Message your team

Messages keeps site and office talking inside Assignar Pay. Every project and order has its own chat, you can message one person or a group, and announcements reach a whole crew at once. Field workers see the same conversations in Pay Mobile and get a push notification when something new arrives.

Owners, Admins, Managers and Field users can read and send messages. Owners, Admins and Managers can also send announcements, remove messages and change the messaging settings. If Messages opens a Permission Denied page for you, an Owner or Admin has narrowed your access. See Adjust someone's access.

Wherever this page says project or order, your screens use your organization's own words for them.

Open Messages

On the web, open Messaging → Messages in the sidebar, or click the envelope beside the notifications bell. The envelope shows how many unread messages you have.

Messages has these tabs:

• Inbox: your conversations, newest first, with an unread count on each
• Announcements: messages sent to a whole audience
• Notification settings: which messages send a push notification to your phone
• Settings: the organization's messaging settings, shown only if you can change them

In Pay Mobile, tap the envelope at the top of the Home screen, or open More → Messages. The inbox lists Announcements first, then Conversations.

Start a conversation

1. In the Inbox, type in Search or start a chat. It finds your conversations and, under People, anyone you can message.
2. Pick a person to open your conversation with them. If you haven't messaged them before, the conversation starts when you send your first message.

To start from a blank page instead, click the pencil beside the search box, or New message, and type a name in To:. In Pay Mobile, tap the pencil at the top of the inbox.

Who can message whom one-to-one is an organization setting, Who can send direct messages:

• Everyone: anyone can message anyone else. This is the default.
• Office staff only: Owners, Admins and Managers can message anyone. Field workers can message office staff, not each other.
• Off: nobody can start or reply to a direct message. Past conversations stay readable.

Chat about a project or an order

Open a project or an order and click Chat. The chat slides in beside the page, so you never lose your place. If nobody has posted yet, the button reads Start a chat, and the chat begins with your first message. The same button is in the order editor on the scheduling board.

To see the chat full size, open the Chat options menu in the panel and choose Open in Messages. Every project and order chat you can read is also listed in your Inbox.

Office staff who can see the project or order can read its chat. Field workers read an order's chat while they're allocated to it, and see "You are no longer on this order." once the day after their last allocated day has passed.

When your organization limits access by location, office staff read a project's chat only when the project belongs to their locations and Business Units, and an order's chat only when the order does. Being mentioned, or having someone from their location on the crew, doesn't open another location's chat, and they don't get its notifications.

Choose who may post

The line under the chat's name tells you who can post: Only managers and above can post or Everyone on this thread can post. If you can't post, you see "You can read this thread." in place of the message box.

People who manage messaging can change this for one chat with Who may post in its header:

• Account default: follow the organization setting
• Managers and above
• Everyone who can read it

New project chats default to Managers and above, and new order chats to Everyone who can read it. Change those defaults under Who may post in the messaging settings.

Start a group chat

Group chats are off until someone who manages messaging switches on Allow group chats. After that, anyone who can send messages can start one.

1. In the Inbox, click New group chat.
2. Optionally enter a Name (optional). Without one, the chat is named after its members.
3. Under Who's in the chat, keep Choose people and pick at least two people in To:.
4. Click Next, then write the first message. The group chat is created when you send it.

A group chat holds up to 50 people, including you. Only its members can read it.

From the menu in the chat's header:

• Rename: only the person who started the chat can rename it
• Add people: anyone in the chat can add people, and they see the whole conversation, including what was said before they joined
• Members: who's in the chat
• Leave chat: you stop getting its messages and can no longer read any of it. Someone still in the chat can add you back

If group chats are switched off again, nobody can start, post in, rename or add people to a group chat. Existing group chats stay readable and people can still leave them.

In Pay Mobile, you can read the group chats you're in. To post in one, start one, rename it, add people or leave, use the web. Until Pay Mobile is updated, it lists a group chat as Message rather than by its name, and shows lines such as who was added or who left as ordinary messages.

Keep a group in step with a worker tag

Owners, Admins and Managers who manage messaging can start a group chat that follows a worker tag, such as a crew or a shift.

1. Click New group chat and choose Members from a worker tag.
2. Choose a tag. Everyone who carries it and has a Pay login is in the chat.
3. Add anyone else under Anyone else (optional):, then click Next and send the first message.

The chat header shows Linked to the tag and the tag's name, and Members marks the tag's people From tag. People join when they're given the tag and leave when it's removed, with no line in the chat. Someone who carries the tag can't leave, but can mute the chat. People you added yourself stay until they leave.

A tag can be linked only if the chat, counting you and anyone you add, would have at most 50 people. For a bigger crew, send an announcement to the tag instead. Once linked, everyone who later gets the tag is added, even past 50, and then nobody can be added by hand.

If the tag is deleted, the header says the chat is no longer linked and names the deleted tag. The chat keeps the members it had, and they can leave like any other group chat.

Send an announcement

Use an announcement when a whole crew needs the same message: a site closure, a toolbox talk, a heat alert. Nobody can reply to an announcement, which keeps it from turning into a hundred-person conversation.

1. Open Announcements in Messages.
2. In Send to, choose Everyone, Office only, Field only, One project, One order or Workers with a tag…. For the last three, choose the project, order or tag beside it.
3. Check the line under the message box. Will reach tells you how many people will get it. For a tag, it also counts tagged workers who have no Pay login and won't receive it.
4. Write the announcement and click Send.

Each audience keeps its own history in the list on the left. One project reaches the workers on that project's orders, and office staff who have taken part in the project's chat or its announcements. One order reaches the workers allocated to it, and office staff who have taken part in the order's chat or its announcements. Other office staff who can see the project or order aren't sent it, but can still read it in Announcements.

An announcement to a tag follows the tag. Someone who's given the tag later can read the earlier announcements, and someone whose tag is removed can no longer read them. If the tag is deleted, its announcements stay readable for office staff, and nobody new can receive them.

Each person can send up to five announcements an hour.

Send an urgent announcement

An urgent announcement reaches everyone in the audience with a push notification and a bell, even people who muted announcements or switched announcement pushes off. On the web it's labelled Urgent in the chat and in the announcements list. Pay Mobile shows the label in the app once it's updated; its push notification already says Urgent announcement.

If you're allowed to send one, an Urgent switch sits under the message box. Switch it on before you click Send; a warning reminds you who it will reach. The switch turns itself off after the announcement goes.

Owners and Admins can send urgent announcements by default. The organization chooses the roles under Urgent announcements in the messaging settings, and each urgent announcement is listed there under Recent urgent announcements.

Send photos and files

Attachments are off until someone who manages messaging switches on Allow attachments.

On the web, click the paperclip (Attach a file), drag files onto the conversation, or paste them. In Pay Mobile, tap the paperclip and choose Take photo, Photo library or File.

You can send:

• photos (JPEG, PNG and WebP) and PDFs
• Word, Excel, PowerPoint, CSV and text files

Up to 4 files go in one message, each 10 MB or smaller. Images can be at most 20,000 pixels wide or tall, and CSV and text files must be saved as UTF-8. Files with macros, and PDFs with scripts or embedded files, are refused.

Click a photo to see it full size, and click Download to save it.

Put chat photos in the project's or order's gallery

With Add chat photos to the project or order gallery switched on, photos sent in a project or order chat are copied to that project's or order's Photos tab within a few minutes. There they're labelled Project chat or Order chat, and the source filter lists them as Chat photo.

Only photos sent after the setting is switched on are copied. Anyone who can see the Photos tab can see them, even people who aren't in the chat. Photos from direct messages, group chats and announcements, and documents, are never copied.

Quiet a conversation

To stop a busy conversation interrupting you, click Mute in its header. In a project or order chat panel, Mute is in the Chat options menu. In Pay Mobile, tap the bell at the top of the conversation.

A muted conversation sends you no push notification and no bell, and its unread messages aren't counted. It shows Muted in your inbox and is still there when you need it.

For announcements there are two more ways, both on the web for now. Pay Mobile gets them once it's updated, and what you set on the web already applies to your phone:

• Mute one audience with the mute button beside it in the Announcements list.
• Switch on Mute all announcements, at the top of Announcements or in Notification settings. It stops the bell and the push for every audience, including new ones. Announcements still appear and still count as unread.

Urgent announcements reach you either way.

Get notifications on your phone

Pay Mobile gets a push notification for a new message in:

• a direct message or group chat you're in
• an order chat, if you're allocated to the order or have posted in its chat
• a project chat you've posted in
• an announcement sent to you

The notification shows the conversation's name, or Announcement (Urgent announcement for an urgent one), and says New message or New announcement. It never shows the message itself, so the message text never appears on a lock screen. The conversation's name does, and for a project or order chat that is the project's or order's name. Tap it to open the conversation.

Each message also puts an entry in the notifications bell on the web.

Choose which messages send a push

On the web, open Notification settings in Messages. Pay Mobile gets its own settings screen once it's updated; what you set on the web already applies to your phone. Notification settings takes you to Notifications in your personal settings, with one set of switches for each organization you belong to:

• Direct messages
• Group chats
• Project chats
• Order chats
• Announcements

Switching one off stops only the push notification. Those messages still arrive, still count as unread and still appear in the bell. A muted conversation never sends a push, whatever these switches say. Urgent announcements ignore all of them.

Remove a message

People who manage messaging see a Remove button beside each message. Click it and the message is removed for everyone, on the web and in Pay Mobile. Everyone sees "This message was removed." in its place, and a photo it carried also leaves the project's or order's Photos tab.

Set up messaging for your organization

Owners, Admins and Managers who manage messaging open Settings in Messages, which goes to the Messaging section of your organization's settings. It has three cards, each with its own save button.

Who may post sets the defaults for New project threads and New order threads. Click Save posting defaults.

Direct messages, group chats and attachments holds Who can send direct messages, Allow group chats, Allow attachments and Add chat photos to the project or order gallery. Click Save messaging controls.

Urgent announcements sets Who can send urgent announcements: Owner, Admin or Manager. They also need permission to send announcements. Click Save urgent announcements. Recent urgent announcements lists who sent each one, and to which audience.

Messages or SMS?

Messages reaches people who have a Pay login, in the app. There's no consent step and nothing to buy, and people can reply, share photos and follow a project's chat.

SMS texts phone numbers, including people who don't use Pay, and each message uses credits. When you pick one person in SMS Compose, Message in app opens a conversation with them in Messages instead.

When a message doesn't send

A message that fails shows Not sent and Retry under it, and a note in the corner of the screen says why.

"You are sending messages too quickly. Wait a moment and try again." You've sent a lot of messages in a few minutes, or reached the hourly limit on announcements. Wait and click Retry.

"Direct messages are turned off, so this was not sent." Your organization has set Who can send direct messages to Off. Past direct messages stay readable.

"Field workers can't message each other, so this was not sent." or "You can message office staff only." Your organization uses Office staff only. Message an Owner, Admin or Manager instead.

"Attachments are turned off for this account, so this was not sent." Remove the files, or ask someone who manages messaging to switch on Allow attachments.

"A message can carry up to 4 files, so this was not sent." Send the rest in another message.

"Group chats are turned off, so this was not sent." Someone who manages messaging has switched off Allow group chats.

"Too many people carry this tag for a group chat (the limit is 50). Send an announcement to the tag instead." Pick a smaller tag, or use Workers with a tag… under Announcements.

"You cannot send urgent announcements in this organization." Your role isn't ticked under Who can send urgent announcements. Send it without Urgent, or ask an Owner or Admin.