Who can I message, and how do video calls work?

Open Messages and start a conversation. Your own people can message anyone in the firm and anyone outside it who is on one of the firm's jobs. An owner's rep, a subcontractor or a vendor sees the people on their own jobs, plus the firm's contact for each job — usually its project manager — and nobody else in the firm. Nobody outside the firm is ever handed the firm's staff list. Work with two firms and you have two separate inboxes; switch between them in the organization menu.

Only the people in a conversation can read it. Start one about a machine, a check, a deficiency, an NCR or the job itself — from the Message link on that record — and every message is also written to its record, so six weeks later the reason a retest moved is on the machine, not in someone's phone. The project manager can start one conversation for everyone on a job; people added to the job later join it, and people taken off it leave it.

Start a video call from any conversation. It opens in the browser on a laptop, tablet or phone, for up to six people. You can mute, turn the camera off, flip to the rear camera to show the equipment, and share your screen to walk someone through a drawing. Only the people in the conversation can join. When the call ends, the conversation notes who was on it and for how long, and on a conversation about a record, so does the record.

Some company and mobile networks block live video calls. When someone can't be reached, the call says so and offers the other way: a video message. Record up to three minutes — or send a video file up to 50 MB — and it plays right in the conversation. It works on any network, it can't be edited or deleted once sent, and on a conversation about a record it becomes part of that record.

Already use Zoom, Teams or Google Meet? Paste the meeting link into the conversation and everyone gets it with one tap.