Messaging

CrewGrid has a built-in inbox so you can talk to the organizations you work with without leaving the app. Open it from Inbox in your sidebar.

Your inbox

The inbox is a two-panel layout: your conversations on the left, the selected conversation on the right. Conversations from every organization you work with are gathered in one place, so you don't have to remember who's where — when you work with more than one organization, the list is grouped under a heading per organization.

Each conversation row shows its name (a one-to-one chat is labelled Direct Message, a multi-person one Group), the organization it belongs to, and a preview of the latest message. Unread conversations stand out in two ways:

• The row's title turns bold, and an amber badge shows how many messages you haven't read.
• If someone @-mentioned you, a separate @ badge appears next to the unread count, so a message aimed directly at you never hides inside a busy thread.

Opening a conversation clears its unread count.

📷 Screenshot: /images/docs/freelancers/inbox.png The freelancer inbox with the conversation list and an open thread. Alt: A messaging inbox with a list of conversations on the left and an open message thread on the right.

How conversations start

Organizations start conversations with you — a producer messages you from their workspace, and the thread appears in your inbox. You can also open a conversation yourself about a specific job: every booking has a Message button (see below). Either way, everything lands in the same Inbox.

Reading and replying

Select a conversation to open the thread and read the history. Your own messages sit on the right; everyone else's on the left. In group conversations, the sender's name appears above their messages.

Reply from the box at the bottom — type your message and press Send. A few things the composer can do:

• Attachments — click the Attach file button (or drop a file straight onto the message box) to send a file with your message.
• Mentions — type @ to mention a participant by name. Mentions are highlighted in the thread, and the person you mention sees the @ badge on the conversation.
• Typing indicator — while someone on the other side is typing, you'll see it below the thread.

New messages appear on their own — you don't need to refresh to see a reply come in.

Searching your messages

Use the Search messages… box at the top of the conversation list to search across all your conversations, in every organization. Each result shows which organization it came from; clicking a result opens that conversation and jumps straight to the matching message, briefly highlighting it so you can spot it in the thread.

Conversations about a booking

Some conversations are tied to a specific job. When you open one of your bookings, the Message button starts (or reopens) a conversation about that booking — between you and the organization's producers. It opens in the same Inbox as your other conversations, so everything about that job stays in one thread.

This is the quickest way to ask the producer a question about a job without leaving the details behind: open the booking, click Message, and you're in the right thread.

Muting a conversation

If a busy thread is sending you more push notifications than you want, mute it for a while. At the top of the open conversation, click Mute and pick a duration: Mute for 8h, Mute for 24h, Mute for 48h, or Mute for 72h.

While a conversation is muted, the button shows Muted until with the date and time the mute ends. It expires on its own — or click the button again and choose Unmute to end it early.

📷 Screenshot: /images/docs/freelancers/inbox-mute.png The mute menu on an open conversation, with the duration options. Alt: A dropdown on a message thread header offering Mute for 8h, 24h, 48h, and 72h options.

Jumping in from your dashboard

Your dashboard shows your most recent messages. Clicking one takes you straight to that conversation in the inbox — a quick way to pick up where you left off.

Where to go next

• Your dashboard
• Responding to bookings
• Understanding your booking — where the Message button lives.
• Your account — notification settings that apply across all conversations.