Knowledge base

Thank you for choosing Infomaniak and kChat as a discussion solution between you, your entourage or your company!

These guides will help you organize your channels, users, chats, and more!

To start

Download the kChat app on your devices

What do you want to do ?

• Manage users
• Manage a channel
• Manage a conversation
• Respond to messages
• Manage kChat notifications

A question or a feedback?

• Our support is at your disposal 7/7

kChat is currently only available with kSuite .

You can use kChat:

• in a recent browser via https:// your-organization .kchat.infomaniak.com/
• and/or install the application on your computer (Windows (8.1+ minimum) / MacOS (10.15+ minimum))
• and/or your smartphone

This guide details the use of smileys and other emojis to react and interact with kChat chats.

Add a reaction to a message

To react at any time to any message you have access to in kChat, just hover over the message and select either the emoticon from the selection, or the smiley with the little +:

This will open the panel with hundreds of emoticons available (and even custom emojis - read below).

Express yourself with an emoticon or a GIF

Adding an emoji within the message you are writing is very simple. Just click on the smiley face icon in your message formatting bar:

To set the default tint, click on this symbol in the emojis panel:

If you know the name of the symbol to insert, you can also type: (2 dots) followed by at least the first 2 characters:

Tip: if you add #, ## or ### as the first character of a new line containing an emoticon, you can use a larger emoticon. To try, send a message such as '#:smile:' (beware your personalized settings may "disable" this display feature on your interface) .

You can also insert short animated GIFs instead of an emoticon using the tab at the top of the insert that appears when you click on the smiley face:

Custom emoticons

Specify a name up to 64 characters. It can contain lowercase letters, numbers and the characters "-", "+" and "_".

Specify a .gif, .png, or .jpg file for your emoticon. The file can weigh up to 1 MB. The size is automatically resized to 128 by 128 pixels, while maintaining the aspect ratio.

The emoticon can then be used by all kChat users in your organization thanks to the name you have assigned to it.

This guide allows you to access the management of applications external to kChat.

Integrations

To set up a webhook (example), find self-hosted or third-party apps and integrations, click the down arrow part to the right of your kChat organization name and then click Integrations :

Slack, Teams, Jabber, etc.

It is not possible to import any chat history from another application or organization. This is an opportunity to improve your internal communication policy and optimize your collaboration.

kChat allows you to invite a user from outside your organization who will be counted as a ''Guest'' user. The latter will be invited to create an Infomaniak account if he does not already have one.

Learn more

This guide details the principle of kChat conversations, organized within private and public chat channels , and direct chats between users.

Start a conversation

To write to a user in your organization, click on the + to the right of Direct messages to select it:

Send your message; you can also attach files up to 100MB.

To solicit one of the members of the organization via a message, you can type the at sign "@" to display the people or channels to mention. Please note, depending on the type of channel concerned, the mention of a user displays a message allowing you to add him to the discussion, otherwise he will not see the mention.

Edit or delete a message

To edit a message (which will then include an edited message mention ), click on the action menu to the right of the message to be edited:

In the same place, you can also delete your message which will then disappear from the discussion among all users.

Organize conversations in kChat

The sorting type for the items you manage on the left of the screen is very important.

Imagine opening kChat after several days of absence, the unread conversations will be displayed one under the other. After reading these, you may want to find information read from one of them, so sorting by recent activity , for example, allows you to find the last conversations that concerned you:

This choice of sorting type is available for all items: chat channels, categories, direct messages, etc.

Search for a conversation

The search for items (word, participant, file) is on the top of the window:

Once results are found, they appear on the right of the window.

Thread

Regardless of the channel or private chat with another user, you can start a thread from another simply by choosing Reply on the desired message:

A discussion thread will open on your right allowing each user of the channel to contribute their words in this specific thread without disturbing the possible new subjects of the current channel:

These threads are then centralized for reading and re-reading in the Threads section of the left sidebar:

This guide details the important elements so that you don't miss any of the kChat discussions that concern you.

Manage kChat app notifications

You can for example decide to animate the icon of the application during a new message.

To manage notifications by downloaded app:

1. open the kChat application on your computer
2. click on the kChat icon at the bottom of the taskbar (Windows) or at the top of the menu bar (macOS)
3. choose Preferences...
4. under Application Options , set notification preferences in the operating system

To manage kChat notifications through the browser:

1. open https:// your-organization .kchat.infomaniak.com
2. at the top right of the interface, click on the cogwheel
3. on the Notifications tab , define the way to be notified (desktop/mobile, present/absent, etc.) and in which case (any message or only message with mention, followed message, etc.)

Be notified of the progress of a discussion

To be notified of a new message in any discussion even if you are not a direct participant, you must activate Follow-up , either by hovering over the action menu to the right of a user in a discussion, or by clicking on Follow at the top of the discussion:

This guide details user management in kChat.

View channel members

To view users with access to the selected channel:

1. click on the character icon below the channel title
2. participants are displayed in a column on the right of kChat

Add a new user

To add a user to kChat:

1. connect to the Manager https://manager.infomaniak.com/
2. in the left side menu, click on User management then Users
3. click on Add a user at the top right

You can also invite an external user to chat with you on kChat.

In the same place you can remove kChat rights from a user:

Invite or remove a member on a private channel

To manage users with access to a private channel:

1. click on the character icon below the channel title
2. current participants are displayed in a column on the right of kChat
3. the blue Add button allows you to invite a kChat user from the organization who does not yet have access to this private channel
   
4. the blue Manage button allows you to remove a member from this channel or to name him Administrator of the channel so that he in turn can manage the members
   

This guide details the use and management of channels in kChat.

A channel is a communication space dedicated to a project, theme or team in which members can exchange documents, write to each other live and organize videoconferences.

General Channel

Every organization automatically has a General channel to which all users are automatically invited.

You can use this channel to share information that affects your entire organization, such as company outings or motivational good news.

You can of course start a new conversation thread inside the General channel .

Additional channel

By clicking on the + button located in the left sidebar of kChat, you can create a new channel :

This will be:

• either Public
• either Private

Differences between private and public kChat channel

Public channels increase transparency . All users can view and join a public channel, ensuring that everyone involved in a project, topic, or team has access to the same information.

Private channels allow you to restrict sensitive content to users of your choice. Only an existing member can invite another user to a private channel.

Channel Information

When you create a new channel, you can choose:

- her name

It will be editable later.

- its URL

By default it takes the name of the channel but you can modify it using lowercase letters, numbers, dots, dashes and underscores - modifiable later also.

- its Private or Public status

It will be editable thereafter only from public to private (read below).

- its description 

The description helps specify how this channel should be used. This text appears in the list of channels in the "More..." menu and gives an indication to users whether they should join the channel or not.

Once the channel is created, you can still define:

- a header

Convert a Public channel to a Private channel

To turn a Public channel into a Private channel:

1. click on the Public channel in the left side menu
2. then click on the channel title at the top of discussion
3. choose Convert
   

Members' history and membership are preserved; publicly shared files remain accessible to anyone with the link; the change is permanent and cannot be undone.

Leave or archive a channel

You can leave a channel at any time (apart from the main channel entitled General ) by clicking on the Action menu to the right of the channel concerned (in the left sidebar):

If you leave a private channel, you will need to be invited back to join it again.

If you leave a public channel, you leave it immediately but can join it whenever you want simply by finding it with its name in the search.

To archive a channel:

1. click on the channel in the left side menu
2. then click on the channel title at the top of discussion
3. choose Archive

An archived channel will no longer count against your available channel quota.

Bookmark

To favorite any channel, just click on the star at the top of a channel.

A new Favorites menu will appear in the left sidebar containing all the items you have favorited (valid for your user only).

Mute a channel

You can hide notifications from a channel:

1. click on the channel in the left side menu
2. then click on the channel title at the top of discussion
3. choose Mute

Organize by categories

By clicking on the + button located in the left sidebar of kChat, you can add one or more categories allowing you to place items (channel, contact, etc.) within them:

Then drag the desired channel to the created category (valid for your user only).

User-to-user chat channel

Personal messages are direct conversations between two or more people that take place outside of channels. 

Each user of an organization can freely create personal messages whose content will only be visible to the persons concerned.

Infomaniak is a Swiss company certified ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 which complies with the GDPR. Our main objective is to guarantee the security and confidentiality of the data entrusted to us. Many measures are in place to ensure the protection of your communications with kChat:

• the Infomaniak Manager allows you to check whether your organization's users have activated two-factor authentication
• data on hold and in transit are encrypted, as are the backups automatically performed by Infomaniak
• the data is hosted in Switzerland in data centers developed and managed exclusively by Infomaniak

• you only receive messages from your collaborators or external users that you have approved
• you can create private channels to restrict sensitive information to specific people
• you permanently control the access rights of users who can access kChat