---
title: Initiate a chat from Sidebar in Service Operations Workspace
description: Initiate a Sidebar chat to work towards the resolution of an incident.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/initate-sidebar-chat-sow.html
release: australia
product: Service Operations Workspace
classification: service-operations-workspace
topic_type: task
last_updated: "2026-03-12"
reading_time_minutes: 1
breadcrumb: [Collaboration in Service Operations Workspace, Managing IT services in your organization, Service Operations Workspace for ITSM, IT Service Management]
---

# Initiate a chat from Sidebar in Service Operations Workspace

Initiate a Sidebar chat to work towards the resolution of an incident.

## About this task

You can integrate Slack and Microsoft Teams with Sidebar To know more about configuring Sidebar, refer [Sidebar](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/conversational-interfaces/sidebar-landing.md).

## Before you begin

Role required: itil

## Procedure

1.  Navigate to **Workspaces** > **Service Operations Workspace**.

2.  From the navigation list, select **List**.

3.  Navigate to **Incidents** > **Open**.

4.  Select an incident.

5.  Select **Collaborate** from the contextual side panel.

6.  Select **Chat** tab, and then select plus\(+\) icon.

7.  Select **Start Sidebar discussion**.

8.  On the form, fill in the fields.

<table id="table_hs5_cbp_byb"><thead><tr><th>

Field

</th><th>

Description

</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>

Subject

</td><td>

Option to provide a title for the sidebar discussion.

 **Note:** The chat count will be displayed at the beginning of the subject.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Add participants

</td><td>

Options to add participants for the sidebar discussion.**Note:**

If On-Call Scheduling is defined for a group, only members who are on-call will be added as participants. If it is not set up, then all members of the group will be included as participants.

Additionally, if On-Call Scheduling is active, and no members are available in a shift, no one will be added to the chat.

The Sidebar discussion is applicable only for incident, change, and problem.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Include a brief message for participants

</td><td>

Provide a brief summary about the issue to be discussed in the sidebar discussion.

</td></tr></tbody>
</table>9.  Select **Start discussion**.

    **Note:** If the caller doesn't read the messages within 24 hours, an email is sent as a reminder to view the messages and resume the discussion.


**Parent Topic:**[Collaboration in Service Operations Workspace](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/collaboration-sow.md)