Carbonio conversations is a component that offers corporate instant messaging capabilities such as text conversations, one-on-one video calls, and videoconferencing.
The UI of Carbonio Chats is divided in three columns:
- The left-hand column contains a list of contacts and the history of previous discussions. Above it, you may CREATE new conversations and Groups, filter current chat names, and choose between conversations and Virtual Rooms (more on this later). Below it, buttons enable you to manage virtual rooms.
- The conversation messages are stored in the middle column. Click the phone symbol in the chat’s top-right corner to initiate a video call with the contact.
- The right-hand column contains information about the contact and allows you to copy the unique link to the contact’s virtual room, mute notifications, and wipe the chat history.
Moderators in Rooms
The person who starts a room (which we refer to as a Group or a Virtual Room, see below) instantly becomes the Room Moderator and has the ability to control the room’s textual and video chats. Moderators, in particular, have exclusive access to the Mute For All and Add New Members features.
A moderator can elevate any user to moderator and exit the virtual room if there are no other users or another moderator present.
Groups are non-persistent entities that allow for simultaneous communication with up to 5 persons (by default). Any user may start a group and invite others, and any group member can do the same. When all users quit a group, it ceases to exist.
Virtual Rooms
Virtual Rooms enable video conversations with several participants, including both internal and external guests. The former are people who have an account on the current Carbonio instance, whilst the latter do not have a local account. Both can join temporarily without having to be members of the Virtual Room.
Furthermore, on the Virtual Room page, users may see all current and upcoming meetings involving them.
To start a new meeting, click the CREATE ROOM option and provide a name. You will be immediately assigned the position of Owner. Aside from becoming a Moderator, an owner cannot be removed and is the only person capable of deleting a Virtual Room.
All meetings are displayed in the left-hand column, separated into two categories: ongoing meetings and scheduled meetings. Each of them has a few buttons that allow you to join or remove a virtual room, copy and share the virtual room’s URL, and update the connection.
scheduled Meetings are great for organising meetings with colleagues: establish a scheduled meeting and then attach the virtual room URL to the calendar invitation.
Video calls can be recorded, but they require an extra package. Please see the section Recording a Video Meeting for instructions and additional information about the feature.
When you enter a Virtual Room, a dialogue box displays with the room’s name and options for selecting and testing audio and video equipment.
Sharing Documents
Within a textual conversation, files can be shared by uploading them from a local workstation or mobile device, or by providing a public link to a file saved in Carbonio Files. To do the latter operation, click the paper clip symbol on the right side of the conversation input area.
Furthermore, most files may be seen before they are downloaded; see Section Preview for additional details.
Presence
Carbonio Chats manages presence automatically: anytime a user checks in, regardless of whether Chats is the focus, they appear to be online.
As part of the user presence system, all messages are shown with a customisable number of tick symbols.
When sending a text message with privacy enabled, only one grey tick appears, indicating that the message was received by the server. The receiving user will not send back an acknowledgment.
Unread messages
The number of unread messages in any discussion (group and instant meeting) is displayed on the right side of both the Chats and Instant Meetings labels where the message originated, as well as in the list of conversions beneath, adjacent to the actual chat that generated the message.