People in the room

A Channel is better with company. This page covers who is in a Channel, how to bring someone in, and how Rally behaves when the room gets busy.

Who is in this Channel#

The people in a Channel are its participants. To see them, click the Channel's name in its title pill and choose People. (The row shows how many there are, and whether the Channel is Public or Private.)

The list opens with who can read the Channel: Private (only people added here) or Public to organization. Then come the participants, each with their email and whether they are a Member, an Admin or a Guest. A small dot beside a name means that person has this Channel open right now, so if you ask a question, someone may be there to answer it. Who can see which Channels, and why, is explained in Who can see what.

Adding and removing people#

The quickest way is the menu itself:

1. Click the Channel's name in its title pill and choose Add people (or People).
2. Type in Add someone by name or email, or pick from Suggested.
3. Click Add beside the person.

For the full list, click Change beside Private or Public to organization at the top of People. The Add a participant window lists the active members of your Organization; click a person to add them. To take someone out, click the … beside their name and choose Remove from main conversation (or Remove from breakout).

A Breakout's title pill has the same Add people and People.

A few rules:

• Opening or reading a Channel does not make you a participant. You join when someone adds you.
• You cannot remove the last participant. Someone has to keep the lights on.
• Only people whose membership in the Organization is active appear in the list. To bring in someone from outside your Organization, such as a client, see Sharing with people outside your Organization.

You can also type /participants or @ in the message box to start mentioning someone, as described in The message box.

Mentioning someone who is not here yet#

In a private Channel, if you @-mention someone who is not a participant, Rally stops before sending and asks: Add participant? (or Add participants? for several people). The message explains that the person is not currently a participant, and that if you do not add them, they will not be able to see the mention or the Channel.

• Add and mention (or Add all and mention) adds them and sends your message.
• Cancel sends nothing, so you can think again.

This saves you from the awkward moment of tagging a colleague in a conversation they cannot open, and from sharing a private Channel by accident.

Does Rally answer every message?#

No, and you would not want it to. When several people are talking in a Channel, not every message is a request for Rally. "Can you send me the deck, Priya?" is for Priya.

Rally reads each new message and decides whether it is meant for Rally, for the humans, or both:

• A clear request for work gets an answer.
• A message that mentions @Rally gets an answer.
• A message with a file attached always gets an answer.
• People chatting among themselves, or telling a mentioned teammate something, are usually left alone.
• If Rally cannot tell, it replies only when it is already in the middle of some work in the Channel.

Rally makes this call by looking at the last ten or so messages, and it does not show you its decision. When you want to be sure, mention @Rally.

Messages Rally did not answer are not ignored. Rally still reads them the next time it works in the Channel, so a decision your team made in passing becomes part of what it knows.

Who said what, and when#

Every message carries a short line saying who wrote it and when.

• Your messages sit on the right, with your name on the outside edge, a small coloured dot (your personal colour) and the time.
• Everyone else's, Rally's included, sit on the left, with the name first and then the time. Rally's replies are signed Rally. Answers from a Sidekick show the Sidekick's name.
• Messages that came in from Slack read like Name · Slack.
• Messages brought in from Claude or ChatGPT carry a small cloud icon. Hover it to see Imported by and who imported them (see Bring in a conversation from Claude or ChatGPT).

On a finished answer from Rally, the line may also show how long the work took.

Times that keep themselves current#

Times on messages read like just now, 7 minutes ago or 3 hours ago, and they update by themselves while you watch. Leave Rally open all afternoon and "7 minutes ago" will not still be claiming to be 7 minutes ago at teatime.

• Under a minute reads just now. Then it counts minutes, then hours, then days.
• After seven days it switches to a fixed date and time, such as Sep 10, 2026, 3:42 PM, written the way your Mac's language and region settings like.
• Labels move on about every ten seconds, so one can lag behind by a few seconds.
• When Rally's window is hidden or minimised the labels rest, and catch up the moment you bring the window back.

Rest your pointer on any of these times for a moment and a small tip shows the exact date and time, in your own time zone. That is handy when "3 days ago" is not precise enough for a deadline. The tip appears for the mouse or trackpad only; you cannot reach it with the keyboard.

Next: Status dots, so you can tell at a glance where you are needed.