💡 Top tip: Remember, the internal practice chat is different from the support chat you use to ask a question to the Dentally team!
Using Dentally's messenger function
The chat feature makes it really easy for you to communicate with other members of your team, for quick conversations across your site - or even across multiple sites.
Turning on Dentally Chat function
Like all add-on services in Dentally, our chat feature is turned on in the 'Billing Section' of the 'Practice Settings' page.
Go to Settings > Practice Settings > Billing tab and add the Dentally Chat function.
Once activated, the chat option will appear in the bottom left-hand corner of any Dentally screen in your practice. Click on the speech bubbles to begin chatting.
💡Please note, If you cannot see the speech bubbles on your screen, click the F5 key on your keyboard to refresh the screen. The speech bubbles should then appear. You should only need to do this once.
How do I start a new chat?
Open the chat feature, either select one of the names listed (if you have started a chat with them previously), or click '+ New direct message' and choose the team member you wish to chat with.
💡 Top tip: Team members' availability status is indicated by a dot next to their name, inside the chat window. The blue dot means the user is online/currently using Dentally, while the white dot indicates they are offline.
If you are a multi-site, you can also select the location where the team member is based first.
Once you click the 'Message' button to the right of the team member's name, the chat window will open in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. You can then type your message at the bottom of the chat window. Once you hit send, your messages and any replies will be displayed above this.
After the first time you start a chat with a team member, their name will appear in the 'Direct Messages' window on the bottom left, so you can easily find it next time.
How do I use the chat window controls?
You can minimise, maximise and close the chat window using the controls in the top right-hand corner of the window. If you minimise (the '_' icon), the team member's name will stay in the bottom right of your screen, so you can open it again quickly. If you close the chat (the 'X' icon), it will disappear completely from your screen, and can be opened again at a later date using the above steps.
When minimised, if a member of your team is replying to your message, you will see the speech bubble with dots.
If there is a message waiting for you, the chat window turns blue. Click on the team member's name to open it.
If a new message comes through, the window will minimise automatically and turn blue (even if it was open before), so that the new message doesn't interfere with your workflow. If the chat was already minimised, it will stay minimised and just be highlighted in blue.
You can open the message, read and reply as you need. When you have finished chatting, close the window as normal.
How do I add emojis? 🥳
To add an emoji, click on the 'Emoji' icon (the '😀' icon) at the bottom right of the chat window.
You can either scroll through to find the emoji you want, or use the emoji search option - type in the search term that best suits what you're looking for, and select the emoji you want.
Chat history
You cannot clear or delete chat history. However, the chat history does clear automatically after 100 messages between you and that team member.