Mentions

Mentions are a way for a user to notify a specific user in a conversation.

In the TalkJS dashboard you can allow or not allow users to mention other users. You can find the checkbox to allow or not allow mentions on the Chat UI page of the dashboard, under the 'Features' heading, as follows:

A ticked checkbox with the label 'Allow mentions'. Below the checkbox is the line: 'This option allows or disallows users to mention others by writing an @ sign followed by a name. An autocomplete list will show up where a user can be selected to mention.'

Once you have mentions enabled, a user can mention another user by typing an @-sign in the message field, selecting the user's name from a pop-up menu, and sending their message that mentions the user, as shown in the following sequence:

A message field in which a user has typed '@ali', showing an autocomplete pop-up list with the names 'Alice', 'Alicea Mapston', and 'Alikee Bruckshaw'. Autocomplete pop-up from which a user can select a user to mention

A message field with the text 'Hello @Alicea Mapston! 👋', with '@Alicea Mapston' in blue, while the rest of the text is in red. Message field with a message in which a user is mentioned

A chat with two messages. The first message states 'Hello @Alicea! 👋'. The second message reads 'hello @David'. In both messages the name that is preceded by an @-sign is surrounded by a field of lighter background color. Chat with messages in which users are mentioned

You can give mentioning a user a try, by typing @ into the chat:

Loading chat...

If you would like to allow mentions only for one group of users but not others, create a separate role for each user group and adjust the mention settings per role.

Notifications for mentions

If you have mentions enabled, you can set up notifications such that users only receive a notification when someone mentions them. For more information on notifying a user only when someone mentions them, see the notification options in Participant settings.