# Talk with your team

Walk through a working morning in Discuss: clear your Inbox, answer a colleague in a channel, react to a message, reply in a direct chat and find a starred message again.

**Discuss** is the internal chat of the firm. Colleagues talk in channels, one per team or topic, and in direct chats between two people, instead of long chains of e-mails. This walk-through follows one morning of the demo administrator: the messages waiting for him, an answer in the **case-updates** channel, a reaction, a direct chat with Rawan Al-Wahmi and a message kept with a star.

## Before you start {#before-you-start}

- Every internal user has **Discuss** on the home screen; no access right needs to be added.
- **Inbox** and **History** appear in the sidebar only when your **Notification** preference is **In Jaah**. With **By Emails**, the same messages reach your mailbox instead. The choice is made in [Set your preferences](/docs/essentials/set-your-preferences).
- In the demo, you belong to the channels **case-updates** and **intake-desk**, Nora Al-Wahmi asked you a question in **case-updates**, Rawan Al-Wahmi wrote to you about case CA/2026/0003 and in a direct chat.
- On a phone, Discuss opens on the list of conversations, with the tabs **Notifications**, **Chats**, **Channels** and **Inbox** at the bottom; a tap opens a conversation full screen. The pictures of this page show the computer screen.

## Step 1: open Discuss {#open-discuss}

Open **Discuss**. The sidebar lists **Inbox**, **Starred messages** and **History**, then your **Channels** and your **Direct messages**. A green counter tells how many messages wait for you, and a dot before a channel's name means it holds messages you have not read yet.

![Discuss opens on its sidebar; the Inbox counts the messages waiting for you.](https://jaah.app/web/image/12770-96a3f5e3/discuss-talk-with-your-team-discuss_home-en.png)

## Step 2: clear your Inbox {#inbox}

1. Click **Inbox**. It gathers what is addressed to you: the messages that mention you in a channel, and the messages sent to you on a record, or on a record you follow, here one about a case. The record's name is a link that opens it.

![The Inbox shows the mention from a channel and a message sent to you about a case.](https://jaah.app/web/image/12772-b4a0acc1/discuss-talk-with-your-team-inbox-en.png)

2. Point at the message about the case and click the check mark **Mark as Read**. The message leaves the Inbox and stays in **History**. **Mark all read**, at the top, does the same for every message at once.

The chatter of the case itself, where the message was written, is explained in [Follow a record with the chatter](/docs/essentials/follow-a-record-with-the-chatter).

## Step 3: answer in a channel {#channel}

1. Under **Channels**, click **case-updates**. The messages run from the oldest at the top to the newest at the bottom, and the one that mentions you stands out in colour. Opening the channel marks its messages as read and takes the mention out of your Inbox.

![The case-updates channel; the message that mentions you is shown in colour.](https://jaah.app/web/image/12774-a0a07258/discuss-talk-with-your-team-channel_mention-en.png)

2. Point at Nora's message and click **Reply**. **Replying to Nora Al-Wahmi** shows above the message box; the cross next to it cancels the reply.
3. Type your answer. To mention a colleague, type **@** and the first letters of the name, then pick the name in the list: the colleague is notified, in the Inbox or by e-mail depending on their own preference.

![A reply to Nora's message; typing @ and a few letters lists the colleagues you can mention.](https://jaah.app/web/image/12776-4611ca82/discuss-talk-with-your-team-reply_and_mention-en.png)

4. Click **Send**, or press Enter. Your answer appears at the bottom, under a quote of Nora's message, so everyone sees what it answers.

![The reply is posted under a quote of the message it answers.](https://jaah.app/web/image/12778-4c680e67/discuss-talk-with-your-team-reply_sent-en.png)

## Step 4: react to a message {#react}

Under Ahmed's message, click the 👍 that Nizar already gave: your reaction is added and the counter goes from 1 to 2. A second click takes it back. For another emoji, point at a message and click **Add a Reaction**. A reaction acknowledges a message without adding a new one to the channel.

![A click on a reaction adds yours; the counter goes from 1 to 2.](https://jaah.app/web/image/12780-30598f37/discuss-talk-with-your-team-reaction-en.png)

## Step 5: answer a direct message {#direct-message}

1. Under **Direct messages**, click **Rawan Al-Wahmi**. A red line marked **New** shows where the messages you have not read begin.
2. Type your answer in the message box and click **Send**. A direct chat is seen by the two of you only.

![The direct chat with Rawan and your answer; on a phone, the chat sits under Chats.](https://jaah.app/web/image/12782-836a851c/discuss-talk-with-your-team-direct_message-en.png)

On a phone, the chat sits under the **Chats** tab, with the last message under the name.

## Step 6: find a message again {#starred}

Point at any message and click **Add Star** to keep it within reach. Click **Starred messages** in the sidebar: it lists every message you starred, each one with the channel it comes from. **Unstar all** empties the list; the messages themselves stay in their channels.

![Starred messages gathers the messages you starred, with the channel each one comes from.](https://jaah.app/web/image/12786-b677948c/discuss-talk-with-your-team-starred-en.png)

## What you have done {#what-you-have-done}

One morning in Discuss: the Inbox cleared, a question answered in a channel with a reply, a reaction given, a direct chat answered and a starred message found again. The user guide goes further: [Create a channel and invite people](create-a-channel-and-invite-people) for your own channels and roles, [Choose your notifications and mute a channel](choose-your-notifications) to decide what reaches you, and [Find, pin and star messages](find-pin-and-star-messages) for search, pinned messages and canned responses. [How Discuss reaches you](how-discuss-reaches-you) explains what lands where.

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- Source: https://jaah.app/docs/discuss/talk-with-your-team
- Updated: 2026-10-27
- Version: Discuss 19.0.1.19
- Verified: 2026-10-27