Task Chat: Keep Work Conversations Out of Messengers
The task chat is the simplest alternative to personal chats for work: you discuss the job inside the task it belongs to, and nobody has to re-explain the context later. Messengers scatter messages, files and decisions across threads you cannot search when you need them, while chat directly in a Planfix task keeps the history where the work is. This short video (1:27) shows how the task comment feed works as a chat and how to bring conversations with colleagues and customers into it.
What you’ll learn: the task chat instead of personal chats
- Which communication challenges cost teams time and information in messengers (0:03).
- An alternative way to manage work chats: one conversation per task (0:21).
- How the chat looks and behaves inside a Planfix task (0:34).
- How to address a message to the right colleagues, or to a customer.
- How to keep an internal discussion private in a task where a client is linked.
How to use the task chat in Planfix, step by step
Step 1. Open the comment feed as a chat
Open a task and click in the Add comment block. Every action in Planfix is attached to a task and collected in its comment feed, and in the chat view that feed looks like a message feed in a messenger. You can read the task description, fields and checklist without scrolling the conversation, press Ctrl+Enter to send a short message, or expand the text editor for a longer one. The push-pin icon opens the Pinned comments panel on the side, so agreements stay visible instead of sinking into the thread.
Step 2. Address the message to the right people
In a messenger you choose a chat; in Planfix you choose people. When you add a comment, select which task participants to notify: search for an employee or a contact by name, or pick all employees or one group at once. If you post a comment without selecting anyone, Planfix shows a pop-up reminder, which you can switch off in My Profile — Settings — Personal settings. A companion video shows how to move team discussions into tasks and read the replies in one feed.
Step 3. Keep customer conversations in the same task
Customers do not have to move anywhere. With communication across different channels, messages from messengers, social media and email arrive in Planfix and you answer them from the task chat. Employees and external contacts are notified separately, and the contact block is highlighted in blue, so you can see at a glance that a message is going outside the company. The correspondence sits next to the order, the files and the due date, so whoever picks up the task later reads the whole story instead of asking for a recap.
Step 4. Discuss internal matters privately
A client in the task does not mean the team loses its private channel. Start a new comment, select the employees who should see it and move the slider to the right of the employee list: the people you chose get a green checkmark, and those who will not see the comment get a gray background. Click any user to change visibility before sending. Account administrators can read all comments, including hidden (private) comments.
Step 5. Send everything else to the General chat
Not every message belongs to a task. New Planfix accounts include a system task called General chat for conversations that are not about specific work: the Planfix system robot is its assigner, and all employees are participants. It cannot be deleted, but its status can be changed to Completed, and anyone who does not want to follow it can unsubscribe on the Notifications panel. Older accounts get the task once the script action Send message to the General Chat chat runs.
The communication challenges the video starts with
The video opens on a familiar picture: work communication spread across personal chats, where time and information go missing. Task chats fix three things at once:
- Context stays with the work, because the discussion, the description, the fields and the checklist are on one card.
- Files stop living in threads: they are stored in the task and shared from it.
- History survives people, so whoever works on the task next can read how the decision was made.
Who it’s for
- Managers: ask and answer in the task, and stop collecting status updates from several private chats.
- Client-facing teams: keep the customer conversation, the internal discussion and the order in one place.
- New team members: read the task feed once instead of asking colleagues to forward old messages.
- Distributed teams: work across time zones, where a written trail matters more than a quick ping.
FAQ
Where is the chat in a Planfix task?
It is the task comment feed. In the chat view it looks like a messenger feed: click the Add comment block to write, and press Ctrl+Enter to send. The view is selected in the employee profile, under Settings — Appearance.
Can I message a customer from the task chat?
Yes. External contacts can be notified about a comment just like employees, and their block is highlighted in blue so the message is clearly going outside the company. Messages from connected messengers and email arrive in the task as well.
How do I keep part of a discussion private?
Use a hidden comment: pick the employees who should see it and move the slider next to the employee list. Other task participants, including a linked client, will not see that comment. Account administrators can see all comments.
Try the task chat on one project
Take the project your team currently discusses in a personal chat and write the next message as a task comment instead. After a week, the decisions, the files and the client replies are in one searchable place, and online task management in Planfix keeps them next to the work they belong to. New to Planfix? Sign up to try it.
