This article explains how to start a chat session in Gmail Chat.
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.
- 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.
