Community Knowledge Base

Live Chat Overview

This feature is only available in SmarterMail Enterprise.

SmarterMail's live chat allows users on the same domain to chat with each other, instantly and securely, right within the webmail interface. SmarterMail also supports a variety of desktop and/or mobile chat clients, such as Pidgin, Adium, IM+ and others. Users can interact via chat, or use real-time voice and video. Video chat links appear in the chay area when a chat is started with another user, but that link can be shared with anyone. If you don't want to use the web interface, most third-party chat clients that support the XMPP (Jabber) protocol can be used for text chat. There's no doubt email is a great communications mechanism, but there are times when real-time voice, video and text communication is crucial.

NOTE: In order to use chat, your SmarterMail installation MUST be secured with an SSL certificate. This is because the audio, video and live chat connections require HTTPs connections in order to work properly and securely.

The Chat icon is in the top, right corner of the web interface. When a new chat is received, the icon will display an unread flag.

Live Chat Unread Flag

Clicking on the icon will pop out the chat window, allowing you to respond to the chat request or start your own.

Navigating Chat

Layout

The chat window is divided into two main areas:

  • The Chat Users/Aliases view - This area displays the contacts on your domain. If aliases are set up so that multiple people can chat at the same time, those show at the top of the view with individual users showing below. A user's status is also displayed. (The status for an alias is not displayed because aliases contain multiple individuals, so tracking the status of an alias won't work since each individual in the alias can have a different status.)
  • The actual chat area. This is where your text chat occurs. Previous conversations are listed, in order, beginning with the most recent session you've had with that user. The 75 most recent lines are displayed OR the chats you've had with that user in the last 30 days are displayed, if the total lines don't add up to 75. Scrolling up in this area will display older threads.

Chat With... - This area allows you to type in the username of an individual. The Chat With area is especially helpful in cases where a domain has a large number of users. Typing in a username allows you to find the person you want to chat, quickly and easily, versus having to scroll through a large list of users.

Modifying Your Status

In order to set your chat status you'll need to right-click on your user avatar, then select your status from the dropdown menu.

As for the status definitions:

  • Available - You are available to receive and respond to chats via the webmail interface. When a user is marked as Available, they will see other members of their domain who are also active and available.
  • Away - You are logged in but are away from your computer and may not respond right away.
  • Do Not Disturb - You are logged in, but busy. Therefore, you're not available at the moment and may not respond for an extended period of time.
  • Offline - When this setting is checked, any user that is offline will appear in the users list, but the username and availability will be greyed out. Deselecting this will hide all offline users from the list.

Clicking on your avatar also displays 3 other options:

  • Open Help - This opens the help documentation for SmarterMail. By default, it will open the help document to the page in help that corresponds to the page you're currently on in the web client.
  • About SmarterMail - Opens a modal window that displays the version of SmarterMail that's running, the version number, and copyright and licensing info.
  • Logout - This will completely log you out of SmarterMail, NOT simply log you out of chat. To stop receiving group chats, you need to set your status to Offline.

Starting an Audio or Video Chat

SmarterMail's chat includes real-time audio and video chat for user-to-user interaction. To start either an audio or video chat with another user, use the Actions (⋮) button and choose the type of chat you want to start, and that call will be started with the user. The video window will overlay on top of the group chat window.

Sharing Files and Links

To share a file, you can simply drag files into the chat area or use Actions (⋮) button and select "Upload to Chat". Alternatively, you can use the paperclip icon under the text box to upload files.

Depending on the file type, when a file is shared a thumbnail will display for image files such as .JPG and .PNG file types and/or a link to the file is displayed. When someone clicks on the thumbnail or link, a preview of the file will be displayed in a new browser window so that the recipient can look at the file before they download it. Shared links can just be pasted in the live chat box and links open in a new window.