CoWork is a messaging and collaboration platform for teams. It is GDPR compliant by being self-hosted and using encryption. CoWork is designed around teams that have full control over their channels. They decide who has access to channels within their team so even an administrator may not be allowed to sneak into conversations.

Teams can be created by users with the CoWork Administration permission. Each team has one or more team administrators. The team administrators are allowed to make settings on team members as well as on the team channels without having the CoWork Administration permission. However, they do not have to be a team member themselves - and then they do not have read or write access to channel content. Team members are set up separately by the team administrator. They can consist of individual users or groups, e.g. to represent departments. It is also possible to allow access to the All Users group of the i-net CoWork server to allow access for everyone on the server, if this group has the permission to use CoWork.

Each team can have multiple channels where all team members have access by default. However it is possible to create channels where only a subset of the team members is allowed to participate. Every channel can have an optional description and their own icon to visually distinguish multiple channels.

A channel consists of the messaging area, including the text input and attachment field; and the user list. The user list displays the online status of all users - for up to 1000 users.

The status of a user can be changed from the top-bar of the CoWork application. There is a list of predefined statuses which can be extended by a custom status phrase.

Messages are written in the messaging area. The text input field allows custom formatting based up on the MarkDown syntax. Sending file attachments, such as images and documents, is available using Drag & Drop and the attachments button on the left side of the text input field. Attachments with well known types can be previewed by user in the channel.

Responding to a message is accomplished in three different ways: using the context menu on any message, using the keyboard shortcut ALT+R to reply to the latest message or by typing ^^. Using the shortcut ALT+R again will stop responding. Users on macOS have to use CMD+R instead.

Messages can be edited by the original author via the context menu or by pressing the up arrow key on the keyboard. Deleting messages is done via the context menu.

The context menu of a message, either the mouse context menu or the button on the upper right hand side of the message, allows to copy the message link for posting it elsewhere.

Note: Team administrators can delete messages from a channel for content moderation.

Note: Users in the channel get informed that a user is currently writing a message.

Users and Groups can be mentioned using the following syntax:

• @all - every user with access to this channel
• @online - every user in this channel who is online
• @<group name>, @group:<group id> - every user in this channel who is member of this group
• @<user name>, @user:<user id> - only this user

If the browser supports push notifications and they have been enabled by the user, then mentions reach the user via push messages. Otherwise, mentions are sent as browser notifications. For this, at least one browser window must be online with CoWork or another browser application of the i-net CoWork server must be running.

Note: User and groups are suggested while typing a message - after the @ was entered.

Note: Users that are invisible are treated as offline and will not be notified by @online mentions.

Reactions are emojis used on a message to express your feelings or thoughts towards it. New reactions can be added via the context menu, the reaction button located on the right side of the message, or just behind existing reactions. You can also click on an existing reaction emoji to increase the reaction count. The context menu of a message contains the five recently used reaction emojis for quick access.

Authors of a message that has been reacted to receive a notification that includes the selected emoji and the name of the person who reacted to their message.

Note: The tooltip on an emoji shows a list of people who have reacted to the message.

Note: You can also use custom emojis as reactions.

CoWork allows to write direct messages to other users. Direct messages are practically the same as a private channel of two users without further administration.

Writing a direct message can be started using the context menu on a message or the extra button at the right side of a user in the user list.

Users can leave direct message channels which results in deletion of the channel and its content when the second user has left too.

The online status of users is displayed alongside the user image in the members sidebar, when typing mentions and in the message area. The online status can be set by users to one of the following statuses:

• Online
• Away
• Do not disturb
• Invisible

The online status is set via the user status menu on the upper right side of the CoWork window. There, too, is a menu entry to set the additional status text. The status text is displayed to others users in the members sidebar and in the mentions popup when writing messages. The status text is being displayed regardless of the current online status.

The status of a user is Online by default, when no other status was defined. The status is retained throughout restarts of the clients.

Note: Invisible users are displayed as being Offline to other users.

Note: The Offline status is set when logging out or closing all clients.

Users can automatically be set from Online to Away after a user-definable time. The detection relies on the CoWork window or browser tab to be inactive due to being in the background or minimized.

When re-focusing the CoWork window or tab, the users is set to Online again.

Note: The timeout can be configured in the settings menu beside the user status.

The Absence detection of the system can improve the detection for i-net CoWork and set the user to Away after the set time. The advantage is that it no longer waits for inactivity of the CoWork window or browser tabs, but uses the system events. These can better recognize the inactivity of the user - there is no input or the computer is in a locked state.

Note: For security reasons, the user is asked by the system whether the application should receive the "My device usage" permission before using absence detection. You must agree to this.

Note: Currently, only the Chrome browser from Google supports this option. This option is not offered in other browsers.

CoWork has a a built in bot that is being triggered using the / as the first character of a message. It will then display all the available commands for selection - or the command can be typed by the user.

Commands extend the functions of i-net CoWork into CoWork. An overview of currently available commands is provided on the CoWork commands page.

The Maintenance Backup application provides a task for saving the current state of CoWork including all the messages, attachments and team / channel settings.