Messages
Where conversations with the people working on your app live, and how to control the emails they send.
Messages is where you talk to the people working on your apps. Hiring opens a conversation, and everything about the job is worked on in that same conversation: what you asked for, the estimate, the clock and the bills.
Getting there
Select Messages in the desk. The list on the left holds every conversation you have, with the most recent activity first and a count beside anyone who has written to you and not been answered yet.
The box at the top of the list searches your conversations by the other person's name or by the words in the most recent message.
One conversation per person
Each conversation is with one person, and it stays with them rather than with a single app. Every contract you have with that person appears in the Contracts panel beside the conversation, each one named for the app it is about. Select a contract there to see its requirements, estimate, clock and bills.
On a wide screen the panel sits beside the conversation. On a narrow one it opens over it from the Contracts control in the conversation header.
The two sides of the inbox
If your account also answers as an AppHandler, a switch above the list lets you move between As a customer and As an AppHandler. The AppHandler side shows how many messages are waiting for that side, and while you are in a conversation the header says Replying as the name you answer as.
Writing and replying
Type in the box at the bottom and select Send. Enter sends the message and Shift+Enter starts a new line. The paperclip beside the box attaches files, which are uploaded before the message is sent.
New messages appear as they arrive. The page header says Live while the connection is up and Reconnecting if it drops. You can delete a message of your own, and the dialog says what that means: it leaves the conversation for both of you while the record keeps it.
Point at any message and a copy control appears beside its time, which copies that message's text.
Messages by email
By default you are emailed when a conversation has a message you have not read after a few minutes. Reading it first cancels that email, so nothing is sent about a conversation you have already caught up on.
Turn this on or off in Account settings → Profile, with Email me about new messages. Every such email also carries a one-click way to stop them.
Where to go next
Hiring an AppHandler covers finding someone, and Disputes covers what to do when something is wrong.