# Messages

> One thread per client or lead, with your chats and every email Forge has sent them.

**Messages**, under **Studio**, gives each client and each lead a single thread. It holds the chats between you, and a line for every email Forge has sent that person, so the whole conversation is in one place.

## Two ways to send

When you write a message, choose how it goes under **Send as**:

- **Chat** goes to the client's portal. They read and answer it there.
- **Email** is sent straight away to their email address, with a **Subject**. Their reply goes to your own inbox, not back into Forge.

Leads do not have a portal, so messages to a lead go by **Email**.

## Start a conversation

1. Open **Messages** and choose **New message**.
2. Search for the client or lead by name or email.
3. Write your message, choose **Chat** or **Email**, and choose **Send**.

A thread also appears on its own when you email a client from Forge, or when they write to you from their portal.

## If a chat goes unread

A client is not always in their portal. So that a chat is never missed:

- If your chat is still unread after 10 minutes, Forge emails it to the client. Before you send, the composer tells you whether that will happen.
- Forge sends at most one of these emails per conversation every 30 minutes.
- Clients can opt out of these emails from a link in each one.

The same works the other way. If a client's message sits unread for 10 minutes, Forge emails you. Switch this off with **Client replies** in **Settings → Notifications**.

## What your client sees

In their portal, under **Messages**, the client sees the chat in both directions and one line for each email Forge has sent them. See [Clients](https://docs.forge.page/clients) for the portal.

## Find the thread you need

Filter the list by **Unread**, **Waiting on you**, **Waiting on them**, **Delivery problems**, **Clients**, **Leads** or **Archived**.

A thread marked **Email bouncing** means emails to that address are not getting through. Check the address on the client's record.

The count beside **Messages** in the sidebar is your unread threads.

## Quieten one conversation

Open the conversation and use the mute control in its header to choose **Mute notifications**, or to snooze for an hour, until tomorrow morning or for a week. A muted thread carries a small mark in the list. See [Notifications](https://docs.forge.page/notifications) for exactly what a mute stops.

## The Forge team

At the top of your list is a thread called **The Forge team**. It is your direct line to us.

- Write there to tell us what is confusing, broken or missing.
- We read everything, and we reply by email, not in the thread.
- If you have the **Tell Forge** button, anything you send with it shows there too, so you have a record of what you told us.

It is not a client conversation, so it cannot be archived or muted.

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Source: https://docs.forge.page/messages