Starting a Conversation

When you are viewing the screen that displays the list of conversations, you can start a new conversation.

1. Do one of the following:

   • In the Home screen, tap the Chat icon at the bottom of the screen.

     

   • In the Menu screen, tap Staff Directory.

     

   The Start A Chat screen appears. Tap Staff in the green ribbon at the top of the screen (if it is not already selected) to display your department and your list of favorites.

   

   If your department is not visible, your administrator has configured your system to not display your department on this screen.

   Note: You can tap Patients to start a conversation related to a specific patient if your administrator has granted you permission to view patient data. See Starting a Patient Conversation for details on how to do this.

   When you see the Start A Chat screen for the first time, a tooltip reminds you that you can tap the profile picture or initials of a person or group to call that person or group:

   

   Tap the X icon to hide the tooltip. When the tooltip is hidden, it remains hidden until you log out and log in again. For more information on calling a person or group using this method, see Calling from a Profile Picture.

2. Select the person or group with which you want to have a conversation:

   

   	Tap the search icon and type search text consisting of some or all of the person or group's name. All names matching this search text are displayed. Tap the name of the person or group with which you want to start a conversation.
   	If a group is displayed, tap the group name to display the members of the group, then tap a member name to start a conversation with that group member. If the group contains subgroups, tap a subgroup name to display its members.
   	If the person or group is defined as a favorite, tap the favourite's name to start the conversation. (See About Favorites for more information on Favorites.)

   The presence icon at the top right of the person or groups's profile picture or initials indicates availability:

   

   See The Presence Indicator for more information on presence and availability.

3. When you have selected a message participant, the chat screen appears, and you can start the conversation. See Adding a Message for information on how to do this.