# Internal Chat Overview

Internal chat, also called instant messaging (IM), in the Cloud Voice App Web Client gives your team a built-in space to talk without leaving the app or opening a separate tool. Start a private one-to-one conversation or a group thread with coworkers, and keep it lively with emoji, images, and shared files.

:::note
Internal chat is part of the Cloud Voice App itself, so there is nothing extra to install. Messages stay inside your organization: this is for talking to colleagues, not for texting external phone numbers (that is SMS/MMS, handled elsewhere).
:::

## What internal chat looks like

The chat panel lists your conversations alongside the active thread, so you can move between people and groups without leaving the app.

![Cloud Voice App chat panel showing a conversation list beside an open message thread](/images/pbx/preview-linkus-web-client-chat-1.png)

## What you can do

- **One-to-one and group chats**: Message a single colleague privately, or bring several people together in a group thread to coordinate faster.
- **Notification control**: Turn pop-up and sound alerts for new messages on or off to match how you like to work.
- **Synced history**: Your conversations and shared files stay in sync across every Cloud Voice App client. UC (Unified Communications) clients share the same account, so the same messages and files are waiting for you whether you open the Web Client or the Mobile Client.
- **More than text**: Send messages and emoji, attach files and photos, or launch an audio or video call with the person you are chatting with in a single click.

:::tip
Notification settings (pop-up and sound) are a personal preference and can be turned on or off per user. Keeping alerts on for busy team groups helps you catch time-sensitive messages, while muting a low-priority thread cuts down on distractions.
:::

## Limits to keep in mind

| Item | Limit |
| --- | --- |
| Members in a single group chat | Up to 200 |
| Group chats you can create | Up to 100 per user |
| Size of a shared file | Up to 100 MB |
| Length of retained chat history | Up to 1 year |

:::caution
These caps are hard limits, and hitting one causes the action to fail. A file larger than 100 MB will not upload: split it or share it another way. A group chat stops accepting new members at 200, and each user can create at most 100 group chats. Chat history is kept for up to 1 year, after which older messages and files are removed automatically and cannot be recovered, so do not treat chat as long-term storage for anything you need to keep.
:::