The photo of the problem is on somebody's phone, and that is where it stays
Site conversations happen in text messages, in a WhatsApp group half the team is in, and in a phone call nobody wrote down. Messages puts the conversation on the job instead — one chat per project, plus groups and direct messages, with every photo and file landing in that project's documents.
Available on the Builder plan
A group chat forgets. A job does not.
Everything is on the project
Every job has a General chat that everyone with access to that job is already in. No one has to be added, and nobody is left out because they joined after the group was made.
Files do not live in the chat
Every photo and file sent lands in that job's Documents, in a Messages folder — backed up, permissioned, and findable by someone who was never in the conversation.
Messages point at real things
Type # and link a defect, a purchase order or a variation. The chip on the message opens the item, so "that thing in the ensuite" becomes a link somebody can act on.
The things you already expect a chat to do
Groups and direct messages sit alongside the job chats. A group can be tied to a job, which puts it under This job and files its photos with that job.
Mute a chat and it stops counting toward your unread total and stops notifying your phone — but a mention still gets through, which is the setting most people actually want.
In the conversation
- Mention someone
- Type @ and pick them. They are notified even if they muted the chat
- Link a defect, order or variation
- Type # and pick it. The chip opens the item
- Reply to a message
- The reply quotes the original; click the quote to jump back
- Send a photo or a file
- Paper-clip, drag it on, or paste it
- Pin something
- Pinned messages sit in a bar at the top of the chat
Suppliers and clients are not in your team chat
They have their own portals — a supplier gets their defect notices and their orders, a client gets their selections and their variations. Messages is for the people who work for you, which is what makes it a place anyone can speak freely.
Nothing was left behind
Messages replaces Feeds. Every old post was carried into its job's General chat, and private posts became small groups containing exactly the people they had been shared with.
A closer look at messages
Writing, finding, and what a chat keeps.
What it connects to
Nothing in SmarteBuild is an island — that is the point of it. Messages reads from and feeds into these.
Mobile & On Site
The job in your pocket, including where reception is poor
Defects & Handover
Log it, assign it, close it out, hand over clean
Documents & Drawings
Every revision in one place, attached to the job automatically
Site Diary
What happened on site today, with the weather recorded for you
Want the detail?
The help centre documents Messages step by step, with worked examples — written for people using it, not for a brochure.
Start with one job and see
Try the whole thing free for 30 days. No credit card to start, and no lock-in contract.