Chatting with customers

The Communities page in the Toki app shows the same chat your customers see in their wallet. You read and answer right from your Shopify admin, and new messages show up on their own. Everyone on your team posts as an admin, so you can also pin a message for the whole channel or remove one that doesn't belong.

Open a channel

In the Toki app, click Communities in the left navigation.
In the Channels list on the left, click a channel. The conversation opens on the right.

A personal channel works a little differently. Clicking it opens a list of customers instead, one conversation per customer, with their name and email. Use the Search channels... field to find someone by name or email, click them to open the one-on-one conversation, and click Back to return to your channels. See Personal channels.

Next to each channel you see:

Active or Draft, the channel's status.
+3 new (or any other number): messages you have not read yet. Opening the channel marks them as read. The count covers messages in the channel itself, not replies inside threads. A channel you have never opened counts all of its messages as new.
A pencil icon that opens the channel's settings. See Channels.

If you have no channels yet, the page shows a Create new channel button instead.

Read the conversation

The channel's banner, name, and description sit at the top. Below them, messages run oldest to newest, with the newest at the bottom and a date line at the start of each day. Each message shows the sender's name and picture, the time it was sent, and edited if it was changed after posting.

A New messages line marks where you left off last time.
Scroll up to load older messages.
New messages appear within a few seconds. You don't need to reload the page.
Messages with attachments show a 1 file (or 2 files, and so on) link. Click it to show or hide the attachments. Images appear as previews. Click the download icon on an attachment to open it in a new tab.

Post a message

Click the message box at the bottom of the chat.
Type your message. Use the formatting buttons in the message box for bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, and links. Web addresses you type become clickable on their own.
To add an emoji, click the smiley icon in the message box and pick one. It's added at the end of your text.
Click the send icon (the paper plane), or press Ctrl + Enter (Cmd + Enter on a Mac).

A message needs some text or at least one file.

The message box only appears in channels where you're allowed to post. That depends on the channel's Message writing access setting: as an admin, you can post in channels set to All or Admins. See Who can post.

Customers see your message in the same channel in their wallet, with your name and picture next to it. Both come from your own Toki account: open Settings in the left navigation and, on the Account tab, edit Personal Information and Profile Picture. See Account and merchant settings. If your account has no name yet, your messages show as Anonymous.

Customers pick up your message when they open their wallet. Their channel list shows a +N new badge for messages they haven't read yet, and an open chat refreshes on its own within a few seconds.

Attach files

In channels with Enable files turned on, you can send files with your message:

Click the + icon in the message box and choose one or more files. You can also paste a file or screenshot straight into the message box.
Each file appears as a thumbnail while it uploads. To remove one before sending, click the trash icon on its thumbnail.
Send the message as usual.

Images up to 30 megapixels are supported. Customers see images as previews and other files by name, each with a download icon.

React to a message

In channels with Enable reactions turned on:

Click the smiley icon under a message.
Pick an emoji.

Reactions are grouped by emoji under the message, with a count when more than one person used the same one. Yours are highlighted. Click a reaction to add yours to it, or click one of your own reactions to remove it.

Reply in a thread

In channels with Enable replies turned on, each message can have its own thread:

Click the speech bubble icon under a message. The number next to it is the reply count. You can also click the message and choose Reply.
The thread opens over the channel, with the original message at the top, the replies below it, and a message box for your reply.
Click Back to channel to go back.

If the channel's Show last replies option is on, the newest reply also appears under the original message in the channel, with a Reply link and a count such as 2 more replies. Click the count to load more of them.

Message menu

Click a message's name or text to open its menu.

Action	What it does
Pin message	Shows the message at the top of the channel for everyone. See Pin a message.
Reply	Opens the message's thread. Shown in channels with replies turned on.
Edit	Changes a message you wrote. Shown on your own messages only.
Delete	Removes the message for everyone.
Mute and Ban	Moderation actions for the customer who wrote the message. Shown on other people's messages. See Moderation.

Edit your message

You can edit messages you wrote yourself.

Click your message and choose Edit. The message turns into a message box.
Change the text or the attached files. Click Cancel to keep the original.
Send it. The message now shows edited next to its time.

Pin a message

Click the message and choose Pin message.

The message appears at the top of the channel, labeled Pinned message, for everyone who opens the channel. Long messages are shortened; click More to read the whole thing and Hide to collapse it again.

Each channel has one pinned message. Pinning another message replaces the current one. To unpin, click the pinned message at the top of the channel and choose Unpin.

The X on the pinned message hides it on your screen only. Customers can do the same on theirs. The message stays pinned for everyone else.

Delete a message

Click the message and choose Delete.

The message disappears for everyone right away. This can't be undone. As an admin, you can delete any message in your channels. Customers can only delete their own.

Get an email when customers post

You can have Toki email you about new community messages, so you know when to come back and answer.

In the Toki app, click Settings in the left navigation, then open the Merchant tab.
Under Notification Settings, open the Community Posts tab.
Check Enabled.
Under Channels, pick the channels you want emails about. Leave it empty to get emails for all channels.
Under List of recipients, click Add recipient and enter an email address. Repeat for anyone else who should get them.
Click Save.

Community post emails always go out live, as soon as a customer posts, so the Schedule setting stays on Live.

Each email includes the message and a View message in the portal link that opens the conversation in the Toki app. You don't get emails about messages you posted yourself.