Chat window

The chat window is where you communicate with other players by sending and receiving text messages.

The chat window is composed of three main components:
 * Channel filters: A list of checkboxes that allow text from specific chat channels to be filtered out.
 * Text display: Typically located in the bottom left area of the screen, it shows the most recent messages and events that took place around your character. See the list of channels below for the meaning of the different colors of the messages.
 * Text entry: Located immediately under the text display. The text entry line can be activated by pressing enter by default.

The chat window key is the tilde key by default (~). Pressing it or clicking on the chat bubble icon will toggle the chat window between visible or not. While not visible, recent messages from enabled chat channels will still appear but will fade out approximately 20 seconds after appearing.

The chat window will only hold a certain amount of text. When this limit is reached, old messages are removed. This may cause messages to be lost if you go AFK in a busy area. Messages that are hidden using chat filters count towards this limit.

Note: When you are typing into the chat window, you are unable to use keyboard commands until you press enter, press escape, or click outside the chat window with the mouse. Many players use voice chat programs such as Ventrilo or Teamspeak to make communication with teammates less cumbersome.

Chat channels
There are several channels of chat available, represented by tabs just above the text entry area. You can switch tabs by clicking on it or entering the appropriate keyboard character as the first character of the entered text line. Also, text can be sent to a specific channel by using the appropriate command. The following channels are available:


 * Local (or all)
 * Shared by everyone in the same zone. Many players use this channel to look for party members. People also spam trade announcements, ask questions, and talk or taunt back and forth about things no one else cares about. It is poor netiquette to use the local chat for trade or for side discussions that only involve a few people.
 * Hotkey: !
 * Command: /a
 * Appearance: [[image:chat_local.jpg]]


 * Guild
 * Shared by all members of your guild.
 * Appearance: [[image:chat_guild.jpg]]


 * Team
 * Shared by all members of your party.
 * Hotkey: #
 * Command: /p
 * Appearance: [[image:chat_team.jpg]]


 * Observers
 * Shared by up to 100 players in Observer Mode watching the same instance of a match. This replaces team chat while observing.
 * Hotkey: #
 * Command: /p
 * Appearance: [[image:chat_observer.jpg]]


 * Trade
 * Similar to local chat, shared by everyone in the same zone. It is dedicated to those who wish to sell or buy items. In large areas, so many users are offering to sell items that the trade channel just keeps scrolling almost non-stop. This has two effects. Players not interested in trade turn off their trade channel and traders too impatient with this inefficient system start using the Local chat to make their messages stand out and avoid the trade chat filter. Messages containing "WTB," "WTS" or "WTT" automatically get sent into the trade channel.
 * Hotkey: $
 * Command: /tr
 * Appearance: [[image:chat_trade.jpg]]


 * Alliance
 * Shared by all members of your alliance. Messages will have the sender's guild tag next to the sender's name.
 * Hotkey: %
 * Command: /ally
 * Appearance: [[Image:chat_alliance.jpg]]


 * Emotes
 * Also similar to local chat, shared by everyone in the same zone. Only emotes performed by characters are shown; text messages cannot be directly entered. There is no hotkey or one specific command to switch to use the emote channel.
 * Appearance: [[image:chat_emote.jpg]]

Miscellaneous messages
There are other kinds of messages that will always be displayed in the chat window and cannot be filtered:
 * Whispers
 * Private messages between two people only. You may speak to any player who is not offline or set to do not disturb or offline using their friends window. Whispers to other players appear in a full green text preceded by ->. Whispers from other players display their name in blue between braces { } and then the message in white. When a whisper conversation is initiated a sound will play for the person receiving the first whisper to draw their attention to it.
 * Hotkey: " to enter a name, backspace to enter the name of the last person to send you a whisper
 * Command: /t or /whisper
 * Appearance: [[image:chat_whisper.jpg]]


 * Ally messages
 * Messages from allies listed in the "allies" section of the party window. Also, in missions where more than one party is present (like Vizunah Square or Alliance Battles), this will show messages from allies in other parties.
 * Appearance: [[image:chat_ally.jpg]]


 * Game master messages
 * Messages sent by GMs to everyone in the same zone. It is most often seen when Gaile Gray discusses things with players in game.
 * Appearance: [[image:chat_gm.jpg]]


 * Item transfer messages
 * These light blue messages are used to indicate when items or money are transferred from or to another entity (usually NPCs).
 * Appearance: [[Image:chat_transfer.jpg]]


 * System messages
 * System messages are events that the game wishes to inform you about but are not messages or emotes from other users. System messages can be:
 * A player gaining a new level or Skill Point.
 * A monster dropping loot or a player picking up loot.
 * Results of salvaging or upgrading items.
 * Saving a screen shot.
 * Informing about the presence of a new game update.
 * Declaring the result of latest battle in the Hall of Heroes.
 * Appearance: [[image:chat_system.jpg]]


 * Time Messages:
 * Time messages tell the player how long it's been since they closed Guild Wars.
 * Appearance: [[image:chat_time.png]]

Filters
The checkboxes at the top of the chat window allow players to turn off one or more of the chat channels. Filters can be useful in hiding local chat in busy towns or trade chat when you aren't interested in trading. Channels that are unchecked won't appear in your chat window. If a channel is later unfiltered, old messages (if any) that were previously hidden will appear.

Unsupported characters
If you type a character which is not currently supported by the game, the character will appear with a red background and the following message will appear:


 * You have typed characters that cannot be sent to other players while using your account. We're sorry for the inconvenience.

You will be unable to send message with these characters.

Related articles

 * Category:Abbreviations contains abbreviations commonly used in Guild Wars.