Chats: General Information

Chat Types

The following types of chats are available in the app:

Chat Type	Description
Personal	Chat with a user or a chatbot.
Group chat	For communication between multiple users, where all members can write and see each other.
Channel	Intended for publishing news; only administrators can write and see members.
Room	Group chat that save correspondence and files from group call or conference.
“Saved Messages”	Intended for sending messages to yourself. It can be enabled or restored after deletion in the app settings. Any message can be sent to this chat via the context menu.
Thread	Feature for commenting on messages in a group chat or channel.
Global chat	Special chat for mass messaging.
«Общий чат» (“General Chat”), «Общий канал» (“General Channel”)	Lite A special chat and a special channel through which the eXpress Lite corporate server administrator can send notifications to all server users.

Chat Members

By member composition, chats are divided into:

• Personal with contacts from the phone book.
• Personal with corporate contacts.
• Group with contacts from the phone book.
• Group with corporate contacts.
• Mixed chats with members from servers of different organizations.
• Personal chats with chatbots.

How to Determine the Type of Chat via It's Members?

• Look at the icon next to the chat name:

  Icon	Description
  Green globe	A chat with external users on a public server ( RTS ).
  Blue globe	A chat with users of corporate servers ( Lite , CTS , eCTS ) from different organizations.
  Blue-green globe	A mixed chat with corporate and external users ( Lite , CTS , eCTS + RTS ).
  Blue briefcase	A chat with users from the current or trusted corporate server ( Lite , CTS , eCTS ).
  Blue megaphone	A channel with corporate users ( Lite , CTS , eCTS ).
  Blue-green megaphone	A channel with corporate and external users ( Lite , CTS , eCTS + RTS ).
  Blue bot	A personal chat with a corporate chatbot ( Lite , CTS , eCTS ).

• Open Routing in the chat properties.
• Review the list of chat members: they are grouped by server affiliation.

Comparison of Group Chat and Channel

Feature	Group Chat	Channel
Sending Messages	All participants can write in a group chat.	Only administrators can write in a channel. In channels with more than 256 participants, before sending a message, the administrator will be shown a prompt: “Publish the post? Are you sure you want to publish the message?”.
Purpose	Group chats are designed for communication among all participants.	Channels are convenient for publishing news.
Viewing Participants	In a group chat, any participant can view the chat members and see system messages.	Available only to the administrator in a channel. Regular channel subscribers cannot see other participants or system messages.
Sender Visibility	All group chat participants see the authors of messages.	For regular participants, the sender of a message in a channel is the channel itself; for administrators, it is the specific user.
Threads	All group chat participants can discuss messages in threads.	Commenting is disabled by default. The administrator must enable comments in the channel.
Confidential Mode	Available if all chat participants are corporate users.	The confidential mode is not available in channels.
Analytics	Not available.	Has view counters. Additional tools are planned.

There are other differences; see below for more details.

Can a Chat Be Converted to a Channel?

A group chat cannot be transformed into a channel, or vice versa.

Storage and Deletion of Chats

All your chats are stored on your server. This ensures that data will not be lost, even if you end the session or reinstall the app — simply log in again, and the chats will load from the server to your device.

On Which Server Is My Chat Stored?

Chats are stored on the servers of each participant in the conversation. For example, if a member from a new corporate server is added to a group chat, the chat will be copied to that server.

Is It Possible to Delete Chats?

You can only delete a chat for yourself: it will disappear from the chat list on all your devices, but will remain for the other participants. You can't delete a chat from the server for everyone.

The command in the chat menu depends on its type:

• Delete Chat — for a personal chat, a chat with a bot, a global chat, and Saved Messages. In a personal chat, the history is cleared and cannot be recovered. If the other person writes again, the personal chat will return to the list. The chat with the bot can be found again in the Catalog.
• Leave Chat or Leave Channel — for a group chat and channel. You stop being a participant, and the chat disappears from the list. You can go back to an open chat or channel via the Catalog.

If an administrator removed you from the chat, the chat will disappear from the list on all your devices.

Individual messages can be deleted from the server: "for everyone" or on a timer in privacy mode.

Limitations on the Number of Participants in a Group Chat or Channel

Displaying Members

In chats with more than 256 members, only administrators are displayed in the member list. To find other members, use the search field.

Participant Limit

The participant limit may depend on whether end-to-end encryption is enabled in the chat or channel. Лимит по участникам может быть обусловлен тем, включено ли в чате или канале сквозное шифрование. To remove this limitation, the chat administrator must disable End-to-End Encryption in the chat properties or contact the corporate server administrator. End-to-end encryption can only be re-enabled if the number of members does not exceed 128 users.

In chats with end-to-end encryption disabled, there is an average technical limit of 8000 members due to performance constraints. This limit will be increased in the future.

The Confidential mode is unavailable in chats with over 256 members.

Catalog, Open and Closed Group Chats and Channels

In the Catalog section above the chat list, there are open group chats, channels, and corporate bots. They are available to all users of the corporate server. More info here.

Global Chats

They are special chats for mass messaging, visible to all users of a specific server. The following types of global chats exist:

Global chat	Description
Global Chat of eXpress	Named “eXpress.” Contains news about new releases of eXpress; in the future, it will display confirmation codes and allow contacting support. Located on RTS and is available to all users registered on any server within the federation. CTS ETS eCTS The corporate administrator can disable the federated eXpress chat in the global chat settings on a server.
ETS Global Chat of a corporate branded app	Named as specified by the administrator. May contain corporate news, notifications about new versions of the corporate branded app; in the future, it will display confirmation codes and allow contacting support. Located on ETS and available to all users whose corporate eCTS server is connected to ETS .
CTS eCTS Global Chat on a corporate server of eXpress of a branded app	Named as specified by the administrator. Contains information intended for all users of particular corporate CTS / eCTS server.

Why Don’t I Receive Notifications for Messages in the Global Chat?

Notifications are not sent for posts in the global chat — only a counter for new messages appears.

How Do I Leave the Global Chat?

The global chat is a system chat for server-wide announcements and cannot be left.

When Will the Global Chat Appear After Being Enabled?

If the server administrator enables a global chat, it will immediately become available in the general chat list for the relevant users.

Why Isn't the Corporate Global Chat Visible in the Catalog?

Technically, a global chat is a closed chat (not displayed in the corporate chat catalog), although it's visible for all users of a server.

Who Will See the Global Chat?

Which global chat is visible to whom among other chats:

Users	Whish global chats are visible
Public server users RTS Lite	The federated eXpress global chat located on RTS
CTS Corporate users of eXpress	May see two global chats (if configured by the administrator): the federated eXpress global chat from RTS corporate global chat from CTS
ETS Corporate users of a branded app	May see three global chats (if configured by the administrator): the federated eXpress global chat from RTS corporate global chat from the central ETS server corporate global chat from eCTS

Do All Global Chats Have the Same Messages?

Global chats on different servers do not share a common history and may have different messages.

I Texted Directly in the Global Chat. Will Everyone See It?

Messages sent directly to the global chat, not through the bot, are only visible to the sender. This feature is reserved for the future: a bot is being developed to support users writing in the global chat.

Why Is the Input Field Blocked in the Global Chat?

The server administrator can prohibit users from writing to the global chat. In that case, instead of the input field, the message Only an admin can send messages to this chat is displayed, and you cannot forward a message or send a file to this chat.

The restriction is enabled by default: after the server update, users can write to the global chat only if the administrator has explicitly allowed it.

How to Send Messages to the Global Chat for Everyone?

Only users appointed as administrators of the global chat bot in the corporate server admin panel can make posts in a global chat. See how to create a post in a global chat.

What Features Are Not Supported by Global Chat?

Reactions and threads are not supported by the global chat.