with a name you choose.
- Direct Messages (DMs) — a private, one-to-one conversation.
Starting a conversation
Select New at the top of the message list, then pick DM, Group, or Channel:
- A DM just needs the one person you're messaging.
- A Group needs a name and at least one other person.
- A Channel needs a name and a Membership binding — pick Department or Role, then the specific one. Everyone in it is added automatically.
An optional first message sends as soon as the conversation is created.
Managing channels
Any team member can create a channel from New. Editing an existing channel's name, description, or binding, or archiving it, is admin-only — admins see a gear icon next to Channels in the conversation list that opens Manage Channels.
In a conversation
Type a message and send it — you can attach up to 5 files (10MB each). You can edit or delete your own messages for 15 minutes after posting; after that, the option disappears. See Finding conversations and mentions for the All view, @-mentions, and the member list.
If a conversation is linked to a deal (see the deal chip in the conversation header) and your role only has view access to that deal, you can still read the conversation, but the message box is disabled with a note: "You have view-only access to this deal's conversation." This follows the same deal access rules as everywhere else — a conversation linked to a deal you can't edit is read-only, even if your role would normally let you post in Comms.