Messages

Messages holds your direct and group conversations with anyone you share a board with. Threads support attachments you can drag straight onto a canvas, @ mentions that link to real boards and cards, per-thread drafts, and unread counts that show in the browser tab title.

Updated October 21, 2026

Messaging exists so that the conversation about a board can happen next to the board.

Open it from the sidebar or ⌘K → "messages".

Who you can message

Anyone you share at least one board with. Sharing is the address book — there is no separate contact list to maintain, and no way to message someone you have no working relationship with.

Click any collaborator's avatar to start a direct message with them.

Threads

Direct and group conversations in one list, ordered by recency.

• A message's actions — point at a message and click the ⋯ beside it, or right-click it: react, reply, copy its text or a link to it, pin it, and edit or delete your own
• Press and hold — on a phone or tablet, hold a message for the same actions. Hold a conversation in the list to hide it or leave
• Attachments — photos, files, links, cards and clusters sit under the words as cards, the way they look on a board. A cluster shows its cover, where it lives and how many cards it holds, and clicking it opens the cluster. Drag any of them from a thread straight onto a canvas to make it a card
• Markdown and auto-links — formatting is rendered, URLs unfurl
• Mentions — @ a person, board, document or card; boards and cards become navigable links, and a cluster's link shows its cover
• Drafts — a half-written message waits in its conversation, with its attachments and the message it replies to, when you switch conversations, close Messages or reload the page
• Replies — answer one message in particular: it's quoted at the top of your reply, and clicking the quote takes you to it
• Edits and deletes — your own messages; a deleted message goes at once, with Undo on the notice that follows
• Pins — once a conversation has pinned messages, the pin count at its top opens them in a list: each one takes you to its message, and Unpin takes it off
• Seen — in a direct message, “Seen” appears under your latest message once the other person has read it
• Here now — in a direct message, under the other person's name while they have the workspace open
• Permalinks — a link to one specific message, which opens the thread scrolled to it

Writing

• Enter sends and Shift+Enter starts a new line; ⌘/Ctrl+Enter sends too
• On a phone or tablet the return key starts a new line, and the Send button sends
• The box grows as you write, then scrolls once it's tall
• Attach files with the + at the start of the box, by pasting, or by dropping them on the box. Each shows as its own chip while it uploads, and you can keep typing; Send waits until they're all in, and one that fails says so, with Retry
• Edit opens your message in this same box, under an Editing your message line, and the same keys apply: Enter saves (on a phone or tablet, the ✓ does) and Esc cancels. Whatever you'd started writing waits until you're done
• A message that can't be sent stays in the conversation marked Not sent, with Try again and Delete

Keyboard

With a keyboard, a conversation opens with the box you type in ready.

Click anywhere in the conversation outside the box, and these move through it:

Unread

Unread counts appear on the sidebar and in the browser tab title — (3) for unread, (@2) when at least one mentions you directly, so you notice from another tab.

A conversation counts as read once its newest message has been on your screen, not just because it's open. A New line marks where you left off, and when more has arrived than fits, the conversation opens at that line rather than the bottom. Scrolled up in a long one, you stay where you are when something new arrives, and a button takes you back down to the latest.

Messages versus comments

The distinction worth keeping:

• A comment is attached to a thing on a board and stays with it. It is a record.
• A message is a conversation with a person. It is correspondence.

Feedback on a specific image belongs in a comment, where whoever opens that board next will find it. Coordination belongs in a message.

Machine-readable: /docs/collaborate/messages.md · /llms.txt
What changed and when: /changelog