# Chat with your team

> Open Inbox, then Team, to send direct messages and talk in spaces. You can share a customer conversation or hand it over to a teammate.

Source: https://useline.io/help/inbox/team-chat  
Section: Inbox and contacts  
Last updated: 2026-11-06

Team chat lets your team send direct messages and talk in named spaces. It is in the **Inbox**. Team chat never sends a message to a customer.

Team chat is on for every workspace by default, on every plan. Every member who can reply to customers can use it. There is no setting in the app to turn team chat on or off. If you do not see **Team** in the Inbox, contact support at support@useline.io.

## Open team chat

1. Open **Inbox**.
2. At the top of the sub-menu, select **Team**. Select **Customers** to go back to customer conversations.

The **Team** sub-menu shows:

- **Mentions** — messages in which a teammate mentioned you.
- **Spaces** — the spaces that you joined.
- **Direct messages** — your conversations with one or more teammates.
- **Browse spaces** — public spaces that you can join.
- **Archived** — spaces that are archived.

Each workspace has a general space.

## Start a direct message or a space

1. In team chat, select **New chat** in the header bar.
2. Select a tab:
   - **Message** — for a direct message. In **To**, find and select one or more teammates.
   - **Space** — for a named space. Type a **Name**. Select **Private space** if only invited people can see it. Then add people.
3. Select **Create**.

A group message can have up to 20 people, you included. To change the people in a group message, start a new group.

## Send and reply

- Type a message and send it. Type `@` to mention a teammate.
- Reply in a thread to keep a topic together.
- React to a message, pin it, or save it. Your saved messages are private. Select **Saved messages** in the header bar to see them.
- Select **Search team chat** to search messages.
- You can edit or delete your own messages.

## Share a customer conversation

You can post a customer conversation as a card in team chat. The card shows the contact, channel, status and last message.

From the Inbox:

1. Open the customer conversation.
2. Select the actions menu (three dots) in the thread header.
3. Select one option:
   - **Ask a teammate** — sends the card to a teammate in a direct message.
   - **Hand off to a teammate** — asks a teammate to take the conversation.
   - **Share to team chat** — posts the card in a space or a direct message.

From team chat, select **Share conversation** in the composer. In a direct message with one person, the button reads **Hand over**.

## Hand over a conversation

When you hand over a conversation, your teammate sees **Take it** and **Not now**.

- **Take it** assigns the conversation to them.
- **Not now** keeps the conversation where it was.

Only the person asked can answer.

## Common problems

**You cannot see a private space.** Only members of a private space can read it. An Admin role does not give access to a private space. Ask a member of the space to add you.

**You do not get alerts.** Desktop alerts need permission in your browser. Check your notification settings and the alert setting of the space.

## Related articles

- [Assign a conversation to a teammate](https://useline.io/help/inbox/assign-conversations.md): Use the assignee button in the thread header to give a conversation to a teammate. When you reply to an unassigned conversation, Line assigns it to you.
- [Add internal notes and mention teammates](https://useline.io/help/inbox/internal-notes-and-mentions.md): Select Internal note in the composer to write a note that only your team sees. Type @ to mention a teammate, who then sees it in Mentions.
- [Choose your notifications](https://useline.io/help/team/notifications.md): The bell shows unread activity. Turn on desktop alerts in your browser, and set phone alerts per channel and status in the Line mobile app.
- [Use the shared Inbox](https://useline.io/help/inbox/shared-inbox.md): The Inbox holds every customer conversation on SMS, calls, WhatsApp, email and Web Chat in one list. Open a conversation to read it, reply, or close it.