The problem it solves
Work talk lives in a group on each person’s phone, leaves with them when they leave, and whoever joins today walks into a conversation with no beginning. What is needed is team channels and direct messages inside the workspace, read only by the people who are in them.
Who it is for
- All teams
- Teams spread over branches
Available today
Membership is the permission
Every read goes through a membership check in the service rather than on the page, so a link a screen forgot to hide refuses instead of exposing anything. An open channel is one any colleague may add themselves to, which is not the same as reading it before they do.
A private conversation is not confirmable by guessing
Somebody who guesses the id of a closed channel or a direct message is told it does not exist — the same answer an id that never existed gets. A channel listed to everybody says “join first” instead, because its existence is not the secret.
One direct conversation between two people
A key made of the two ids sorted, on a unique index, so “Nora messages Faisal” and “Faisal messages Nora” are one conversation rather than two that each hold half of what was said.
Unread is a watermark, counted in SQL
One query returns every channel’s count for one person. Your own messages are never unread, and answering the newest message is not a claim to have read the forty above it.
A mention is counted and read where it was written
A mention is resolved against the channel’s membership as it stands, naming yourself is a way of writing rather than a way of being notified, and reading the channel clears its mentions with it.
Thirty minutes to correct, and a withdrawal that keeps the row
The author has thirty minutes to fix a typo or withdraw what they wrote, and a corrected message is marked as edited. Withdrawing empties the text and keeps the row where it was and its mentions go, so nothing disappears from the conversation without a trace.
A page, not a live feed
Nothing here asks the server every few seconds to look live without being live, and no mail, notification or background job goes out with a message. A refresh button re-reads the conversation from the database, and that is the whole of what it promises today.
Under development — not available yet
Notifications with per-person preferences
A notification system with a preference per person, a digest, quiet hours and a way to turn it off. It does not exist today, and nothing is sent about anything written here.
Frequently asked questions
Is it live?
No. This is a page, not a live feed: nothing here asks the server every few seconds to look live without being live. The refresh button inside a conversation re-reads it from the database, and that is the whole of what the app promises today.
Do I get a message when somebody mentions me?
No mail, no notification and no background job. A mention is counted and read on the Mentions page and in the unread count, and reading the channel clears it. A notification system with a preference per person and quiet hours does not exist today; it is planned.
Who can read a private channel?
Only its members. Membership itself is the permission and it is checked in the service before every read rather than on the page, so a link a screen forgot to hide refuses instead of exposing anything. Somebody who guesses the id of a closed channel or a direct message is told it does not exist — the same answer an id that never existed gets.
Can I correct or withdraw a message?
The author has thirty minutes to correct or withdraw it, and a corrected message is marked as edited. Withdrawing empties the text and keeps the row where it was and its mentions go, so nothing disappears from the conversation without a trace.