What team chat is for
Team chat is the conversation your business already has, inside the system that holds the rota and the records. It replaces the work half of a WhatsApp group: rota changes, open shifts, "the fridge is playing up", the allergen change everybody has to know about.
It is staff only. Customers, suppliers and contractors are not in it, and there are no voice or video calls.
Where to find it
On the phone: the Chat tab in the Paddl Assist app.
In the admin panel: the chat button in the header, or Team > Team chat for the full page. ⌘⇧K (Ctrl+Shift+K on Windows) opens it from anywhere.
The channels you get
Channels are built from the rota rather than by hand, so the right people are in the right ones:
One per site, holding everybody who works there.
One per staff group at each site, so the kitchen at The Anchor is separate from the bar.
Managers, for owners and managers only.
Everyone, for the whole business.
You can also make your own groups, and anybody can start a direct message with a colleague.
When somebody joins or leaves
Membership follows the team, not a list somebody maintains:
Add somebody to a site or a staff group and they appear in those channels.
Deactivate them and they are out of every channel that moment. Their sessions close and the pushes stop.
Their messages stay in the history under their name, because the record belongs to the business.
Rehire them and they come back, seeing the conversation from that point on rather than everything they missed.
What you can send
Text, photos, video, voice notes, documents, GIFs and polls. You can reply to a message, @mention somebody, react, pin, and search. Long-press a message (or hover in the admin panel) for the rest.
Privacy, said plainly
The first time you open chat you are asked to accept a short notice. It says what is true: managers can export a conversation, an owner can open a direct message with a written reason that both people are told about, and messages are kept for as long as the business has chosen.
See Exports, retention and legal hold for the detail.