Starting a chat

Every job starts with a new chat. You can start one from several places:

• A tap on a streamline with no open chats, or the first item of its menu (touch and hold its row; right-click on the Mac), which carries the streamline's own label, such as New sale or Receive a PO.
• The + at the end of a card's tab band (on the iPhone, the tabs under a chat's header).
• The button shown when a card has no chat open.
• The button that replaces the composer when a job is done.
• On the Mac, ⌘N in the card you are working in, or File → New Chat In for any streamline.

The welcome

If the streamline already has a new chat you haven't used yet (nothing typed or sent), + opens that one instead of making another, so unused chats never pile up. If that chat is already in front of you, + puts the cursor in its message box and a short note says you already have a new chat open.

A new chat opens with the streamline's welcome as the assistant's first messages: what this streamline is for and what it needs from you to begin. Hi Ava. This chat is one sale. Tell me who the customer is…

The welcome is drawn on your device. Nothing is sent and nothing is charged until you write or tap something.

Starter chips

Above the composer, a new chat shows up to four starter chips, such as Find a customer, New customer or Scan a tag. A filled chip sends its message at once. An outlined chip puts its text in the composer for you to finish.

Starter chips go away after your first message. After that the same place shows up to three suggestions for the job's next step, such as Card on the terminal or Submit the sale. They follow the job's state, so they change when the data changes rather than with every reply. See Writing to the assistant (ST-3).

One chat, one job

Keep each chat to one job. If a customer wants a second sale, start a new chat for it. The assistant knows only what happened in the chat it is in, and the chat's title, status and overview all describe that one job.