vWork enables mobile workers to message other team members through the vWork app. This is great for keeping in touch with changes to jobs, updates to road conditions, or other situations where you want to share information with others in your team. These messages are completely free to send and only require a data connection.

Messages can also be used to send SMS messages to customers for specific jobs when the optional 'Three-way messaging' feature is added to vWork. You can read more about this in the article, What is Three-way messaging?

In this article

This article explains how to send and receive messages in the iOS vWork mobile app.

Topics include:

• New message notifications
• The Messaging screen
• Read and reply to messages
• Create a new message

Click the link from the topics above to go to that topic. You can return to this topic list by clicking this icon:

New message notifications

When you get a message in the vWork mobile app, you'll see a notification as a Badge App icon in the vWork menu...

...and also in the top right of the 'Jobs' screen banner.

The Messaging screen

View your messages

The Messaging screen is where you read, respond to and create messages.

To open the Messaging screen you have two options:

1. Tap the 'Messaging' menu item from the vWork menu, or
   
   
2. Tap in the Jobs screen banner.

When you open the 'Messaging' screen you see all your messages listed from the most recent to the oldest message.

New messages and unread messages display a blue dot and light blue background. 

💡 Tip: To view only the messages related to a specific job you can also open the 'Messaging' screen when you are viewing the job's 'Details' or other job specific screens. 

Read and reply to messages

Read a message

To read your incoming messages:

1. Go to the Messaging screen (follow the steps in the topic above, The Messaging screen).
   
   
2. Tap a message to open it in a message thread.
   
   

Reply to a message

To reply to a message:

1. After opening a message thread, tap in the 'Write your Message' field to open the keyboard.
   
   
   
   
2. Type your message and tap . 
   
   Your message shows in the message thread and is sent to your dispatcher when the vWork mobile app syncs with the server.  If the message is part of a Three-way Message thread and you have a strong cellular connection the message is sent to the customer as an SMS.  
   
   
   
   💡 Tip: If it is important that your message gets through to the dispatcher quickly you can manually sync. There is more about manually syncing the iOS vWork mobile app in the article, iOS: sync vWork mobile app job information with the vWork server.

Create a new message

Chat Permission

You can create a new message to send to any other team member who has the 'Chat' permission enabled in their user profile.

If you don't have the 'Chat' permission in your user profile you can send messages to other team members with the 'Chat' permission, but aren't able to message other team members who don't have this permission.

Create a message

To create a message:

1. Go to the Messaging screen (follow the steps in the topic above, The Messaging screen).
   
   
2. Tap to open the 'New message' screen.
   
   
   
   
3. When composing a new message, you have the option to either send it to a selected recipient or a group of recipients.
   
   🔔 Note: Any team member with the 'Chat' permission is identified as a 'Dispatcher' in the 'Message Recipient' information. While they may not be a dispatcher they have the same user permission as a dispatcher when it comes to using the Messaging feature in vWork.
   
   In this example, we tapped to select a single recipient, our dispatcher, 'Nora Carrott'. Nora shows a checkmark next to her name to confirm that we have selected her.
   
   
4. Tap to open options for referencing a job with the message.
   
   If the message relates to a specific job you can choose to reference it. You can also choose to create a message that does not relate to a specific job.
   
   In this example, we will create a message that relates to a job assigned to us. We tap 'Select a job'. 
   
   
   
   
5. We tap to select the job we want to reference in this message.
   
   
   
   
6. The screen displays the job number in the 'New Message' screen banner. 
   
   Whichever option you select, 'Select a job' or 'No job reference', you are now prompted to enter a subject for the message.
   The cursor flashes in the subject field and the onscreen keyboard displays. Enter the subject for this message and tap Done to confirm your entry.
   
   
   
   
7. The cursor flashes in the 'Write your message' field and the keyboard displays. Enter your message. When you are done tap .
   
   
   
   
8. The message is created and shows in a new message thread. Tap <Back in the red banner to return to the 'Messaging' screen.