Chat
Chat is Orbit’s account-wide messaging, separate from the comment/timeline discussion that lives on individual records (a Sales Order’s comments, a CRM Opportunity’s activity log, and so on) — Chat is for team conversation that isn’t necessarily about one specific record.
Channels
Section titled “Channels”Team-wide or topic-based conversation spaces, similar to a channel in any team chat tool.
Direct messages
Section titled “Direct messages”One-to-one conversations between two users — modeled internally as a two-member channel, so DMs and channels share the same underlying reading/notification behavior rather than being a separate system bolted on afterward.
Shareable links
Section titled “Shareable links”Every channel and DM has its own URL, so a specific conversation can be bookmarked or shared directly rather than only reachable by navigating through a list.
See also: Users & Permissions for how notifications (mentions, unread messages) surface in the header bell alongside everything else.