Chat
Real-time direct messages and group chats with @mentions, presence, and search.
Overview
Real-time chat with one-to-one DMs, groups and channels, @mentions that notify the people you name, a who's-here-now strip in each conversation, and search across every message you can see. Every message stays within your organization, searchable by the people in the conversation, with edits kept on record.
See how direct messages, groups and channels, one-click video huddles, threaded replies, and full-text or semantic search come together in one real-time workspace.
Highlights
Capabilities
Conversations & Channels
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One-to-one direct messages Auto-deduped per pair — starting a chat with someone you already DM'd reopens the existing conversation.
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Groups and channels with admin/member roles The creator becomes a conversation admin; admins add and remove members and make others admins, members can leave, and a conversation whose last admin leaves the company gets a new one.
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Named public channels Named channels for a team, location or topic, each with its own name and topic, alongside DMs and groups.
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Replies to a message Reply to a specific message: the reply quotes the message it answers and arrives live for everyone in the conversation.
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Edit & soft-delete your own messages Editable for 15 minutes after send (admin-toggleable). A deleted message is hidden rather than erased, unless a retention period is set, which deletes it for good 30 days after it passes (legal holds excepted).
Real-time, Presence & Read Receipts
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Instant message delivery Every message is saved first, then delivered to everyone in the conversation in under a second.
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Per-conversation presence (who's here now) An avatar strip shows who is in the conversation right now — visible only to its members.
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Global online status A cache-based heartbeat tracks who is online business-wide, returned in a single batch.
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Typing indicators Live "user is typing" inside conversations; admin-toggleable per business.
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"Seen by" Senders see who has seen their message: the reader in a one-to-one chat, up to three names then how many more in a group, and “Read by N%” with its list in conversations of more than 50 people. An admin can turn it off with “Show who has seen a message”. Asking each person to confirm they've read a message is the separate read receipt request.
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Important messages & read-receipt requests Senders can flag a message important or request an explicit per-message acknowledgement, with a 'Read by X/Y' report.
Rich Messaging & Media
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File attachments Drag-and-drop or paperclip upload, up to 10 files per message.
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Inline images & GIFs Rendered inline with async-generated thumbnails and captured dimensions.
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Video attachments Every video gets a poster frame and, when needed, a 720p H.264 copy that plays in any browser; the original is kept.
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Auto-generated video subtitles Optional per-business subtitle pipeline that runs alongside the transcode; off by default.
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Emoji reactions Toggle from the 10-emoji platform default set; reactions broadcast live to everyone in the conversation.
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@mentions Mention teammates to pull them in; mentions feed the platform Notification system.
Search & Discovery
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Keyword search Kept up to date as messages are sent and edited; matching words are highlighted.
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Search by meaning Admin-controlled and on by default; new and edited messages are indexed as they're sent, and existing history is indexed once when it's turned on.
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Filter search by sender Narrow message-content search to specific people.
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Find conversations by name Look up a conversation by group name or DM partner name, separate from message-content search.
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Dedicated Mentions inbox Reverse-chronological feed of every chat mention with cursor pagination and jump-to-message.
Analytics & Insights
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Admin analytics dashboard Adoption %, DAU/MAU stickiness, cross-department communication, and mention response rate.
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CSV export of analytics One file with summary metrics, 30-day DAU, 12-week adoption trend, and top department-pair volumes.
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Cross-department & mention-response metrics Percentage of messages crossing departments (with top dept pairs) plus 1h/4h/24h mention response rate and median.
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Personal activity dashboard Every user sees active conversations, their mention response time vs. team, a messaging-hours heatmap, and top conversations.
Clients & API
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Desktop app (Mac & Windows) The OneMango desktop app shows the same conversations in real time; download it from Get the apps in your profile menu.
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Mobile web (iOS & Android browsers) Phone-sized pages for the conversation list, conversation view, mentions inbox, and sending.
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REST API for chat Bearer-token or session-authed endpoints for rooms, members, messages, threads, reactions, search, mentions, presence, and settings.
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Pin conversations Per-user pin to keep priority conversations at the top — set it on the web, the desktop app or the API; mobile web lists pinned conversations first.
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Mute conversations Per-user mute to silence a conversation's bells, emails and push — web and mobile web toggle it on/off; the desktop app and API can also set a timed expiry. Messages that ask you to confirm you've read them still reach your bell, and your email if it's on.
Admin Controls
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Toggle direct messages
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Toggle group chats & channels Off stops people starting groups, creating channels and joining public channels; conversations they are already in keep working.
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Toggle file uploads Hides the paperclip when off; server-side validation refuses uploads either way.
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Toggle typing indicators
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Toggle semantic search On by default — turning it on after being off kicks off a one-time embeddings backfill.
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Toggle video huddles (Live Assist) Adds a “Start huddle (Live Assist)” item to the conversation’s ⋯ actions menu, and a “Start huddle” button on a phone; requires the Live Assist app to be turned on (and published to the people using it).
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Configurable attachment size caps Separate per-file caps for files/images (1–500 MB) and for video.
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Configurable retention / auto-purge Company admins set how long messages are kept, separately for one-to-one messages, groups and channels (at least 30 days, or Forever). Each night older messages are hidden, then permanently deleted 30 days later; legal holds keep theirs.
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Built-in AI assistant (Ask AI agent) @Ask AI inside any conversation (grounded answers, summaries, smart replies, composer assist), plus read-only and confirmation-gated action agents in the Ask AI sidebar.
Limits & Specs
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Real-time transport: Pusher Channels
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Message storage: Kept with the rest of your OneMango data, separate per organization
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Default max attachment size: 25 MB per file (admin-configurable, 1–500 MB)
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Default max video attachment size: 500 MB per file (admin-configurable)
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Max attachments per message: 10
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Reaction emoji set: 10 platform-default emojis
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Message edit window: 15 minutes after send
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Mobile support: iOS & Android via mobile web
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Pricing: Licensed add-on — standalone or in the Work Coordination Pack
Use cases
Resources
FAQ
They're two deliberately separate apps. Chat is the synchronous, real-time messenger: one-to-one chats, small groups and named channels, live presence, typing indicators, read receipts, and one-click video huddles — built for conversations that happen while people are online together. Messages is the asynchronous, email-like channel — announced in Notifications and read in Messages — for private notes that don't need the recipient present. The One-to-one messages switch in Chat settings governs Chat's real-time one-to-one chats; the Messages app is governed independently, except information barriers: set in Chat settings, they apply to Messages too. Most organizations run both.
Chat is a licensed app (it requires a license and is disabled until an admin enables it). It's available standalone or as part of the Work Coordination Pack, which bundles Chat with Calendar, Tasks, Workspaces, and more. Talk to your MangoApps contact for current per-user pricing and packaging.
Yes — any conversation can start a live video huddle from its ⋯ actions menu. Huddles are powered by the Live Assist app, so the “Start huddle (Live Assist)” item appears once an admin turns on the Live Assist huddles setting in Chat settings AND the Live Assist app is turned on (and published to the people using it). Without those two pieces in place, Chat stays a text/media messenger.
Up to 10 files per message. Non-video files default to 25 MB per file (configurable 1–500 MB); video defaults to 500 MB (configurable 1–2,000 MB). See the Chat FAQ for the full limits table.
Yes. Full-text keyword search is always on. Semantic search (meaning-based, powered by embeddings) is also on by default. See the Chat FAQ for setup details and the embedding backfill process.
Both. The OneMango desktop app for Mac and Windows shows the same conversations in real time; download it from Get the apps in your profile menu, or from mangoapps.com/downloads/desktop. Mobile web gives iOS and Android browsers the conversation list, conversation view, mentions inbox, and sending. Every surface authenticates against the same business + conversation-membership rules, so tenant isolation holds everywhere.
Yes. Admins get a company-wide dashboard — adoption, DAU/MAU stickiness, cross-department communication (including top department pairs), and mention response rate — all exportable as a single CSV. Separately, every user gets a personal activity dashboard: active conversations, their mention response time versus the team, a messaging-hours heatmap, and their top conversations.
Every message is saved before it is delivered, so sending never depends on the real-time layer — if the real-time service (Pusher) is unavailable, real-time delivery, presence, typing, and receipts degrade gracefully and a refresh shows what was missed. Every live connection is checked against the person's organization and conversation membership before it opens, and all data is kept separate per organization, so tenants never see each other's conversations.
