| What Is... | Being Available to Chat | Starting a Chat | Receiving a Chat Message | Switching Between Email and Chat | Turning Chat Off |
If, while using AT&T Mail, you see an orange-tinted tab pop up next to the tab you’re working in, one of your contacts wants to chat with you. All you have to do is click the tab and start chatting.

Tip: If you’re working in another window and AT&T Mail is open, you’ll see a flashing message at the bottom of the screen in the Windows task bar. The message reads, “So-and-so sent you a message…” where “So-and-so” is the name of the person trying to contact you. The message keeps flashing until you click the AT&T Mail page.
If you’re working in another browser tab while Mail is open in the same browser, you’ll see a similar message scroll across the Mail tab.
To see an incoming chat message:
Return to your AT&T Mail window if you aren’t already there.
Click the orange-tinted tab.

The tab opens and you can join the chat.
Type your message in the message input box, then press Enter or click the Send button.

Your message appears in the conversation area.

To control chat sound alerts:
Because we want to make sure you don’t miss a chat opportunity, we’ve added a sound notification to accompany the visual notification. It kind of sounds like a little, bursting bubble. You can switch the sound notification on and off in Mail Options.
Click the Options menu, then select Mail Options.

To turn the sound off, uncheck the box next to Play a sound when a new chat message is received.
To turn the sound on, check the box again.

Click the Save Changes button to save your settings.

Want to ignore a contact’s chat invitation? Just click the tab’s close button (
), and the tab will go away. The contact won’t notice anything but will probably think you’re away from your computer. If you really don’t want to chat with this contact, you can take more permanent action. The Blocking Chat Messages task tells you how.