Use Messages

When clients send freelancers a direct message or respond to your proposal on Upwork, we automatically create a conversation room in Upwork Messages. This space allows you to chat about a project and also keeps track of your messages over time.

You can create new conversations, and archive conversations when you're finished. To create a new conversation, choose the three dots (...) menu and select Start a new conversation.

You can also add team members to some conversations, including interview rooms, conversations created for a contract, or conversations that you manually created. You cannot add members to a direct message from a client to a freelancer.

Members of a conversation may have different abilities:

1. The Owner is the user who created a conversation. For example, the client who created a job is the owner of an interview or contract conversation.

2. The Admin can invite other members into a conversation

3. Members have been invited to join a conversation

Conversations have a full set of tools to support interviews and contract communications:

• Attach and preview files, links, images, PDFs, Google Docs, and more
• Take notes
• Share screenshots
• Share screen recordings through our Loom integration
• Connect with video and voice calls through our Zoom integration
• Record Zoom meetings to focus on important conversations without having to take notes

Filtering and search options make it easy to find the messages you’re looking for. Use the search bar or filter options to search through conversations. You can also tag conversations as favorites by selecting the (...) options menu above a conversation and choosing Add to favorites.

If you’ve hidden a conversation and want to see it again, type the person's name or a phrase you remember from the conversation into the search bar above your messages.

If you send or receive a message, it will create an email notification. These will be sent to the email account you used to register with Upwork. You can reply to any message from these email notifications, too. When you reply directly from your email, your reply will be posted in the conversation where it originated.

If you start to receive too many email notifications, or if you don't wish to receive any at all, you can change your settings. Choose the Settings gear icon and select Notifications to update your preferences.

You have options within the (...) options menu on each message you send and receive.

To reply to a message:

1. Hover over the message you want to reply to
2. Choose the arrow icon

To edit a message:

You can edit any message you send within one hour of sending it. After one hour, you won’t be able to edit the message. All members of a conversation will be able to see that the message has been edited.

1. Hover over a message you want to edit
2. Choose the pencil icon to change the message, then send it again

To delete a message:

You can delete a message within an hour of sending it, and you’ll see a note in italics that the message was removed.

1. Hover over a message and choose the (...) options menu
2. Choose Delete message

If you don’t see the option to delete, it means the hour time window has passed.

To favorite a message:

1. Hover over a message you want to add to your favorites
2. Choose the star icon
3. You can access this message later by filtering for favorite messages

To mark a message as unread:

1. Hover over the message and choose the (...) options menu
2. Choose Mark as unread

You can attach, search, preview, and download files to share your work through Messages. You can also delete messages and files if you do so within one hour of sending.

To attach files:

1. You can attach files of 1 GB or under, or link to your Dropbox account from within your Upwork Messages
2. Just Select the paperclip icon in the message box to add a file

To search files:

1. To search through the files in a room, open the right panel (ⓘ button) and choose the Files and links button
2. Use the search bar at the top of the panel to search by file name

To view files:

1. To view all of the files in a room, open the right panel (ⓘ button) and choose the Files and links button
2. From there, you can see all files, preview image files, and download or delete them

To download or delete files:

If you want to delete a message or file, you must do so within an hour of it being sent. After that, you will not be able to delete the message or file.

1. To download or delete a file, locate the message in the conversation where it was attached
2. Hover over the relevant file or message and select the (...) options menu
3. Choose Download or Delete

If you don’t see the delete button, it means the hour time limit to delete your file has passed. You can’t delete files through the files and links dropdown.

You can also take and attach a screenshot from within the Upwork Desktop App.

Upwork Messages have a built-in screen recording service through Loom. Recording your screen is a great way to show others how to perform a certain task, share your work, etc., and the video can be watched anytime. Learn more about screen recordings here.

Two things to know about Loom in Upwork Messages:

1. It's not available in the Upwork Desktop App
2. It's only accessible when using Chrome or Edge as your browser (and we hope to be able to host it on Firefox and Safari in the future)

Upwork Messages provides a personal notepad for each room that allows you to take notes, brainstorm, and make lists. You can access these notes at any time by clicking on the icon in the upper right corner and selecting Personal notepad.

Upwork Messages have built-in video and voice call service via Zoom, with screen sharing capability. Learn more about video and voice calls here.

If the contract hasn’t started yet, you’ll be able to follow the proposal process through the dropdown on the right, under Status. This will show you what action needs to be taken next to move forward.