Messages

Messages is Pace's team chat: channels, direct messages, and file sharing, built on Mattermost and hosted entirely inside your Pace workspace.

Overview

Messages runs on Mattermost, a self-hosted alternative to tools like Slack. It gives your team organized conversations in channels (topic- or team-based chat rooms), one-on-one and group direct messages, threaded replies, and drag-and-drop file sharing, all searchable.

Because Messages is self-hosted as part of your Pace workspace, your conversation history stays on infrastructure your company controls rather than a third-party chat vendor. You open Messages from Pace, and it opens in its own browser tab on your company's own address.

Messages is best for day-to-day team communication: quick questions, project coordination, and announcements. For customer-facing conversations (support tickets, live chat with customers), use Inbox instead.

First-run walkthrough

1. Open Messages from your dashboard. Log in to Pace and click the Messages tile.
2. You land in Town Square. Every new workspace starts with a default "Town Square" channel that includes everyone: a good place for company-wide announcements.
3. Explore or join existing channels. Click the + next to "Channels" in the sidebar, then "Browse Channels" to see what your team has already created and join the ones relevant to you.
4. Set your profile. Click your avatar in the bottom-left corner to add a profile photo and set your display name, so teammates can recognize you in conversations.
5. Send your first message. Click into any channel's message box at the bottom, type a message, and press Enter to post.

Common tasks

• Create a channel. Click the + next to "Channels" in the sidebar and choose "Create New Channel." Give it a clear name (e.g., "marketing-launch"), pick public or private, and invite teammates.
• Send a direct message. Click the + next to "Direct Messages," search for a teammate's name, and start typing. This creates a private one-on-one (or group) conversation outside of any channel.
• Reply in a thread. Hover over any message and click the reply-arrow icon to keep a side conversation attached to the original message, instead of cluttering the main channel feed.
• Share a file. Drag and drop a file into the message box, or click the paperclip icon to attach one: Messages stores it and shows a preview inline for images and PDFs.
• Search past conversations. Use the search bar at the top of the screen to find old messages by keyword, sender, or channel: useful for digging up a decision or link from weeks ago.

Troubleshooting

• The Messages tile won't load or is missing. Confirm Messages is included in your company's plan tier, or ask your Pace admin to enable it from the Admin panel.
• I'm not getting notifications. Check your notification preferences under your avatar → Settings → Notifications. Also confirm your browser hasn't blocked notification permissions for your Pace workspace domain.
• Messages feels slow or won't send. Try refreshing the page first. If it persists across a few minutes, it may be a temporary service issue. Check with your admin or try again shortly.
• I can't find a channel I know exists. Private channels are only visible to invited members. Ask whoever created the channel to add you, or check "Browse Channels" for public ones you haven't joined yet.
• I was removed from Messages entirely. Access follows your Pace account role. If your role changed or your account was deactivated by an admin, your Messages access changes with it. Contact your workspace admin.