How to Use Chat Features on the Web App

AOne Schools has a built-in messaging feature that lets you stay connected with teachers, admins, guardians, and staff — all without leaving the platform. There are 5 features: Search, Reply, Read Receipts, Copy, and Delete — cover everything available in the AOne Schools chat. 

You may check out the table of contents below to see what is covered in this guide:

1. Search for an Old Message
2. Reply to a Specific Message
3. See If Your Message Was Delivered and Read
4. Copy a Message
5. Delete a Message

Search for an Old Message

We've all been there — you remember someone sent an important message a while back, but now you have to scroll forever to find it. That's what the Search feature is for. Here’s how to use the feature: 

1. Open any  chat room
2. Click or Tap the Search icon at the top of the chat
3. Type in a word or phrase you remember from the message
4. AOne Schools will automatically start searching after a moment or press Enter on your keyboard Web App to search right away

Once results are found, matching words will be highlighted in bold orange inside the messages so they're easy to spot. Use the up and down arrow buttons to jump between results — up takes you to older matches, down to newer ones. 

If nothing is found, AOne Schools will let you know so you can try a different keyword. When you're done, click or tap the X button on the search bar to close it. The highlights disappear and the chat returns to normal.

Reply to a Specific Message

Sometimes a conversation moves fast and you want to respond to something specific — not just the last message. The Reply feature makes this easy. Here’s how to do it:

1. Find the message you want to respond to
2. Click or Tap the Action button next to it
3. Select Reply Message
4. A small preview of the original message will appear just above the message box at the bottom of your screen
5. Type your response and send it as normal
6. When your reply appears in the chat, it will show a small section with the original message attached, so anyone reading can see exactly what you were responding to. They can click or tap on it to jump back to the original message. 

A few things worth knowing:

1. To cancel a reply, click or tap the X button on the preview panel and it goes away.
2. You can reply to any message — whether it's text, an image, or a file — and whether you sent it or someone else did.
3. When replying, you can only attach one file or image at a time.
4. If the original message gets deleted later, your reply will still be there, it'll just show "This message was deleted" in its place.
5. When forwarding a reply, only your reply content is forwarded — the original message it referenced is not included.
6. When copying a reply, only the text is copied — attachments and the reference are not included.

See If Your Message Was Delivered and Read

After sending a message, small checkmark icons appear next to it to let you know its status

1. ✔ One white checkmark — your message was sent successfully.
2. ✔✔ Two white checkmarks — the other person received it, but hasn't read it yet.
3. ✔✔ Two green checkmarks — your message has been read.

For group chats

• The two green checkmarks only appear once every group member has read the message. 
• If even one person hasn't, it stays as two white checkmarks
  
  

For image or file messages

• A message counts as "read" once the other person opens the chat
• And the attachment is visible on their screen

To see exactly when your message was read, follow the steps below:

1. Find a message you sent.
2. Click or tap the Action button next to it.
3. Select Message Info.
4. You'll see the exact date and time your message was delivered and read. 
5. If it happened today, it shows as Today 19:04. 
6. If it hasn't been delivered or read yet, a (~) symbol appears in place of the date.

Copy a Message

Need to reuse something from a chat, maybe a link, an announcement, or some information you want to paste somewhere else? That's easy to do. 

1. Find the message you want to copy.
2. Click or tap the Action button next to it.
3. Select Copy Text.
4. The text is now in your clipboard, ready to paste wherever you need it.

A things to note:

1. Copy Text only appears on messages that contain text. 
2. If a message is just an image or file with no words, the option won't show.
3. If a message has both a file and text, only the text is copied.

Delete a Message

You can delete messages in AOne Schools, and how it works depends on whose message you're deleting.

Here's how:

1. Click or tap the Action button next to the message you want to delete.
2. Select Delete Message.
3. Checkboxes will appear on all messages in the chat — the one you selected will already be ticked.
4. Tick any other messages you'd also like to delete at the same time.
5. Click or tap the Delete button at the bottom of the screen.
6. A confirmation pop-up will appear — click or tap Yes to confirm, or Cancel to go back.

A few more things to know:

• If you're deleting a message you sent yourself, it gets removed for everyone in the conversation. 
  In its place, everyone will see "This message was deleted." 
  
  
• If you're deleting a message someone else sent, it only disappears from your view. 
  Everyone else in the chat can still see it. 
  
  
• If someone had replied to a message before it was deleted, their reply will still be visible — 
  it just won't show the original message anymore.
  
  
• If a message was forwarded to another chat before being deleted, that forwarded copy is completely unaffected.
  
  
• If the deleted message was the most recent one in the chat, the conversation preview on your messaging list will automatically update to show the next most recent visible message.