Messages

Messages is Slack-style chat for your team: channels, direct messages, threads, reactions, and @-mentions, laid out in a three-pane view of the channel list, the message stream, and a thread panel. It also hosts mirrors of the outside messaging services you've connected, so Slack, Signal, and Telegram conversations live here alongside native Bitment chat instead of in a separate tab for each one. Your team uses it to talk internally, message an AI agent the same way you'd message a colleague, and read and reply to outside conversations without leaving Bitment.

Where to find it

Open Messages from the dock. Inside a client, the equivalent conversations for that client sit under Coordination › Messages in the client's sub-navigation. A sub-navigation strip at the top of the app switches between Bitment (native), Slack, Signal, and Telegram.

Key concepts

Channels and DMs

  1. Click a channel's name in its header, or choose Channel details from the header menu, to open its details panel: members, description, who created it, and a Leave channel action.
  2. Use + New › Create a channel to open the same form to create one.

The side panel

Details, profiles, and the create-a-channel form all open in a panel docked to the right side of the app. It doesn't block the rest of the screen: the conversation stays live beside it, and you can keep clicking around while it's open. Drag its left edge to resize it, and close it with the ✕ in its header or the Esc key. On a phone the panel takes over the screen instead, with the same ✕ to go back.

A details or profile panel belongs to the conversation you opened it from, so switching to another conversation closes it. The create-a-channel form isn't tied to a conversation, so it stays open while you move around.

This is the shape in Bitment, Signal, and Telegram. Slack shows a member's profile in its own panel beside the conversation, also resizable and closed by its ✕, but Esc doesn't dismiss it, and Slack's create-channel, new-DM, and browse-channels forms open as centered dialogs instead.

Threads, reactions, and mentions

Reply in a thread to keep a side conversation out of the main stream. React to any message with an emoji. Type @ to mention a person and notify them, or to reference other things in the workspace, since mentions resolve against clients, files, tasks, and more, not just people.

Send files and screenshots

Use the paperclip icon in the message box, drag a file onto the conversation, or copy a screenshot (or any image) and press Cmd+V / Ctrl+V in the message box to attach it directly. This works the same way in the Slack, Signal, and Telegram tabs. You can send an image on its own, with no text.

Connect Slack, Signal, or Telegram

Each connection is personal to you, the way you'd sign into any of these apps yourself, rather than a firm-wide connection: you connect your own workspace, device, or account, and the messages you can see in Bitment are the ones you could already see there.

  1. Slack: go to Settings › Connections › Slack and authorize your workspace.
  2. Signal: go to Settings › Connections › Signal and link the device by scanning the code, the same way you'd link a new device in the Signal app.
  3. Telegram: go to Settings › Connections › Telegram and authorize by scanning a QR code.

Once connected, conversation history syncs into Bitment and new messages arrive live. You read and reply from the matching tab in Messages.

What to expect right after connecting Slack

Slack limits how fast any app may download message history, so the sync runs in stages, and the sidebar tells you which one you're in:

  1. Syncing workspace…: the channel and member list is being mirrored. Usually seconds.
  2. Syncing conversations… n/m: every channel and DM is getting its recent messages. Once this clears, the whole workspace is usable: every conversation shows recent messages, and new ones arrive instantly.
  3. Filling in older history…: older messages keep loading in the background. Nothing is blocked while this runs, and you can close the app; it continues.

That third stage can take a long time. Slack limits some workspaces to as few as about 15 messages per minute of history backfill, a limit on Slack's side that Bitment can't raise, so a large workspace can take days to fill in completely. Hover the "Filling in older history…" line to see whether your workspace is under that limit. Scrolling far enough back in an older conversation may reach the edge of what has loaded so far; the rest arrives later.

A thread's replies load the first time you open it, so opening an old thread for the first time can take a moment.

The Signal and Telegram tabs

Both tabs work like the native apps' chat lists. Right-click a conversation (press and hold on a touch device) for:

Choosing what syncs

Right after connecting Signal or Telegram, you're offered a choice: Sync everything now, or Review conversations first, a searchable list of your contacts and conversations (no message content is synced yet) where you can exclude anything you'd rather keep out of Bitment before syncing starts. The same list stays available afterward at Settings › Connections › Signal/Telegram under "Synced conversations." Searching a person's name surfaces both your direct messages with them and any groups they're in. Excluding a contact only affects your direct messages with them; groups they belong to keep syncing unless you exclude the group too.

That settings page also offers Delete synced messages (Signal) or Delete & re-sync messages (Telegram): every synced message is deleted from Bitment without disconnecting the account, your conversation list and exclusions are kept, and you review them before syncing resumes.

Opening a conversation, or marking it read, doesn't just clear the badge in Bitment: Telegram chats are marked read on your phone and other devices too, and Signal sends the usual read receipts for 1:1 conversations, exactly as if you'd read the messages in the official app.

In group chats, every received message shows its sender's name above the bubble; click the name to open that person's contact profile in the side panel. Clicking the conversation's own header opens the same panel for a 1:1, or the group's roster (rename, add or remove members, leave) for a group.

Someone added you to a Signal group

When your linked Signal account is added to a group, the conversation appears at the top of the Signal tab right away, before any message is sent, and you get a notification naming who added you. Opening the conversation shows a "Join this group?" banner with two choices, matching what the Signal phone app would ask:

Signal's third option, Report, isn't available from Bitment; use the Signal phone app for that. You can also answer on your phone instead, and Bitment reflects your choice.

Signal and Telegram on a client's profile

Open a client in Clients and pick Signal or Telegram under its Coordination group to see that client's conversations only. A conversation lands there automatically when its phone number or @username matches one recorded on the client or one of its contacts. A contact's Signal number and Telegram username live on their contact page in Clients, alongside their plain phone number.

If a conversation hasn't matched, its contact profile panel offers Add to CRM: search a client and save the number or username onto one of its contacts (or the client record itself, after which matching becomes automatic), add the person as a new contact, or create a new client. Alternatively, Or link this conversation only files just this thread under a client or one of its contacts without writing anything to the CRM record. Manage on a matched or linked conversation reopens the same picker.

Group chats carry the same section in their group-details panel, with one difference: since a group has no single person's number or handle, the only option is Link to a client, and the thread files under that client rather than an individual contact.

The Slack tab

The Slack tab works like the Slack client itself:

Formatting a message before you send it

Slack's own formatting marks work in the composer: *bold*, _italic_, ~strikethrough~, ` code , and fenced code blocks. As you type, recognized formatting is tinted and its marker characters dim, so you can tell it registered before sending. Typing @` opens the member picker; picking a name highlights it in the draft, confirming the mention will actually notify that person rather than posting as plain text.

Looking someone up

Click anyone's @name, whether in a message you received, one you sent, or your own draft, to open their profile in the right-hand pane: photo, full name, handle, title, whether they're active, their custom status, and their local time. Message opens a DM with them.

AI in messaging

The AI can read your channels and conversations and draft messages on any of these services. Sends are staged for your approval rather than fired off directly: you approve the message in your conversation with the AI, and it goes out on the right service.

On Signal and Telegram, the AI can go further than replying in an existing thread. It can start a brand-new conversation with someone you haven't messaged yet, and manage a group on your behalf, renaming it or adding and removing members. On Signal it can also change a conversation's disappearing-messages timer. All of these are staged the same way as a drafted message: nothing happens until you approve it.

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