How to Start a Chat in Gmail
Follow these steps to initiate a Gmail Chat session.
In a web browser, go to your Gmail inbox and select the Chat tab. Select New Chat. Use the search bar to look for someone, or scroll down to look through your contacts. Select Start group conversation to message multiple people. The chat window will open, and the person’s name will appear in your list of conversations in the left sidebar. In the future, select the conversation to open the chat. Type your message into the text field and press Enter on your keyboard to send it. When your contact responds, their messages appear in the window as well, similar to a text conversation. Gmail saves your chat history by default, but you can manually turn off or turn on Gmail Chat history. Next to the text field, you’ll see icons for formatting text, adding GIFs, and uploading files. Select the video camera icon to start a video chat. For more options, select the person’s name at the top of the chat window to open a drop-down menu. For example, you can select Start a new chat to add more people to the conversation To open the conversation in a small window so that you can continue chatting while you use Gmail, select the Open in Pop-up icon next to the conversation or in the upper-right corner. In the small chat window, select the three-dot menu for chat options.
Type your message into the text field and press Enter on your keyboard to send it. When your contact responds, their messages appear in the window as well, similar to a text conversation.
For more options, select the person’s name at the top of the chat window to open a drop-down menu. For example, you can select Start a new chat to add more people to the conversation
