Channel, Teams and direct messages

DEFINITIONS

Term	Definition
Channels	Channels are public or private chat rooms. Public chat channels are active an visible for all members of the chat system. Private chat channels are only visible to the members of the individual channel. A small lock in the # icon of the channel will indicate access level.
Teams	Teams are defined as a collection of user profiles. When created a default Teams chat channel will be created. Private teams are only visible and accessible to users of the team. A Team can create multiple channels for the same team.
Direct messages	Direct messages are private chat room between two users on the chat system.

When you are admitted as a user into the chat system, you will see your chat list on the left side of the screen.

The list only shows chat channels you have access to.

You can access any of the channels (channel or direct messages) , by clicking the name.

You will see an indicator on the right side, if you have unread messages.

MESSAGE EXPIRY

The system will expire all messages, when they are 30 days old. You can however see older messages if you are active in the chat channel and leave the window open.
When your browser is refreshed, this history will be deleted. This is by design.

Some channels might have lower message retention policy, you can therefore experience messages being erased from the system earlier than 30 days from posting.
Please be aware that on mobile devices all messages will be kept as long as the app is running. You will have to re-login to clear the device cache and empty all chat channels according to retention policy. This is by design.