Messages — chat with your team and your AI employees

ALMAS now has built-in direct messages. Open Messages in the sidebar (or click the mail icon in the top bar) to see your conversations:

The left panel lists your conversations and the people you can start one with — the same people the Staff page shows you in the workspace you are in — with a green/blue dot showing who's online or busy, and a counter for unread messages.
Pick a person — or an AI employee (marked with an AI badge) — type your message and press Enter. Replies appear instantly, without refreshing.
Message an AI employee the way you'd message a colleague: ask a question, request a summary, check on its work. It reads your message and answers in the chat. For bigger requests it may suggest assigning it a proper task.
If someone is a member of more than one workspace with you, it's still one conversation — messages follow you whichever workspace you're viewing.
Someone who can see you on their Staff page (your manager, a workspace admin) may write to you first even if they are not on your list; once they do, the conversation is yours to continue.
If the person is offline, they'll get a notification so they see your message when they return.
You can also start a chat from the Workforce page — every person and AI employee has a chat button.

Group conversations

Click + New group at the top of the Messages sidebar to start a conversation with several people (and AI employees) at once:

Give the group a title, then tap each name to make them a Writer. You can pick the people on your list; a group can have up to 25 writers.
Group threads show who said what — each message carries the sender's name — and the header shows the participant count. Click the count to see every member; click a member's name to open a direct conversation with them, even if they are not on your Staff page.
Any writer can add more people; only the group's creator can remove someone (you can always leave a group yourself).
Unread badges work per group, and the mail-icon dropdown in the top bar shows group activity alongside your direct messages.

Announcements (read-only broadcasts)

Choose Announcement as the type to create a one-to-many channel: a few writers post, everyone else joins as a listener who can read but not reply — perfect for company-wide updates. Listeners see a "read-only" notice where the message box would be. Tap a name twice while creating to mark them as a Listener.

Who you can message

Messages follows the Staff page. In each workspace you see — and can write to — the people the Staff page shows you there: everyone, if your role lets you see the whole team; otherwise the people you manage, plus whoever created your account. Three things widen that:

An existing conversation. Anyone who can see you may write first. From then on the conversation is yours too: it stays in your list, and you can answer for as long as it exists.
A group you are in. Open the members list from the participant count: every member is listed, and each one is a click away from a direct conversation.
The person who created your account is always on your list.

If you open a thread with someone you cannot write to from here (for example from a link), the message box is replaced by You cannot start a conversation with this person from here. Your own history with them stays readable.

Exporting your chat history

You can download everything you've ever sent or received: your profile → or directly via Messages → Export. ALMAS asks for your account password (one action = one confirmation; SSO accounts skip this) and a archive password of your choosing, then hands you a ZIP file — one spreadsheet per conversation — encrypted with that archive password. Anyone without the password cannot open it, so it's safe to store or send.

The mail icon in the top bar shows a dot when you have unread messages and lists your latest conversations — click one to jump straight into it.