New in Basecamp: Direct Replies + Boosts on Campfires and Pings

By popular demand, we recently rolled out two great improvements for Campfire chats and Pings in Basecamp. They’re live in your account today, and we think you’re going to love them.

Direct Replies

Responding directly to a chat line has been possible, but it required copying the original text, pasting it in, formatting the original as a quote, and then responding below. That’s a lot of work just say say one thing about another thing.

So now you can directly reply to anything that was said in a Campfire chat or a Ping by hovering over the original line, clicking the ••• menu, and selecting the “Reply” option.

Once you click that, you’ll see the original line quoted with a field below where you can write your reply. Once you’re done with your reply, it’ll be posted to the transcript with the original line and author automatically quoted above.

This works the same way in Campfires or Pings, and you can even quote yourself when you reply if you want to refer to something you said earlier. This method of direct reply in chat has become a mainstay in many messaging apps, and now it’s in Basecamp too.

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Boosting in Campfires and Pings

In addition to replying, now you can also Boost individual chat lines and Pings. As a reminder, Boosts are quick responses of up to 12 characters (including emojis) that are attached directly to the original piece of content. They’re wonderful, low ceremony way to share a little love, support what someone said, or say a little something without kicking off any noisy notifications.

We’ve had Boosts on messages, comments, documents, automatic check-in responses, in Basecamp for years now. And, with this update, they’re in Campfires and Pings too.

To Boost a line, hover over the ••• for that line, and select the “Boost” option.

From there, you’ll see a little field pop up below the line. That’s where you can type your Boost. You can click the smiley face icon for quick access to a library of common emojis.

And once you’ve entered your Boost and hit return or clicked the green check, you’ll see the Boost show up below the original line. It’ll be permanently be attached, and anyone else can add their own Boost after yours.

What’s especially useful about Boosts is that they don’t send notifications to everyone in the room — they’re quiet ways to respond. Everyone can see the Boost, but no one is interrupted or distracted. Only the original poster (Jason Zimdars, in this example) would get a note in their Boost report. So Boosts are a great way to send a thanks, or acknowledge someone’s comment, without sending out notifications to everyone else.

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So there you have it. Two great improvements in Campfires and Pings, live today in your own account. We hope you and your team find them useful.

All the best, and thanks again for using Basecamp!