How to enable personal messaging for users

The internal messaging system covers two things, team channels for group discussion, and personal messaging between individual users. This article is about the second part, direct messages between two people.

It isn’t right for every business. Some teams want it, some would rather keep everything in shared channels instead, so it’s a genuine choice rather than something you’d only ever want switched on.

Where to find it

Go to Settings, then Conversations. Find the Allow Personal Messages toggle.

What it does

Switch it on and users can send personal, one to one messages to each other, separate from anything happening in a team or custom channel.

What changes once it’s on

Once enabled, a Direct Messages section appears in the Conversations sidebar for every user. It lists the other people they can message, and clicking on someone opens a private conversation with just the two of them in it.

Deciding whether to enable it

Worth thinking about how your team actually communicates before switching this on. If most of what needs discussing genuinely involves more than one person, a team or topic channel usually serves that better than a string of one to one conversations that nobody else can see. Personal messaging suits the quick, individual conversations that don’t need a wider audience, a quick question for one specific colleague rather than something the whole team needs visibility on.