What is Haubot Messenger?

Haubot Messenger is the chat that lives inside Haubot, right next to the marketplace. You'll find it at /messages — it's also reachable from the message-bubble icon in the top bar of every page once you're signed in.

It's built for the way equipment trading actually happens: a buyer pings a seller about a listing, a deal turns into a back-and-forth about photos and documents, the seller's logistics colleague gets pulled into a group chat, and the whole thread becomes a record you can come back to weeks later.

Why use the in-platform chat instead of WhatsApp / email?

You can absolutely keep talking to dealers on WhatsApp. People do. But the messenger gives you a few things those tools can't:

• Listing-aware. When a buyer clicks Send message on a listing, the chat opens with the listing pinned in the header — both sides know what the deal is about, even three weeks later.
• One inbox for the whole platform. New listing inquiries, support, group rooms, your saved notes — all in one place.
• Realtime, no refresh. Messages, read marks, deletions, "Forwarded from" labels — all arrive instantly. No "did they get my photo?" guessing.
• A media library per chat. Every photo, video, PDF or audio note shared in a chat is one click away in the right-side panel. You don't have to scroll back through six months of messages to find the spec sheet.
• Records that stay with the listing. Even if a counterparty disconnects from WhatsApp, the conversation lives in Haubot.

What you can do in messenger

A short tour of what's there. Each item has its own page if you want the detail.

Talk to one person

The default. Open a seller's profile, click Send message, type. Or go via a listing — the seller still gets the message but the chat is anchored to the listing for both of you. See Conversations and groups for how the different chat types differ.

Chat with a team

Create a group chat, set a name and avatar, add the dealers/colleagues you work with. Useful when:

• Multiple people from one company need to be on the same thread with a buyer.
• Your team is coordinating on a listing — the salesperson, the mechanic, the logistics person.
• You want a recurring channel with a single buyer-dealer pair where you also CC each other's assistants.

Save things to yourself

A built-in Saved Messages thread is created the first time you open the messenger — pinned to the top of your inbox. Drop links, paste reminders, forward something useful from another chat. It's your personal scratchpad and it syncs across every device you sign in on.

Send files, photos, voice notes

Up to 50 MB per file, three files per message. Photos and videos render inline. Voice notes get a built-in player. PDFs, contracts, spec sheets — all fine. See Sending files and voice notes for the exact list of formats.

Make a call — voice or SecureCall

One-on-one chats have a phone icon in the chat header. Click it and you get two options:

• Voice call — a regular call. Nothing is recorded; when you hang up, the audio is gone.
• SecureCall — a recorded call. Both sides explicitly consent before it begins, and a few minutes after hanging up the recording lands in the chat's Calls tab. Both parties get the same recording, and neither side can edit it or delete it — it's a shared, honest record of what was said.

A floating call popup follows you around the platform during the call, with the timer, mute, and hang-up controls. SecureCalls show a Recording badge throughout. Calls are 1-on-1 in v1 — no group calls, no video yet. See Voice calls and SecureCall for the full breakdown of when to use each mode and the guarantees behind SecureCall.

Forward a message

If a buyer asks for a spec sheet you already sent in another chat, right-click the message (or hover and use the action menu) and pick Forward. The destination picker opens with all your conversations, you pick one, done. The recipient sees a small "Forwarded from {original author}" tag so the chain of authorship stays clear. See Forwarding and managing messages.

Find that one PDF from three weeks ago

The right-hand info panel has four tabs:

• Media — every photo and video shared in this chat, in a thumbnail grid.
• Files — every document shared, in a list with sizes and download buttons.
• Links — every URL someone pasted in the conversation.
• Calls — every recorded SecureCall held in this chat, with play and download buttons. Regular voice calls don't appear here.

Open the panel with the (i) icon in the chat header (it's open by default on wide screens). See Finding info in a chat.

Search across all your chats

The search box at the top of the conversations list searches both chat names and the actual content of messages. Type two or more characters: matching chats appear at the top, and a Messages section underneath shows individual message hits with a snippet, where the matched word is highlighted. Click any hit to jump to that conversation.

What you'll see on the screen

The messenger has a three-panel layout, the same shape as Discord or Slack:

• Left — the dark rail with all your conversations, the search box, a new chat button, and your unread badges.
• Centre — the active chat: header with the other party's name (and listing chip if it's a listing inquiry), message stream, attachment area, message composer.
• Right — the info panel with Media / Files / Links tabs.

On narrow screens (phones, small windows) the right panel collapses and the conversation list takes over the full screen until you pick a chat.

How private is it?

Short version: chats are between only the people in the chat plus, if the user explicitly invites them, our support staff. Haubot doesn't pull message content out for advertising or AI training, and we don't share it with third parties.

Long version: see Messenger privacy and security. Notable bits:

• Authentication is required on every connection — there's no "anonymous read".
• Permissions are re-checked per event: if you remove someone from a group, they stop receiving updates immediately, even mid-conversation.
• Message content stays in Haubot's database — it never goes through third-party message brokers.

What's not in v1 (and is coming)

• Typing indicator — not yet.
• Reactions / emoji — not yet.
• End-to-end encryption — not yet; the transport is encrypted, but the database stores plaintext (which is what makes search and the media library work).
• Pinned messages inside a chat — you can pin conversations, not individual messages, in v1.

If something's missing that you need, let support know — the messenger is a place we're actively investing in.

Where to next

• New here? Read Conversations and groups for the difference between DMs, listing inquiries, group chats and Saved Messages.
• About to send your first attachment? Sending files and voice notes.
• About to make your first call? Voice calls and SecureCall explains the two modes and when to use which.
• Already chatting and want to organise a thread? Forwarding and managing messages and Finding info in a chat.
• Concerned about who can see what? Messenger privacy and security.