How to Use Messages in the CRM
June 5, 2026 · tropicalhilladmin
Messages is a simple, internal 1:1 chat between you and your teammates — not something a client or lead ever sees. Think of it as a lightweight way to say "can you call this customer back" without leaving the CRM to text or email a coworker.
Starting a conversation
Click New Message and pick a teammate from the list to start (or reopen) a direct conversation with them.
Every active user on your account shows up here except yourself.
Inactive user accounts are shown but can't be messaged.
If you already have a conversation with that person, selecting them again just reopens it rather than starting a duplicate thread.
The conversation list
The left panel lists every conversation you're part of, most recently active first.
Each row shows the other person's name, email, a preview of the last message, when it was sent, and an unread-count badge if you haven't seen it yet.
The list refreshes automatically in the background every 10 seconds, so new messages and unread counts show up without you having to refresh the page.
Reading and sending messages
Click a conversation to open it — your messages appear on the right in green, theirs on the left in white, each with a timestamp.
Opening a conversation automatically marks it as read.
Type in the box at the bottom and click Send (or it's disabled until you've actually typed something).
While a conversation is open, it keeps checking for new messages every 5 seconds, so a back-and-forth conversation updates live without manual refreshing.
What Messages isn't
There's no group messaging — every conversation is strictly one-on-one.
There's no file or image attachment support — text only.
Messages aren't tied to leads, clients, tasks, or any other record — for anything that needs to stay attached to a customer or job, use a task note or the Email section instead.
This is entirely internal. If you need to message a customer, that's what the Email section is for, not Messages.
A few tips
Use Messages for quick internal coordination — "heads up, running late to the 2pm" — rather than anything that needs a permanent record tied to a job or client.
Since there's no group chat, anything more than one other person needs to know is better handled as a task or a note on the relevant lead or client instead.
If a teammate shows up as "Inactive" and you can't message them, that's a sign their account may have been deactivated in User settings — check there if you expected them to be reachable.