Direct messages

Direct messages (DMs) are private conversations — one-to-one, or a small group. They live in the Direct messages section of the sidebar, with a presence dot showing who’s online.

Start a DM

1. Click the + next to Direct messages in the sidebar.
2. Pick a person — or several people for a group DM.
3. Write your first message.

If a conversation with those exact people already exists, Knobs reopens it instead of creating a duplicate — there’s one DM per set of participants.

Group DMs

A group DM is a private conversation between a fixed set of people (you plus the people you picked). It behaves like a small private channel, with one difference: the roster is fixed. You can’t add or remove people from an existing DM — if the group needs to change, start a new DM with the right people, or create a private channel, which does support membership changes.

Tip

Rule of thumb: DMs for a quick private exchange, private channels for anything with a name and a future — channels can grow, be renamed, and hold pins.

Everything works like a channel

Inside a DM you have the full messaging toolkit — mentions, reactions, edits, threads, attachments, slash commands, plus Add to Tasks and Add to Calendar on any message.

Notifications and privacy

• Every new DM message notifies the other participants — a DM is never “just an unread dot”. The sidebar shows a counter pill until you’ve read it.
• DMs are visible only to their participants. They don’t appear in anyone else’s sidebar or search results — including workspace admins.
• Presence dots in the DM list show who’s currently online.