A channel shared between technicians and enabled staff of every company on the Fixh network, with mentions, attachments up to 2 MB, and an anti-spam limit, useful for comparing notes between repair shops.
Besides the internal company chat, reserved for colleagues only, Fixh IT also provides a public chat shared between the enabled staff of every company on the Fixh network: a space designed to compare notes, ask each other questions, and stay in touch with other professionals in the field who handle smartphone and PC repairs every day with the same system.
Why it matters for a repair shop
Anyone working in a repair workshop knows the feeling of facing an unusual fault, an untraceable component, or a poorly documented procedure: at times like these, comparing notes with other technicians facing the same problems every day can be the difference between hours of solo research and a shared solution in a few minutes. Fixh IT's public chat exists for exactly this: it connects repair shops that would normally have no way to talk to each other, creating an informal support network among industry professionals.
It's not the platform's official support channel, but a space among peers: repair shop owners, workshop technicians, and multi-shop managers sharing experiences, exchanging opinions on parts suppliers, warning each other about recurring problems, or simply comparing notes on how the smartphone and PC repair market is going.
In practice
The public chat is a single conversation accessible to every staff user with an enabled role — from technicians to managers, up to administrative levels — while access can be revoked individually for a specific user, for example in case of inappropriate behavior, without touching the access of everyone else at their company. It's a channel distinct from the internal company chat: there, messages stay visible only to colleagues at your own company; here, every enabled participant across the whole Fixh network can read them.
Every connected user shows an online, away, or offline status indicator, so you can tell at a glance who's reachable at that moment. You can directly mention another user to address them within the general conversation, and you get a notification of unread messages and mentions that concern you when you're not looking at the chat. Just like in the company chat, you can attach a file to more easily show what you're talking about — a photo of a damaged motherboard, a PDF with a diagram, an Office document — up to 2 MB in size, in the most common image, PDF, Word, Excel, and plain text formats.
To keep the chat useful and readable for everyone, an anti-spam limit is active: once a certain number of messages sent within a few seconds is exceeded, sending is temporarily blocked, to keep a handful of very active users from making the conversation unreadable for the rest of the network.
Quick guide
- Open the chat widget from any page of the system.
- Select the public conversation, distinct from the internal company one.
- Check other users' online/away/offline status before writing if you're looking for a quick answer.
- Write your message, attach a file if it helps explain the problem (up to 2 MB), and send.
- Mention a specific user if you want to address them directly.
- Check unread message and mention notifications when you come back to the system.
Real-world use cases
An unusual motherboard fault. A technician faces an intermittent short circuit on a high-end smartphone motherboard they've never seen before. They post in the public chat describing the symptom and attaching a photo of the board: a colleague at another repair shop, who already dealt with the same issue, suggests where to look for the faulty component.
Sourcing a rare part. A workshop urgently needs a display for an uncommon laptop model and their usual supplier doesn't have it in stock. They ask in the public chat whether any other shop on the network has a compatible part available or knows a reliable alternative supplier.
Flagging an unreliable supplier. An owner warns the network that they received non-original parts passed off as genuine by a certain supplier, to alert other repair shops before they run into the same problem with unhappy customers.
Tips and best practices
Use mentions when addressing a specific person, so the conversation stays easier for everyone else to follow. Always attach a photo when describing a technical problem: a clear picture of the board or component helps whoever replies understand the situation right away. Before asking a very specific question, check other users' online status to improve your chances of a quick reply.
Common mistakes to avoid
Never share customer personal data in the public chat — name, phone number, device IMEI — since the channel is visible to the entire Fixh network, not just colleagues at your own company: for that kind of information, use the internal company chat instead, or better yet the customer's record in the system. Don't send repeated messages in quick succession for the same question: besides being of little use, it risks triggering the anti-spam limit and temporarily blocking sending. Don't use the public chat as the platform's official technical support channel: for issues with the system itself, use the dedicated support channels.
Frequently asked questions
Who can read messages in the public chat? Every staff user with an enabled role at any company on the Fixh network, not just colleagues at your own company.
Does the public chat replace the internal company chat? No, they're two separate channels: one for connecting with the whole network, the other reserved only for your own company's staff.
Can I be notified when someone mentions me? Yes, you get a notification of unread messages and mentions that concern you.
What kind of files can I attach in chat? Images, PDFs, Word and Excel documents, and plain text files, up to 2 MB in size.
What happens if I send too many messages too quickly? Once a limit of messages within a few seconds is exceeded, sending is temporarily blocked to protect chat readability for everyone.
Can a company block a single employee's access to the public chat? Yes, access can be revoked for a specific user without changing it for other colleagues at the same company.
