Conversations: talking about a task, inside the task

Coordinating a trail crew nearly always breaks down in the same place: a messaging group. "That plank at kilometre 4" comes up three times a season, each time in a different thread, and nobody can find last year's photo.

Sentinel's conversations fix that in one way only: the thread doesn't exist on its own. It's attached to the thing you're talking about — a task, a structure, a project, a checklist. You discuss the broken plank inside the "Broken plank" task. Six months later the exchange is still there, next to the photo, the GPS position and the status.

Where: left navigation bar, under General → Conversations. A thread also opens from the task, structure or project it belongs to.

Where conversations live

There's no "new conversation" button. A thread is born when someone writes the first message from a task, a structure, a project or a checklist.

The Conversations section then gathers every thread in the place in one spot.

The list is sorted by recent activity and loads in batches of twenty as you scroll. It updates live: a message sent by a colleague moves the thread up without you refreshing anything.

Opening a thread marks it read.

Writing in a thread

Four gestures, and that's all:

Mention with @ — the most useful gesture in the section, detailed just below.

Reply to a specific message. The original stays displayed above yours, which keeps the thread readable when two topics cross.

React with an emoji. Useful for acknowledging without adding another message: a 👍 beats an "ok got it" that notifies everyone.

Attach photos. On the web, drag them straight onto the conversation. On mobile, the camera is one tap away.

Mentioning someone

A mention does two things at once, and the second is the one people forget:

1. the person gets a notification, even if they weren't following the thread;
2. they start following the thread from then on — so they'll get the later messages too.

It's the only way to pull someone into a conversation they never took part in. A member who never wrote in a thread receives nothing from it: without an @, your question won't reach them.

How to trigger it. On the web, type @ in the input and keep typing: the list filters on what you write. On mobile you can do the same, or tap the @ button in the input bar.

Who shows up in the list. The place's members, you excepted, sorted by name, eight at a time — narrow it down by typing a few more letters.

One detail that explains most "I can't find them in the list": on the web, the list only shows members who have access to the current activity. Someone restricted to skiing won't appear while you're working in mountain biking. When that happens, the fix isn't in the conversation but in their activity restrictions.

Worth knowing: on mobile the list doesn't apply that filter and shows every member of the place. So you can mention someone there who won't see the task you're discussing — they'll get the notification without being able to open the item.

What the reader sees. The mentioned name shows in gold inside the message. A mention isn't a link: it's a visual marker, backed by a notification.

Who gets notified

This is the part people rarely get right first time, and it explains most "I was never told".

You follow a thread as soon as you take part. Writing a message subscribes you. Being mentioned subscribes you too. Nobody is subscribed by default to the place's conversations.

From then on, each message sent triggers this:

That third line is the surprise. Replying is quieter than writing. A reply doesn't wake the thread: it notifies exactly one person. If you want the crew to see your message, write it normally rather than as a reply — or mention the people concerned explicitly.

A message's author is never notified of their own message, and someone mentioned never gets two notifications for the same message.

Stepping out of a thread

The gear at the top of the thread opens two settings, personal to you — they change nothing for anyone else.

The two are independent, and that's useful: you can mute the notifications while keeping the unread counter. The thread still shows bold in the Conversations section, but it no longer buzzes your phone. That's the right setting for an active thread you only need to catch up on later.

In the field

The thread is identical on mobile: same bubbles, same mentions, same reactions, same photos.

What changes is the offline behaviour, and it's complete:

• you read the messages already downloaded, with no signal;
• you still write. The message goes into the sync queue with your photos and mentions, and sends itself when the network comes back;
• what stays unavailable offline: reactions and loading messages older than the cache.

A message written offline isn't sent twice if the sync runs again — every message carries a creation identifier that acts as a guard on the server side. So you can send without thinking about it from the bottom of a ravine.

Who can read and write

Conversations fall under the Conversations right in the activity manager.

• With read: you see the threads and the messages, with no input field and no reactions.
• With read and write: you take part.

One detail that matters: there is no private conversation. Any member with read access sees every thread in the place — the conversation belongs to the object, not to the people who wrote in it. This isn't a messaging app; don't use it for anything the crew shouldn't read. See roles.

Three pieces of advice

Write inside the object, not next to it. The value of a Sentinel conversation isn't the exchange, it's that you find it six months later beside the photo and the position. A message sent through another channel is a message lost.

Mention rather than relying on subscriptions. Someone who never wrote in the thread follows nothing. If you need an answer from a specific person, put their @ in.

React instead of replying "ok". Every message notifies; no reaction notifies anyone. On a ten-person thread, the difference shows fast.