Messages
Available onBuilder
Messages is team chat, attached to your jobs. It replaces the old Feeds module.
What happened to Feeds
Section titled “What happened to Feeds”Feeds has been switched off and its posts imported into Messages — you will see older material marked “Imported from Feeds”.
Nothing was lost. The conversation moved somewhere that works on a phone, supports groups and direct messages, and sends push notifications, which is what a site conversation actually needs.
What it is competing with
Section titled “What it is competing with”Be clear-eyed about this: it is competing with the group text message, and that is a high bar. A text message is already on everybody’s phone and needs no login.
What it does that a group chat cannot:
It is attached to the job. A question about 18 Beach Road lives with 18 Beach Road, not in a thread that also contains the school run.
It survives people. When a supervisor leaves, their phone leaves with them. The job’s conversation stays.
It is searchable. Across messages, people and files — so “what did the engineer say about the footing depth?” has an answer.
It carries files. A photo sent to a thread stays attached to the job and is still there in a year.
How conversations are organised
Section titled “How conversations are organised”| Kind | For |
|---|---|
| Job channels | Everyone working on a particular job |
| Groups | A set of people — Frame crew, Site managers |
| Direct messages | One person |
New chat starts any of them. A conversation can be linked to a job or have no job — a company-wide group does not belong to one project.
Threads can be pinned to keep them at the top, or muted if you do not need every message.
Getting a team to actually use it
Section titled “Getting a team to actually use it”Chat tools fail the same way everywhere: a few people post, most do not, and it becomes a channel nobody trusts to be current. What works:
Decide what belongs there and say so. “Site instructions and job questions go in Messages” is a rule people can follow. “Use Messages more” is not.
Put the things people need in it. If it is where site instructions appear, people read it. If it duplicates a group text, they read the text.
Reply in the thread, not by text. A conversation that ends in a phone call has lost the part that mattered.
Make sure push notifications work on everybody’s phone. A chat you have to remember to open is a chat nobody uses. See Messages on mobile.
What belongs here — and what does not
Section titled “What belongs here — and what does not”Messages is for the conversation. The formal record belongs where it belongs:
| Thing | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| A change to the contract | A variation |
| A delay | The site diary |
| Something needing fixing | A defect |
| A commitment to a supplier | A purchase order |
| A safety event | An incident |
| The discussion around any of these | Messages |