Use Messages

Overview

Messages gives you one place to send and read all the communication tied to your work. From a job, project, or task you can chat internally with your team, text customers by SMS, email customers and vendors externally (where enabled), and @mention team members to pull them into a conversation. Everything is logged on the record it belongs to and surfaces in your message center, so context is never lost in personal inboxes or text threads. Notifications — including task alerts — keep you aware of what needs your attention.

Things to know

• Chat is internal only (your team). Email can be used with both internal teammates and external contacts such as customers and vendors.

• External emails and replies are automatically logged on the record if the recipient replies on the same thread.

• A reply only appears in someone's message center if they are @mentioned or already a participant. Anyone with access to the record can still open the conversation there.

• You can see conversations on the jobs, projects, and tasks you have access to — plus any conversation you've been brought into by an @mention.

Best practices

• Start a conversation from the record it's about — the job, project, or task — so it stays in context.

• Use @mentions to notify teammates directly and bring them into the conversation.

• Keep topics in threaded replies when several things are being discussed at once.

Use the message center

The message center is your hub for every conversation and alert. It consolidates SMS text messages and internal chat (with @Mentions available as a filter) across all your jobs, projects, and tasks; email conversations appear only if email is enabled for your account.

1. On the top toolbar, click Messages.

2. Browse by channel — SMS, Email, or Internal Chat (filter by @Mentions). Click the job or project name on an item to open that record. Email appears only when it's enabled for your account.

3. Filter the view to messages only or alerts only, and to unread only. Mark any item read or unread.

4. Click an item to open it. A movable message box opens where you can reply by chat or email; drag it anywhere on screen.

Send an SMS

Use SMS to text customers directly from ServiceTitan. A text conversation is tied to the customer, so all of a customer's texts stay in one conversation even when they relate to different jobs.

Before you start

• Your account's texting feature must be turned on.

• You need permission to send texts (see Feature configuration).

• The customer must not have opted out of text messages.

To send a text:

1. Start from an existing customer, or job — click Message next to the customer's mobile number. You can't start a text to a number that isn't tied to a record.

2. A Messages window opens on the SMS tab with that customer's conversation. The number you're texting from is shown at the bottom.

3. Type your message. A character counter shows how many characters remain.

   Note: Longer messages send as more than one text and are never blocked.

4. Click Send. Your message appears as an outbound bubble. If it can't be delivered, it shows a Failed to send status with the reason.

Notes

• A customer can have multiple text conversations. Select the conversation you want to view from the list.

• If a customer replies STOP, they are opted out of text messages. Any messages sent to that number are blocked until the customer replies START to opt back in.

• Incoming MMS messages appear directly in the conversation. Sending MMS messages from Messages is not currently supported.

• Automated messages, such as appointment confirmations and reminders, do not appear in your active conversation list.

Send an external email

Use email to reach customers, vendors, or internal teammates. Replies on the same thread are logged automatically on the record.

1. Open the job, project, or task, open its Messages, and select the Email tab.

2. Click Compose Email.

3. Enter the recipients (external or internal email addresses), a subject, and the body.

4. To attach files, click the attach (paperclip) icon and select files from the record. Attached files are included with the email so external recipients can open them directly.

5. Click Send.

Note: Emails send from a ServiceTitan-managed address and may look different to recipients; replies still log back to the record. External emails carry an external tag.

Send an internal chat

Use chat to talk with office staff and other technicians. Chat is internal only.

1. Open the job, project, or task, then open its Messages and select the Internal Chat tab. (On a job, click the Chat icon to open the popup Messages window).

2. Type your message and use @Mentions to notify and add specific teammates.

3. Click Send.

Note: If you don't @mention anyone when starting a new chat, the message only appears in your message center until someone opens it from the record.

Where you can use Messages

Messaging works the same way on each of these records — the difference is only where you open it:

• Projects — open the project and click the Messages tab.

• Jobs — open the job and click the Chat icon to open the popup Messages window.

• Tasks — open a task in the Production and Insurance Queue and use the Messages panel.

Note: Replies and @mentions on a task appear both in the task's messages and in your message center.

View related communications

The related communications feed gives you one place to see all chats and emails connected to a project — across the project, its jobs, and their tasks — so you can find context without navigating between records. How the related feed works

• It's sorted by most recent activity — the record with the newest message appears at the top — and does not update in real time. Refresh the page to see new communications.

• Filter by Topic (Project, Job, or Task) and Type (Chat or Email); you can select multiple options at once.

• Each conversation card shows the record name, customer name, and address; the type and participants; and a preview — the most recent chat messages, or an email's subject and a one-line preview. Click a card to open it; click the record name to navigate there.

• Attachments are clickable. Inline images appear as a file indicator rather than a thumbnail.

Open the feed

• On a project: open the project, click the Messages tab, then click the Related tab.

• On a job: in the job's chat window, click the Related tab. The window automatically expands and the feed loads above the history section, showing communications from the job's parent project, sibling jobs, and associated tasks.

How messages reach you

You're kept in the loop on conversations you send, receive, or join:

• When you send a message, you're added to that conversation thread automatically.

• When you receive one, it appears under Unread until you open it.

• When someone @mentions you, the conversation appears in your message center and you receive an email notification with the record number and name, a preview of the message, and who mentioned you.

Join a conversation you're not yet part of:

1. Go to the job, project, or task where the discussion is happening.

2. Click Join Conversation.

3. After joining, you receive updates and @mentions for it in your message center.

Tip: Use Join Conversation to follow updates without cluttering your email inbox.

Set your notification preferences

Choose which Messages activity notifies you and how you're notified, so you only get the alerts that matter to you.

To set your notification preferences, go to the top toolbar and click Settings. In the side panel, go to Communications > My Notifications.

Choose what notifies you

For each activity type — such as chats you're subscribed to, @mentions, and thread replies — turn notifications on or off and choose how you're notified.

Choose how you're notified

For each activity type, select a delivery method: the in-app message center, email, or push notification. Push notifications are delivered through the Field Mobile App.

Note: Notification preferences are set per user — your choices apply only to your account.

Get task alerts

Task alerts notify you about the tasks assigned to you, so you can act without checking your task list throughout the day. This capability is in Private Preview.

When you're alerted

You receive a task alert when:

• A task is assigned to you.

• A task you're assigned becomes active (enters "to do").

• A task you're assigned reaches a due-date event — 3 days away, today, or overdue.

How alerts reach you

• Toast pop-up — appears in the app; click it to open the task directly, without losing your place.

• Notification center — the alert is listed with your other notifications and an unread count.

• Email — includes why you're being alerted, a link to the job or project the task is on, the customer name, the location, and the job or project name.

Note: On Enterprise Hub, task alerts appear within the specific tenant where the task lives. Push notifications are delivered through the Field Mobile App.

Manage and snooze alerts

• In the notification center, filter to alerts only, mark alerts read or unread, and snooze pop-ups for 1 hour, until tomorrow, or turn them off.