Task chat, project discussion, and team communication in PRO-dela

In PRO-dela, you don't need a separate messenger for work correspondence: task chat, project chat, private discussion, and personal correspondence with a colleague exist within the platform itself and update in real time. A message, reaction, or "read" mark appears to the interlocutor immediately, without reloading the page.

This setup solves a specific problem of project work: agreements no longer get lost in personal chats outside the system. Correspondence about a specific step of a task stays next to the task itself, and a question that concerns not the entire team but two or three people can be moved to a separate private discussion — without an extra project, spreadsheet, or personal chat in an external messenger for the sake of protocol.

Next — what types of chats exist in PRO-dela, how discussions are organized and who sees them, how messages, reactions, mentions, and notes behave, and why all this is delivered to the interlocutor instantly.

What types of chats are there in PRO-dela

The "Chats" section contains a general list of conversations to which the user has access. A chat is not created manually "from scratch" — it is tied to the entity around which the conversation takes place:

• Personal chat — one-on-one correspondence with a specific project participant, not tied to a task;
• Project chat — a common space for questions that concern the entire project, not just one task;
• Task chat — correspondence around a specific task: clarifications, implementation details, discussion of edits — next to the task itself, not in the general project stream;
• Discussion chat — correspondence within a private discussion with its own separate set of participants.

The list of task chats is organized so as not to clutter the interface with empty dialogues: a chat for a specific task appears in the general list only after the first message in it. Personal chats, on the other hand, are visible immediately, even if correspondence has not yet started — a newly created dialogue with a colleague does not get lost in the interface.

Discussions: a private space within a project

A discussion is a separate entity from the project chat. It is always created within a specific project, but access to it is determined not by participation in the project, but by personal participation in the discussion itself.

The rules are simple and the same for any discussion:

• the author of the discussion automatically becomes its participant;
• only the author of the discussion can invite new participants — other participants cannot expand the composition on their own;
• only those who are already members of the project can be invited to the discussion;
• a participant can leave the discussion independently; after leaving, they lose access to the list, discussion page, its chat, messages, and notifications about it.

In practice, this is convenient when the topic concerns not the entire team: discuss a budget risk with the manager and accountant, coordinate a sensitive edit with the client and one executor, discuss a contractor candidate without other project participants. The discussion does not replace general project communication — it complements it where a narrower circle of participants is needed.

Messages: history, editing, and read statuses

Inside any chat — personal, project, task, or discussion — messages behave the same way. Participants see the full history of correspondence and can send new messages. The right to edit or delete an already sent message depends on the participant's role in the project, not the same for everyone — this is part of the general model of roles and permissions in PRO-dela.

While the interlocutor is typing a response, a typing indicator is visible in the chat. It is not saved as a separate message and serves only as an instant hint that a response is being prepared. "Delivered" and "read" marks for each message only move forward: the system does not roll back the status if a message has already been seen.

Reactions and emoji catalog

You can leave an emoji reaction on a message without sending a separate reply — a quick way to confirm reading, agreement, or approval without unnecessary "ok" and "received" in the correspondence history. Reactions are aggregated per message, so it is visible who exactly responded and with which reaction.

The set of available emojis and reactions is not an open user list but a managed catalog of the platform: the administrator determines which emojis and reactions are available to participants. This keeps correspondence in a business-like form instead of an arbitrary set of stickers.

Links, mentions, and notes

If a message contains a link, PRO-dela shows its preview: page title, short description, and image if the site publishes them. The interlocutor does not need to blindly follow the link to understand what is behind it.

Mentioning a specific participant in a message or discussion sends them a separate notification — this is more reliable than hoping the person will notice the relevant remark in a long correspondence.

Separately from chats, there are notes in the project — short text entries with a title and content that do not have to be formatted as a message in correspondence or as a full-fledged document. A note is a quick way to capture a thought or agreement next to the project without opening a chat or creating a document for a single short entry.

How messages are delivered instantly

Communication in PRO-dela works through a dedicated WebSocket service (Laravel Reverb), not through periodic server polling. A new message, reaction, read status, or typing indicator is delivered to the interlocutor immediately after the action — without reloading the page and without the delay typical of email-like notifications.

The chat list itself also updates in real time: if a colleague writes to you for the first time, the chat with them appears in the list automatically, and the unread counter recalculates immediately. The unread counter for discussions in the sidebar also updates — without reloading the page, as soon as a new message arrives.

What communication in PRO-dela consciously does not replace

Chats and messages are not the first version of feedback on projects in PRO-dela. Previously, the platform had a separate entity "comments" attached to tasks and projects; it has now been completely replaced by the current system of chats and messages and removed from the active data model. This is more an indicator of the maturity of the communication module than a separate function worth describing separately.

At the same time, communication in PRO-dela has clear boundaries:

• personal chat is only available with someone who is actually in the same project as you — this is not a general messenger across the entire company;
• only a current project participant can be invited to a discussion, not any platform user;
• the catalog of reactions and emojis is set by the administrator — users do not upload their own emojis;
• Telegram in PRO-dela is a separate notification channel for events, not another place for correspondence;
• who exactly sees the project, its tasks, and their chats is determined by the participant's role — this is detailed in the article about roles and project participants.

Frequently asked questions

How is a task chat different from a project discussion?

A task chat is tied to a specific task, and access to it is related to who is involved with that task. A discussion is not tied to a task: it is a separate private entity within a project with its own list of participants, determined by the discussion author.

Who sees the correspondence in a private discussion?

Only those who are actively part of its participants. Participation in the project itself does not grant access to the discussion — the discussion author must grant it by inviting a specific person from among the project participants.

What happens if a participant leaves the discussion?

They immediately lose access to the list of discussions, the discussion page, its correspondence, and notifications about this discussion. To return, they must be invited again by the discussion author.

Can I write to a personal contact if we do not work together in the same project?

No. Personal chat in PRO-dela requires that both participants actually belong to the same project — this is a deliberate limitation, not a general messenger across the entire company.

Can I add my own emojis for reactions?

No. The catalog of available emojis and reactions is managed by the platform administrator, not by individual users.

Bring your team's correspondence together in one place

Register in PRO-dela and connect task chat, private discussion, and personal correspondence to your project — instead of keeping work decisions in scattered messengers. Current terms and limits for the team can be viewed in advance on the pricing page.