Internal team chat: agent-to-agent messaging in the console

Internal team chat is agent-to-agent messaging inside the Arino One console. It lives in a chat pane mounted in the authenticated shell, so it sits alongside the inbox rather than on a page of its own, and it is completely separate from the customer-facing channels documented in the rest of this section — nothing sent here can reach a contact.

What it is for

Handling conversations is a team activity even when one agent is typing. Someone needs to check whether a refund is allowed, ask who spoke to this customer last week, hand a queue over at the end of a shift, or flag that a particular question is suddenly arriving twenty times an hour. Those exchanges are between colleagues, not with the customer.

Without somewhere to put them, they end up in one of two bad places: a separate chat app, which means alt-tabbing away from the conversation and losing your place, or internal notes on customer conversations, which clutters a record other agents read later for context. Internal chat gives them a home that is one glance away from the inbox.

Where it lives

The chat pane is mounted in the authenticated console shell. Practically, that means:

• It is available wherever you are signed in, not only on one screen.
• You can keep it open beside the inbox while working a customer conversation.
• It is behind authentication like everything else in the console, so only invited users on your instance can see it.

How threads work

Conversation is organised into threads, and a thread is the unit that holds history.

1. Open a thread with the person or group you need, or pick one that already exists from the list.
2. Messages append to that thread in order, so the exchange reads as one continuous conversation rather than a stream of disconnected pings.
3. History persists, so reopening a thread shows what was said and agreed earlier. This is what makes it useful for shift handover, not just live back-and-forth.
4. Threads stay separate, so a billing question and a staffing question do not interleave into one unreadable channel.

The habit worth building is one thread per ongoing topic or pairing, rather than a single sprawling thread for everything. Threads are cheap; a thread you cannot read back is not.

How it differs from the customer channels

Every other channel in this section — WhatsApp, SMS, email, live chat and the rest — exists to carry messages between your business and a contact. That brings a whole apparatus with it: opt-in and consent, message windows, template approval, delivery receipts, per-message cost through your own Infobip account.

Internal chat has none of that, because there is no contact involved.

Reading it as "another channel" is the one misconception worth heading off with new agents. It is a staff tool that happens to look like a chat.

Internal chat vs internal notes

Both are private to your team, and they are not competing.

• Internal note — attached to one customer conversation, visible in that conversation's timeline. Use it for context the next agent to open that conversation needs: what was tried, what was promised, why this contact is a special case.
• Internal chat — a standing thread between people, independent of any one conversation. Use it for questions, coordination and handover.

A good rule: if the information would be useful to someone opening this conversation in three weeks, it is a note. If it is useful to a colleague in the next ten minutes, it is chat.

Practical guidance

• Keep the pane open during busy periods. Most of its value is the seconds it saves not leaving the inbox.
• Do not use it as the record. Decisions that affect a customer belong in that conversation's notes, where the next agent will actually find them.
• Mind what you paste. Contact details pasted into a thread are personal data living outside the conversation record they belong to; prefer linking the conversation over copying its contents. See consent and opt-in for the wider principle.
• Set expectations about scope. It is a support-floor tool, not a company intranet. Teams that try to move all internal communication into it usually drift back to their main chat tool and leave dead threads behind.

Access and billing

Access follows console accounts: anyone you have invited and who can sign in can use internal chat, subject to the roles you assigned — see the user roles reference and invite your team. There is no per-message charge; internal chat is part of the console, included in the flat $50/month instance connection and management fee. See billing and plans.

Steps at a glance

1. Open the chat paneSign in to the console and open the internal chat pane. It is mounted in the authenticated shell, so it is reachable from the inbox and the rest of the console without leaving the page you are on.
2. Pick or start a threadChoose an existing thread from the list, or start a new one with the colleague or group you need. Threads are the unit of conversation — each keeps its own message history.
3. Send a messageType and send. The message is delivered to the other participants inside the console only; nothing is routed to WhatsApp, SMS, email or any other customer channel.
4. Keep working in the inboxLeave the pane open while you handle conversations. It sits beside the inbox so a question to a colleague does not mean switching apps and losing the conversation you are answering.
5. Return to a thread laterReopen the thread to read back what was agreed. History persists per thread, which is what makes it usable for handover between shifts rather than only for live back-and-forth.

Frequently asked