Messages
Messages is where your team talks. Chat one-on-one or in groups with anyone who uses the dashboard, answer texts from your people, reply to prayer requests, and message Culminate support.
Open Messages
Select Messages (the speech bubbles) in the top bar, or press ⌘Ctrl ⇧ M. A red number on the button shows how many messages you haven’t read, and the browser tab shows it too, like (3).
Messages opens as a panel in the bottom-right corner, so you can keep working on the page behind it.
- New message starts a conversation.
- Open full screen shows your conversations on the left and the one you’re reading on the right.
- Minimize shrinks the panel to a small Messages bar with your unread count. Select it to open the panel again.
- Press Esc or select X to close it.
What’s in Messages
The tabs across the top sort your conversations. You only see the tabs your permissions allow.
| Tab | What’s in it | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|
| All | Everything below, newest first. | Everyone |
| Staff | Chats with your team, one-on-one and in groups. See Chat with your team. | Everyone who uses the dashboard |
| Texts | Texts from your people, and texts you send them. See Text conversations. | Text conversations permissions |
| Prayer | Prayer requests to reply to. See Prayer requests. | Prayer requests permission |
| Support | Your conversations with Culminate support. See Get help from Culminate. | Shows once you’ve contacted support |
Pinned chats stay at the top of the list. A number shows how many unread messages a staff chat has, and a dot marks an unread text.
Search
Type in Search to filter the list by name. Type two or more letters to search inside messages too: matches show under Messages, and selecting one jumps right to that message. Search works in staff chats and texts.
Start a conversation
Select New message, then choose who it’s for:
- Staff: pick one or more people on your team. See Start a chat.
- Text someone: search for a person, or type a phone number and select Text. You need a texting permission. See Text conversations.
- Contact Culminate Support: ask us a question. See Get help from Culminate.
You can also start a conversation from a person’s profile. Next to Send notification:
- Message opens a chat with them. It only shows for people who use the dashboard.
- Text opens a text conversation with them. If you can’t text them yet, hover over the button to see why. See Who you can text.
The same buttons are in the Contact row of a workflow item.
Prayer requests
Prayer requests from your app, website, and texts show in the Prayer tab, so your care team can answer them where they already work. Choose Assigned to me or All.
Open a request to see what the person asked for. Write in Reply (they’ll see it in the app) and send it: they’ll see your reply in your app. If the request came in by text, select Text them (it came in by text) to reply by text instead.
Select the open-in-new button to see the request on the Prayer requests page.
Get help from Culminate
Have a question about the dashboard? Message us.
Select New message, then Contact Culminate Support
You can also select Contact support at the bottom of the Help panel.
Describe what you need
Add a Subject (optional), then fill in What do you need help with?. We’ll include the page you were on, so you don’t need to explain where you are.
Select Send to Culminate Support
Your conversation shows as Culminate Support in the Support tab. We usually reply within one business day, here in Messages and by email.
Know when messages come in
- Pop-up previews: a card slides in on the right when a message arrives. Select Reply to answer right there, or Open to go to the conversation. It closes by itself after a few seconds; hover over it to keep it open.
- The bell: you get a notification when someone starts a chat with you, @mentions you, assigns you a text, or answers your support request.
- Email: if a staff chat has messages you haven’t read for 15 minutes, we email you.
- Desktop notifications: the first time you open Messages, you’re asked Get a desktop notification when a message comes in? Select Turn on to get one when the dashboard isn’t the tab you’re looking at.
To change these, open Notification settings from the menu under your name and find Messages. See Notifications and settings.