Communicating with other users

Chances are, you didn't come all the way to the metaverse to hang out by yourself! Learn how to communicate with other users using text chat, voice, and in-world email.

Overview

Every professional network starts with a single conversation—and Breakroom offers multiple ways to connect. Here you'll learn how to participate in public text chat, send direct text messages, access voice chat, and send in-world emails with attachments.

Communicating with other users

Voice chat

Voice chat is available on a by-zone basis. If you're in a zone that permits voice chat, you will see a button that says Microphone Off at the top of your screen. Click on it, and its appearance will change to indicate that your microphone is now active. You can learn more about voice chat by reviewing our conferencing system documentation.

Text chat

To access text chat, click the Show Chat button in the bottom toolbar. This will launch the text chat window. If there are multiple chat channels available to you, you will see these listed as tabs across the top of the window. Once you've selected the channel you want to use, click on the text field at the bottom and type out your message. You can then hit the Enter key on your keyboard or click the Send button to submit it.

Direct message

To send a direct text message to another user in the same region as you, click on their avatar and select Instant Message in the action menu that appears. A new tab will open in the chat window labeled with that user's name. After typing out your message in the text field, you can hit the Enter key on your keyboard or click the Send button to submit it.

If you've added other users to your People list, you can direct message them at any time by clicking the People button and then clicking on their name. Select Chat in the action menu that appears, and a direct chat tab will open as described above.

You can also search for a user, open their user profile, and click the Chat button in their profile to start a direct text conversation.

Breakroom account Owners can use the Dashboard to enable or disable text chat and in-world email. If these features are disabled, users will only be able to communicate using voice chat.

In-world email

Breakroom's in-world email feature allows you to send longform messages to multiple recipients. You can also distribute virtual objects, such as bookmarks and camera settings, by attaching them to in-world emails.

Receiving

Here the envelope icon has changed to indicate that a user has one unread mail.

If you receive an email from another user, a pop-up message on your screen will alert you. Click on the envelope icon in the top toolbar to open the Mail window.

An example of how the Mail window may appear.

The Mail window UI is fairly straightforward. Here is a brief overview of the different features.

Button or UI component	Function
New Mail button	Opens the email composition window.
Manage button	Allows you to select and delete multiple emails.
Email preview	Opens the selected email.
Reply icon	Starts a new email and auto-fills the recipient field.
Trash icon	Deletes the relevant email.

To open an email and read it, simply click on the email preview that appears in the Mail window. Once you have read the email, you can click the Delete button to delete it forever, or the X or Cancel buttons to dismiss the email pop-up.

An example email. You can delete the email forever by clicking Delete, or dismiss the pop-up and return to the Mail window by clicking Cancel.

Sending

There are multiple ways to send email to other users within the Breakroom platform.

Sending email to another user in the same region

To send email to another user in the same region as you, click on their avatar and then click Send Mail in the action menu that appears.

Sending email to a contact in your People list

You can also send email by clicking on the name of a contact in your People list, and then clicking Send Mail in the action menu that appears.

Replying to a received email

To reply to an email someone else has sent you, click the Reply icon associated with that email in the Mail window.

Searching for an email recipient

If the user with whom you wish to communicate is located in another region, you can use the search field in the top toolbar to search for their name. If you like, you can filter the search results by checking the "User" option under Refine Search.

Once you've found the right person, click on the Detail button that appears beside their name in the search results. The other user's profile will open on your screen. Click the Mail button, and an email composition window will open.

No matter the contact method you use, the email composition window is the same. Here is a brief overview of the associated UI.

Button or UI component	Function
Back button	Returns you to the main Mail window.
Recipient field	Lists the recipient(s) you wish to contact.
Select More button	Allows you to select additional recipients.
Content field	Contains the contents of your email.
Open Inventory button	Allows you to attach virtual items to your email.
Send button	Sends the email.
Cancel button	Cancels the email and deletes your draft.

Attaching items

You can also use the in-world email system to share virtual items with other users. To attach an item to your email, follow these steps.

1. Open the email composition window using your preferred method, as detailed above.

2. Click the Open Inventory button in the email composition window.

3. An Inventory window will open. Click on the item you want to send.

4. If you like, you can set a sale price for the item using either Silver or Gold currency. If you elect to do this, there are two important things to keep in mind:

   1. Breakroom will take 10% of the selling price as a fee for doing business on the platform.

   2. If the other user declines to purchase the item, they will not receive it.

5. Once you are done composing your email, click the Send button.

6. If you have not set a selling price for the attachment, click the OK button to confirm your choice.

To accept an attachment, click the Accept It or Buy It button after opening the email.