Team Messaging and Video Meetings: Collaborate Inside Your Practice Platform

Team Messaging

Team messaging gives your practice a built-in communication channel. No need for a separate messaging app, no risk of clinical discussions happening in unsanctioned tools, and no monthly per-user fees for yet another SaaS subscription.

Direct Messages

Send a private message to any team member in your practice. Direct messages are one-on-one conversations — ideal for quick questions, handover notes, or coordination that does not need a group.

Messages support:

• Text messages — type and send, just like any modern chat tool
• File attachments — share documents, images, or files directly in the conversation
• Read receipts — see when your message has been read, so you know whether to follow up or wait
• Timestamps — every message shows when it was sent, creating a clear timeline

Group Conversations

For discussions that involve more than two people, create a group conversation. Add any combination of team members and give the group a name — "Reception Team", "Tuesday Practitioners", "Supervision Group", or whatever fits your workflow.

Group conversations support all the same features as direct messages: text, file attachments, read receipts, and timestamps. They are persistent — the conversation history stays accessible so new messages have context.

Mini Chat Sidebar

You do not need to navigate to a dedicated messaging page every time you want to check messages. The mini chat sidebar is accessible from any page in the dashboard — click the chat icon in the sidebar to slide it open, read and reply to messages, then close it and return to what you were doing.

This is particularly valuable during busy periods. A receptionist can message a practitioner about a schedule change while managing the front desk. A practitioner can reply between sessions without losing their place in clinical documentation.

Full-Page Messaging

For longer conversations or when you want to focus on team communication, the full-page messaging view provides a dedicated interface. See all your conversations in a sidebar, with the active conversation taking up the main content area. Search through message history, scroll through older conversations, and manage group membership.

Video Meeting Integrations

Telehealth is now a permanent part of how practices operate. But scheduling a video meeting has always meant logging into a separate platform, creating a meeting link, copying it, pasting it into a calendar event, and hoping you remember to include it in the client confirmation email.

Grounded Scribe now integrates with three major video meeting platforms:

Zoom

Connect your Zoom account and schedule meetings directly from your Grounded Scribe calendar. When you create or edit an appointment:

1. Select "Zoom" as the meeting type
2. A Zoom meeting link is automatically generated
3. The link is attached to the appointment record
4. The link is included in client confirmation and reminder emails

No need to open Zoom separately, create a meeting, and copy-paste the link. It happens automatically.

Microsoft Teams

For practices that use Microsoft 365, Teams integration works the same way. Select "Teams" as the meeting type when creating an appointment, and a Teams meeting link is generated and distributed automatically.

Google Meet

Google Meet integration is available for practices using Google Workspace. Select "Google Meet" and a meeting link is created and attached to the appointment.

How It Works for Clients

From the client's perspective, the experience is seamless:

1. They receive a confirmation email with their appointment details
2. The email includes a "Join Video Meeting" link — clearly labelled with the platform (Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet)
3. They click the link at the scheduled time and join the meeting
4. If they add the appointment to their calendar (see our client calendar links feature), the video meeting link is embedded in the calendar event

No separate invitation email from Zoom or Teams. No confusion about which link to click. One confirmation email with everything they need.

For Practitioners

When an appointment with a video meeting link arrives, practitioners see the join link directly in their calendar and appointment detail view. Click to join — no need to find a meeting invitation in your email or navigate to a separate platform's dashboard.

Team Presence and Availability

Messaging is most useful when you know who is around to respond. The presence system — which also powers the browser-based calling feature — shows real-time availability for every team member:

• Online — logged in and active
• Away — stepped away or inactive
• Busy — occupied with a call, session, or other task
• Custom status — free-text status messages like "In session until 2pm" or "Available for supervision"

Presence indicators appear throughout the platform — in the team directory, in the messaging sidebar, and next to names in group conversations. When you see a green indicator next to a colleague's name, you know your message will be seen promptly.

Privacy and Security

Team messaging in Grounded Scribe is designed for practice communication — team coordination, scheduling discussions, administrative questions, and general collaboration. As with all platform data, messages are stored in Australian cloud infrastructure and protected by the same encryption and access controls that protect clinical data.

A few important notes:

• Team messages are not clinical records. Clinical documentation should continue to be recorded in session notes, client records, and the communication log (for client-facing SMS and email)
• Messages are visible to conversation participants only. Direct messages are private between two people. Group messages are visible to group members
• Administrators can see message activity (who messaged whom and when) but not message content, for audit and compliance purposes

Setting It Up

Team Messaging

Team messaging is available automatically for practices with more than one team member. There is no setup required — open the messaging interface from the sidebar and start a conversation.

For solo practitioners, team messaging becomes relevant when you add team members (practice managers, receptionists, supervisors, etc.) to your Grounded Scribe account.

Video Meeting Integrations

To connect a video meeting platform:

1. Navigate to Settings → Integrations
2. Click Connect next to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet
3. Authorise the connection via the platform's standard OAuth flow
4. That's it — the platform is now available as a meeting type when scheduling appointments

You can connect multiple platforms simultaneously. Different practitioners in the same practice can use different platforms — one might prefer Zoom while another uses Teams.

Who Benefits Most?

• Group practices with multiple practitioners who need to coordinate client handovers, schedule changes, and administrative decisions
• Practices with reception staff who need a fast way to relay messages to practitioners between sessions
• Telehealth-heavy practices that schedule multiple video appointments per day and want to eliminate the manual meeting-link workflow
• Multi-location practices where staff are not physically co-located and need a persistent communication channel
• Supervision practices where supervisors and supervisees need to communicate about cases, schedule reviews, and share documents

Create your free account and start collaborating with your team today.

Disclaimer

*This article describes product features available in Grounded Scribe. Video meeting integrations require an active account with the respective platform (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet). Meeting creation and scheduling depend on the connected platform's API availability. Feature availability may vary by plan.*