> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ontime.hosai.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Messaging

> Threads between a manager and their reports, and the 'report a problem' path from an employee's day.

export const PermissionNote = ({perm}) => <Info>
    Requires the <code>{perm}</code> permission. Ask your administrator if an
    action described here is missing from your screen — see
    [Roles & permissions](/help/concepts/roles-and-permissions).
  </Info>;

<PermissionNote perm="message:write" />

OnTime has a narrow, deliberate messaging surface: **manager and direct report**. It is not a chat product, and it is not a broadcast channel.

## Who can talk to whom

| Direction              | Started from                                                                            |
| ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Manager → report**   | The manager app, from a team member's detail, or from a needs-attention row as a nudge. |
| **Employee → manager** | The employee app, from a day detail's **Report a problem**.                             |

A thread has two participants. There are no group threads, no organization-wide announcements, and no messaging between peers.

## Threads with context

A thread can be attached to something. The two contexts that exist:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Attendance day" icon="calendar">
    Started from **Report a problem** on a day detail. The thread carries the date, so the manager knows which day is being disputed without asking.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Regularization" icon="wrench">
    The discussion thread on a regularization request — employee, manager and HR, alongside the request they are deciding.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

The regularization discussion is the more useful of the two: it puts the conversation next to the evidence and the decision. See [Regularization](/help/attendance/regularization).

## Reading and replying

Threads appear in both mobile apps. Opening a thread marks your incoming messages read.

Messages you sent are visually distinguished from messages you received.

## Notifications

A new message raises an in-app notification for the recipient, which appears in their bell feed.

<Warning>
  **In-app only.** There is no email, SMS or push delivery of messages. Someone who does not open the app does not know they have one.
</Warning>

## Where messaging is not

* **The admin console has no messaging surface.** Threads are a mobile-app feature.
* **There is no way to message a whole team or department.**
* **Messages cannot be edited or deleted** once sent.

<Note>
  A known edge case: two people posting the very first message to the same regularization discussion at exactly the same moment can each create a thread, after which only one is shown. The window is a rare double-submit on the first message only.
</Note>