With Messages on, the widget gets a Messages tab where people write to your team and read your replies. Their conversations land in your Inbox, where your team answers them. This page covers what people see in the widget. For your team's side, see Work through your support inbox.
Turn on Messages
Open Settings → Inbox and email. Owners and admins can change it.
In the Support inbox card, turn on Messages in the widget. It says "Messages on".
The same switch turns on Ask a person after an AI answer, which starts a conversation in your Inbox too. See Help readers find answers.
While it's off, Customize → Widget says "Messages in the widget is off, so the widget has no Messages tab." with a Turn it on link. To keep your Inbox on but take Messages out of the widget, turn off Messages under Show in the widget in Customize → Widget. That turns off Ask a person too. See Customize the widget's button and Home.
What signed-in users see
People your site signs in (see Sign your users in with single sign-on) see their own conversations. So do people signed in to your portal, when the widget is on your portal's own site.
At the top, a card names your team ("The Cobalt team"), with up to three of your faces, how soon you usually reply, and New message. Under Your conversations, each conversation shows:
its subject;
the first line of its latest message, starting "You:" when it's theirs;
where it stands: Waiting for a reply, Replied or Closed, and when the last message was;
a dot when your team has replied and they haven't read it yet.
The newest conversation is first. Choosing one opens it, with a reply box at the bottom. Choosing New message starts another. A conversation they open on one device counts as read on their others.
What signed-out visitors see
Someone who isn't signed in sees "Leave your email so the team can get back to you. Sign in to see your past conversations." They type their email and their message, then choose Send. Sign in opens your portal's sign-in page in a new tab.
After that first message, the widget remembers them in that browser for 30 days, on that site, and shows them their conversations as it does for signed-in users. When your site signs someone in, the widget forgets the visitor.
The email a visitor types isn't checked. Your team sees it marked as not verified, and Tuti never adds such a conversation to one of your users on its own. See Work through your support inbox.
How replies reach them
While a conversation waits for you, it says when you'll likely reply, such as "We'll reply here, usually in 2 hours." Your reply shows up in the widget while they have it open.
If they don't see your reply in the widget within a minute, it's emailed to them from your support address (or your own address, once you've set it up): to the email your app gave for people your site signs in, or to the one a visitor typed. They can answer that email, and their answer joins the same conversation. The widget says so ("If you've left by then, we'll email you at …") when their replies will be emailed. That needs a support address: if Settings → Inbox and email shows Get a support address, choose it. See Set up support email and When emails to your users wait or are paused.
For people your site signs in, the widget's button shows a dot while a reply from your team waits for them. Your own button can show it too, with Tuti.on("unseen"). See Open the widget from your own code.
Attach files
Choose Attach files under the message box:
Up to 10 files per message, each up to 10 MB and 25 MB together. A bigger file says "Over 10 MB".
Images show in the conversation. Other files show as downloads.
A signed-out visitor can attach files from their second message on, not to the first.
Limits
To keep spam out, each person can start up to 20 conversations a day and send up to 30 messages a minute. A message is up to 10,000 characters.