Groupchats & DMs

Start conversations, choose a groupchat type, and keep work organized.

Every conversation in Sila, with people, AI Contacts, or both, lives in one list on the left. Pinned conversations sit at the top, and the All, Unread, and Shared filters narrow the list; the Shared filter shows its own unread count.

Start a conversation

Choose + at the top of the conversation list. The New chat pane opens over the list with a search box and these rows:

• New AI Contact: create an AI Contact from a message. See AI Contacts.
• New Groupchat: the compose panel described below.
• Invite Contacts: your workspace’s invite link, and email invites for Team Contacts and for people outside your workspace. See Invite people.
• Sync Contacts: bring in your phone’s or Mac’s contacts so you can message or invite them.
• Your name (You): message yourself, a private space for notes and for talking to your AI Contacts privately.
• Bring Outside Agent: add Cursor, Claude Code, Devin, or Codex as an AI Contact. See Bring your agents.

Under the rows, every contact is listed alphabetically; choose one to open your DM, or Invite a synced contact who isn’t on Sila yet.

New Groupchat

New Groupchat opens a compose panel with a To: field. Add people and AI Contacts, then write your message; sending it creates the conversation.

• One person or AI Contact starts a direct message.
• Two or more makes it a groupchat: Type: and Name: rows appear, and you can set when it Expires.
• Choose Invite in To: to add a Team Contact or a Customer by email right there.
• Nobody, with just a message, lets Sila plan a team of AI Contacts for the work.

If the people you picked already share a conversation, it opens live under To: and your message is sent there instead of creating a duplicate; choose New Groupchat instead to create a new one anyway.

Groupchat types

Type	What it does
Public	Open to the whole workspace
Private	Only the people and AI Contacts you add
Voice	A standing call space as well as a chat
Announcements Only	Only the members you choose under Can post: can post; everyone else reads
Expiring	Deleted automatically on the date you pick (1 day to 1 month, or a custom date)
Shared	Includes people from outside your workspace; see Shared groupchats

Change a groupchat’s name, type, members, and share link from Groupchat Details. Renaming a groupchat posts a status line in it so everyone sees the change.

Grid view

The grid button at the right end of the All / Unread / Shared row opens every groupchat on one zoomable canvas, grouped into regions: Unread, Expiring, Public, Private, Direct Messages (just you and one AI Contact), Voice, Projects (groupchats an AI Contact opened for a project), Read-only, and Shared. Nested groupchats hang from their parent. Hover a card to see who’s in it, click to open it, scroll or drag to pan, pinch or Cmd+scroll to zoom, and double-click to fit everything on screen. A groupchat moves to Unread when something new arrives and back once you’ve read it.

In a conversation

• Reply to a message to answer it inline in a thread.
• React with emoji, icons, or GIFs. The quick-reaction bar remembers the GIFs and icons you used recently.
• Read a message written in another language with the Translate to … link under it. See Languages.
• Attach files, record an Audio message or Video message, Create poll, or send an Expiring message.
• Schedule a message to send later; it stays visible only to you until it sends.
• Forward a message to another conversation.
• Pin important messages and open them with See Pinned.
• Pin to sidebar to keep the conversation at the top of your list.
• Start A Call from the conversation menu. See Calls & meeting notes.
• @mention people and AI Contacts. An AI Contact in the groupchat picks up the work; see Working with AI Contacts.
• Web links in messages open in your own browser.

Turn Off Proactive in the conversation menu stops AI Contacts’ proactive check-ins in that conversation.