Sending messages

Every message you send answers two questions: who receives this, and which of our lines sends it. CommSync tries to answer both for you, and makes both easy to correct before you hit send.

Start a conversation

Click Compose to open a new conversation. Pick the channel — SMS or Email — then search in the To field.

The field searches your contacts and your saved addresses and numbers at the same time, and groups the results:

• Contacts — matched by name. Type Hana to find Hana Lin; you do not need her address.
• Channels — addresses and numbers not yet attached to a contact.

CommSync shows only the channels that fit the current mode: an email compose shows addresses, and an SMS compose shows numbers. If you change the channel tab, the search clears and starts fresh.

Contacts with more than one address or number

A contact can hold several channels — a work mailbox and a personal one, an office line and a mobile. CommSync never guesses between them.

Once chosen, the recipient sits in the field as a chip that carries both the contact's name and the literal address or number. CommSync never hides the real destination behind a friendly name.

Copy other people on an email

Click Cc / Bcc next to the subject to show the copy fields. Click a field, then type an address. Press Enter, a comma, or Tab to add it. You can also paste addresses separated by commas or semicolons.

If the text in a field is not an email address, CommSync shows it in red. The email does not send until you fix that text or delete it.

Write an email on mobile

Tap Compose, then choose Email. Select a recipient in To. Tap Cc / Bcc to show the copy fields. Enter each address and press Done on the keyboard. You can also paste addresses separated by commas or semicolons. Use the × button on an address to remove it.

Tap Aa to show text formatting above the keyboard. The row includes bold, italic, underline, lists, and links. Its More menu includes other styles, clear formatting, undo, and redo. Select text before adding a link to use that text as the link label. With no selection, CommSync inserts the website address. If the cursor is inside a link, the same control changes that link's address.

Tap a selected style again to remove it. This includes Code Block, Quote, and Highlight. The More menu shows a checkmark beside each active style. Clear Formatting returns the selected content to normal text. It also removes lists, quotes, code blocks, and links. Undo restores the previous formatting.

To leave a code block, select Code Block again. You can also press Return three times at its end. Backspace at its start returns the block to normal text. An empty list item or quote returns to normal text when you press Return. Text size and theme changes keep the current selection and Undo history.

The recipient fields and message scroll together. The toolbar stays above the keyboard. Use its keyboard button to close the keyboard. The sender and schedule pickers close it before they open.

To send later, open More compose actions and select Schedule Send. Choose a preset or a custom date and time. The composer shows the selected time. Remove returns to immediate sending. The same controls are available when you expand an email reply to full screen.

Which line your message sends from

Mailboxes and phone numbers belong to the workspace, not to you personally (see roles & permissions). Owners and admins can use every line in the workspace, so "which line is mine" is not something CommSync can work out on its own.

By default it uses the line the conversation already used — reply to a thread that arrived on support@northwind.example and the reply goes out from support@northwind.example. That is almost always right for a one-to-one conversation, because it is the address the other person expects to hear back from.

It is less reliable on a group thread, where the line that happened to receive the message is often a teammate's rather than yours. That is what default sending lines are for.

Choose your default sending lines

Go to Settings → Account → Default sending lines and pick one mailbox and one phone number. Both are optional, and No default is a valid choice — leave them unset and CommSync keeps the behaviour described above.

Once set, CommSync uses your default:

Your default only ever applies to lines you can actually use. If an admin revokes your access to a mailbox, or the mailbox loses its connection, CommSync quietly resets the default to No default. The default never points at a line you cannot send from. CommSync restores your choice if access comes back.

Change the line before you send

The Sending from control below the composer always shows the line a message will go out from. You can change it at any point before you send. The dropdown marks each option so you can tell them apart at a glance:

• In thread — this line has already sent or received on this conversation.
• New here — this line has not appeared in this conversation before.

If the selected line has never been part of the conversation, CommSync adds one quiet note under the picker:

This line has not been part of this conversation.

It is a nudge, not a wall. You can send from a fresh line, and that is perfectly legitimate. You introduce a new address to the thread, and the note makes sure you do it on purpose rather than by accident.

In a conversation that shows every thread of one contact, a text goes out from the line in Sending from. It lands in the conversation of that line with the contact, and the new message names that line.

A line cannot text its own number. If one of your own lines is saved as a contact, that line is not in Sending from for that contact.

Send it later

The Send button has a chevron beside it. Click the chevron to pick a time instead of sending now. Choose one of the presets, or open Pick date and time for an exact moment.

Both channels schedule. SMS and Email work the same way, because the delay sits on the job queue rather than on the mail server or the carrier.

A scheduled message shows a clock icon instead of the usual check mark, and it stays in the conversation where you left it. CommSync sends it at the chosen time, then the icon changes to the normal delivery state.

Attach a file to an email

An email can carry files of up to 25 MB each. CommSync does not send a file type that can run a program, such as .exe, .msi, .bat, .js, .sh, .jar, .dmg, .pkg, or .apk. To share one of these, put it in a .zip file or send a link.

Send pictures by text (MMS)

Click the paperclip on an SMS conversation to attach images. Drag a file onto the composer, or paste one from the clipboard — both work the same way. The message goes out as a picture message (MMS) on the line's own carrier. Most platforms can send them. The page of each phone platform says whether it can, and names its own limit.

A text message accepts JPEG, PNG, and GIF images. One message holds up to 10 images and 5 MB in total. Some platforms carry a tighter cap, and the page of the platform names it. A caption is optional — a picture with no text is a valid message, and it renders as just the image in the conversation.

View pictures

A picture shows in the message at its own shape. Two or more pictures show as a grid. When a message has more than four pictures, the last tile shows how many more there are.

Click a picture to open it full size. Use the arrow keys or the arrow buttons to move between the pictures of the message. On a phone, swipe left or right.

A picture can show smaller than its real size. Click it to see it at its real size. Click again to fit it to the screen. Press Esc or click outside the picture to close it.

Some phones save pictures in a format that a browser cannot show, such as HEIC. CommSync then shows the file name in place of the picture. Click it to download the file.

When a message waits or fails

A message you send shows its state under the bubble. Most messages show a check mark and nothing more. Two other states tell you something.

Waiting to send

A phone platform or a mail server can ask CommSync to slow down, because it accepts only so many messages each minute. CommSync then holds your message and sends it when the line has room. The bubble shows an amber note with a clock and a countdown, for example:

Waiting to send — the line is busy. Sending automatically in 0:45.

Nothing failed, and you do not have to do anything. The message goes out on its own when the countdown ends. The note has no Try again button, because a second attempt would only make the wait longer. When two or more messages in one conversation wait at the same time, a banner above the conversation shows how many.

Not delivered

When a send fails, a red Not delivered note appears under the bubble, with a short reason in plain words: the line could not sign in to its carrier, the carrier refused the number, a filter blocked the message, or the message did not send. The note never shows the carrier's own error text. Click Try again to send the same message again. The right-click menu of the bubble also has Try again.

CommSync sends the message you already wrote. It does not make a copy in the conversation. You can also try again on a picture with no caption. Delete removes the message.

One press sends one message

If you press Send twice, or the connection drops and you try again, CommSync recognizes the same message and sends it once. This applies to replies, new conversations, forwards, and messages to a shared contact.

Forward a message

Right-click any message, then choose Forward. You can also forward a whole conversation's most recent message. That option sits in the thread header menu, and in the conversation's right-click menu in the inbox list.

Every conversation can forward: one-to-one, group, and contacts that hold any number of addresses and numbers.

The dialog opens on the channel the original message arrived on. Search the To field by contact name, or type an address or number that is new to you. Add an optional comment, and CommSync puts it above the forwarded text.

When you forward an email to another email address, CommSync copies the original attachments by default. The dialog lists them with their sizes. Clear the checkbox to send the message text alone.

Images that sit inside the message body travel too. CommSync rebuilds the reference each embedded image needs, so a logo, a chart, or a screenshot arrives in place rather than as a broken picture. The dialog does not list those, because you did not choose them — they are part of the message you are forwarding.

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