Internal Chat

Internal Chat

What is Internal Chat?

Internal Chat is a feature that allows your users to send instant messages (IMs) to each other from anywhere in iCarol and includes the following:
  1. easily accessed by clicking the Internal Chat pop-up menu at the bottom of any page
  2. grant permission to access Internal Chat to individual users
  3. each user can create their own custom list of Contacts with Groups, with the ability to designate Favorite contacts
  4. ability to conduct group IM conversations, adding as many users to the conversation as you wish
Note, if your system has Messaging (Live Chat or SMS/Text) enabled, an old version of Internal Chat is still available from the main Messaging page, using the ‘Also Online’ section. See the end of this Knowledge Base for more details about this version.

How to enable Internal Chat for your system

To fully enable the Internal Chat feature, you must complete the following tasks:
  1. Edit your overall system setting to enable Internal Chat for your entire system
  2. Give each individual user permission to access Internal Chat


To edit your overall system settings and enable Internal Chat for your entire system, complete the following steps:
  1. As an Admin level user, click Admin Tools from your left side menu
  2. Select the ‘Vols and Staff’ tab along the top of the page
  3. Under the ‘Internal Chat’ section, select the checkbox to ‘Enable Internal Chat functionality for your Organization’
  4. Click the ‘Save all settings’ button at the top of the page
After you’ve enabled Internal Chat for your system, you need to give permission to your vols-staff to access the feature.

How to enable Internal Chat for your users

After you’ve enabled Internal Chat for your system, you need to give permission to your vols-staff to access the feature.To give permission to your users, choose one of the following options:
  1. Give permission to all existing vols-staff, or
  2. Give permission to each individual vols-staff

To give permission to all existing users to access Internal Chat, complete the following steps:

  1. As an Admin level user, click Admin Tools from your left side menu
  2. Select the ‘Vols and Staff’ tab along the top of the page
  3. Under the ‘Internal Chat’ section, click the link to ‘Enable Internal Chat for Everyone’

To give, or remove permission for individual users to access Internal Chat, complete the following steps:

  1. As an Admin or Supervisor level user, click ‘Vols-Staff’ from your left side menu
  2. From your list of users, click the users name you wish to give permission to, or remove permission from
  3. Go to the Admin panel of their profile and click the link to edit their ‘Advanced Security Settings’
  4. Under the ‘Other Features’ section, select, or deselect the checkbox next to the setting ‘Allowed to access Internal Chat’
  5. Click the ‘Save all settings’ button at the bottom of the page
Note, if you complete the steps above to give permission to all existing users to access Internal Chat, remember when you add new users in the future you’ll need to complete the steps again to give permission to the new users.

How to add and remove users in your Internal Chat Contacts

After you have Internal Chat enabled in your vols-staff profile, before you can initiate an Internal Chat with another user you need to add users to your Contacts list.

To add users to your Contacts list, complete the following steps:

  1. From anywhere in iCarol, click the ‘Internal Chat’ menu at the bottom of your page
  2. In the search bar at the top of the menu, start typing the name of a user you wish to add to your Contacts
  3. Select the user’s name from the auto suggested drop-down list. Note, only other users who have permission to access the Internal Chat feature will appear in this list
  4. After selecting the user’s name from the auto suggested drop-down list, their name appears in the search bar with a plus sign to the right
  5. Click the plus sign to add the user to your Contacts list
Note, when you first click the ‘Internal Chat’ menu at the bottom of your page, you’ll see all the Contacts you’ve added; click the black arrow next to your Contacts list to show or hide the users you’ve added.

To remove users from your Contacts list, complete the following steps:

  1. From anywhere in iCarol, click the ‘Internal Chat’ menu at the bottom of your page
  2. Right click the users name you wish to remove
  3. Click ‘Remove from group’
Note, if you’ve added users to multiple Groups in your Contacts list, you’ll need to remove them from each Group.

How to create and remove Internal Chat Groups of Contacts

After you’ve added users to your Internal Chat Contacts, you can create Groups within your Contacts.

To create Groups from your Contacts list, complete the following steps:

  1. From anywhere in iCarol, click the ‘Internal Chat’ menu at the bottom of your page
  2. Right click the default Contacts group, or any Group you’ve created
  3. In the dialog box that appears, type the Group name you wish to add under 'Create Group...'
  4. After you’re done entering the name of your Group hit the ‘Enter’ button on your keyboard, your new Group will appear at the bottom of your Contacts list
Note, when you first click the ‘Internal Chat’ menu at the bottom of your page, you’ll see all the Groups and Contacts you’ve added; click the black arrow next to your Groups to show or hide the users under Groups

To remove Groups from your Contacts list, complete the following steps:

  1. From anywhere in iCarol, click the ‘Internal Chat’ menu at the bottom of your page
  2. First you must remove each user individual user from the Group using the instructions above
  3. After each users removed, right click the Group name you wish to delete
  4. Click ‘Remove group’
Note, the default Contacts group can’t be deleted.

How to add users to Internal Chat Groups

After you’ve added users to your Contacts list, and created Groups within your Contacts list, you can add users to these Groups by completing the following steps:
  1. From anywhere in iCarol, click the ‘Internal Chat’ menu at the bottom of your page
  2. Right click the users name you wish to add to a Group
  3. ‘Copy’ or ‘Move’ the user into a Group by completing the following steps:
    1. If you wish to copy the user into a Group, so they remain in the existing Group and copied into the new Group, hover over ‘Copy to group’ and select the Group name you wish to copy the user to
    2. If you wish to move the user into a Group, so they’re removed from the existing Group and moved into the new Group, hover over ‘Move to group’ and select the Group name you wish to move the user to

How to Add Favorites to Internal Chat Contacts

After you’ve added users to your Contacts list, if you wish to add favorites to your Contacts list and Groups, which makes users appear at the top of Group, complete the following steps:
  1. From anywhere in iCarol, click the ‘Internal Chat’ menu at the bottom of your page
  2. Right click the users name you wish to add as a favorite
  3. Click ‘Add to favorites’
  4. Notice the user’s name appears at the top of the Group with a star next to it

How to start an Internal Chat

After you’ve added users to your Contacts list, to start an Internal Chat with another user, complete the following steps:
  1. From anywhere in iCarol, click the ‘Internal Chat’ menu at the bottom of your page
  2. Right click the name of another user who’s online
  3. Click ‘Start a chat’
  4. A conversation pop-up opens where you can choose to add more users to the conversation, or send a message now
  5. To send a message, type your message into the text box and hit ‘Enter’ on your keyboard
Note, when other users are online their names will appear highlighted in green in your Contacts list; when users are offline their names will appear highlighted in red.
To start an internal chat with more than one user, or a ‘Group Chat’, complete the following steps:
  1. First, complete the steps to begin a conversation with an individual user
  2. To add more users to the internal chat at any point in the conversation, click the icon at the top of the conversation bar that appears as two people with a plus sign
  3. In the search bar at the top of the menu, start typing the name of a user you wish to add to the chat
  4. Select the user’s name from the auto suggested drop-down list. Note, only other users who have permission to access the Internal Chat feature will appear in this list
  5. After selecting the user’s name from the auto suggested drop-down list, their name appears in the search bar with a plus sign under it
  6. Click the plus sign to add the user to the conversation, and notice after more than one user is added to the conversation the conversation pop-up label changes from the name of the individual user you started the Internal Chat with to ‘Group Chat’
  7. Complete these steps as many times as you wish to add more users to the chat

Troubleshooting Tip:

The Internal Chat function does not always automatically refresh and therefore you may need to manually refresh your page in order to see an updated version of your Contacts list and messages sent in active Conversations.  Logging out and back in may also help, as well as having anyone who is showing as offline when they are actually online log out and back in. 

If you have feedback about enhancements you'd like to see us make to this feature, please visit the Help Center and add an Idea to the Community; read this Knowledge Base to learn more.

How to Mute/Unmute an Internal Chat

To mute/unmute the audio notifications for an active internal chat conversation, complete the following steps:
  1. Open the active internal chat conversation
  2. Right click the settings icon that appears in the top right corner of the internal chat conversation
  3. Select 'Mute Chat' and audio notifications for this conversation are muted 
  4. To unmute a conversation, complete steps 1-2, then for step 3 select 'Unmute Chat'

Original Version Of Internal Chat

If your organization is subscribed to Live Chat or SMS/Text, you have access to the original version of the Internal Chat feature, found on the main Messaging page. The original version doesn't support functions like Group Chat, Internal Contacts, or Favorites, but it does allow you to communicate with another user through a chat interface. To use the original version of this feature, follow the same steps above to enable the feature. Once the feature is enabled and users are given permission to access Internal Chat, complete the following steps to have a conversation:
  1. From the main Messaging page, look under the 'Also Online' queue and find the name of the person you wish to start an Internal Chat with and click their name
  2. A new tab will open with a new conversation where you can type and send your message
  3. When the new conversation is initiated, a pop-up window notification will appear to notify the person you have started a conversation
  4. When new messages are sent within the conversation, an audio notification will notify you a new message has arrived
  5. When you have an active conversation with someone, a red exclamation mark will appear next to their name under the 'Also Online' queue
  6. To end a conversation, click the 'End Chat' button then click 'OK'; the page will refresh and a message appears at the bottom of the page that says 'The conversation has been closed. No new messages can be delivered.'; at this point you can close the tab and the conversation is over

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