# Messaging Another Member

**Not Every Conversation Belongs on a Board:** You will happily tell the community that your labor percentage moved. You may not want to post your actual covers, your rent, or what you pay your closer. **Messages** is the direct line for the conversations you would rather have one to one.

## How the inbox works

**Everything in Two Panes:** Your conversations are on the left, the open one on the right. Click a name and the thread opens beside the list, so you can move between people without losing your place.

- **Unread counts** sit next to each conversation and on the Messages icon in the top bar, so you know something is waiting before you go looking
- **Search conversations** finds the person or the thread when the list gets long
- **Presence** tells you whether the other operator is around right now
- **Messages arrive live**, so a real back-and-forth works like any other chat

## Starting one

**From Anywhere You See a Member:** You can open a conversation from a member's profile, which is usually how it starts. You read something useful in the community, you want the detail behind it, and the board is not the place to ask.

## Ready to dig in?

Log in to Boost Academy and check **Messages** in the top bar.

***Access:** All members*