We all know that listening to customers is important to the success of your business. However, it’s often difficult to have direct conversations with your customers. With HipChat, you can invite customers into chatrooms to talk to live support, get sales questions answered, or chat with devs about bugs or issues. We’ve even seen customers use HipChat to host user groups like CraftCMS does here:

Cool! How do I set it up?

On the bottom right hand corner of a chatroom, you’ll see this dialog:

Simply check the box next to the Guest access dialog to turn it on. HipChat will provide a URL that you can use to invite anybody to your chatroom.

A guest can participate and chat just like a normal user while he/she is in the room, but guests will not be able to see any messages sent before entering or after leaving a chatroom.

We hope you enjoy using Guest access, and you find it useful in connecting with customers. Let us know the creative ways you’re using Guest access — or come and talk to us in person at UserConf NYC this Friday! We’ll be there handing out t-shirts and learning more about keeping our customers happy.

HipChat currently has three types of chats with different privacy levels:

1. Open rooms – accessible to everyone in your group.
2. Private rooms – only accessible to users given permission by the room owner, and all group admins.
3. 1-to-1 chats – only accessible to the two users involved.

Allowing group admins to join private rooms without being given explicit access has often led to confusion, so we’ve decided to make changes in this area:

1. Starting next Thursday, May 9th, group admins will not be permitted to join private rooms unless explicitly given access. If you are a group admin currently joining rooms which you have not been given access to, please ask the group owner to add you explicitly before this time.
2. Group admins will also not be able to view or manage private rooms from within HipChat apps unless they have been given access to them.
3. A new room management area will be added to the “Group Admin” section on the website. From this area, admins will still have access to the chat history and management options for private rooms.

In addition to these change, we’ll be unveiling new pages for viewing and managing rooms on the website – something we should have added long ago. These changes set the stage for some greater improvements coming in the future, so keep an eye on our blog here for more updates.

If you haven’t had this experience, don’t fret. There are all sorts of hidden features that you can impress your team with. In this post, I’ll share some tips and tricks, and you’ll be showering in your coworkers’ admiration in no time.

1. Auto-hide .gif files - Let’s face it. Animated gifs is one of the best things about the internet. And HipChat is great at sharing them. But when everybody is posting their favorite gif, your computer can slow down and then nobody is having fun. So we’ve added an option to auto-hide gifs. Simply go to HipChat’s preferences and check the box to auto-hide .gif files.
   
2. Slash commands - We’ve blogged about these before, but we’ve added a couple more since the last time we wrote about them. Here are all of HipChat’s slash commands. Each of them takes the form “/<command> <argument>”
   • /join <room name> - This will let you into any pre-existing room, but since HipChat rooms have fairly loose naming conventions (we allow things like spaces and non-alphanumeric characters), we generally suggest using the ctrl-t shortcut instead. Still, if you just can’t give up your IRC-style navigation, it can be helpful.
   • /part - Leave the room you’re currently in.
   • /available | /back | /here <msg> - Shortcut for setting your status to available (green bubble). The <msg> part is optional.
   • /away <msg> – Set your status to away (yellow bubble). In appearance, this is the same as going idle, except it doesn’t automatically return your status to ‘available’ when you come back.
   • /dnd <msg> - Set status to do not disturb (red bubble)
   • /topic <msg> - Set the topic for the current room (just like if you hit ctrl-t or double clicked on the topic bar and typed something in)
   • /code <msg> - Displays the message with code syntax highlighting (language is autodetected). Not yet available in all apps.
   • /quote <msg> - Displays the message formatted with a monospace font, regardless of length or number of newlines in the message
   • /me | /em <msg> - The “emote” command. This will let you display a line of grey text with your name at the beginning, similar to the style room join and leave messages. For example, if I typed “/me is happy.” it would show “Jeff Park is happy.” in the chat.
3. s/…/… - Everyone makes mistakes, but it doesn’t mean that you have to let anyone know about them. HipChat comes with a substitution command that will fix any spelling mistakes that you make in your last sent message. But you’ll have to be quick. You only have one minute before you’ll no longer be able to correct your mistake.
   
4. Web colors - For all of you designers out there, you can show pantone colors right in HipChat. Simply type in #<color hex>, and HipChat will render the color into your chat!
   
5. New emoticons - These pro tips are all about providing functionality to help you save time and work more efficiently. Because really, ain’t nobody got time for that. In that spirit, we are making (timeforthat) a global emoticon! Heck, we’ll even throw in (grumpycat) as well! Who’ll be the first to show it to their team?

Hope you find these tips useful. These are only a handful of tricks that HipChat’s got up its sleeve.  Let us know what your favorite tips/tricks in HipChat are in the comments below!

While we added a number of new features and performance enhancements, the biggest change you’ll notice is an entirely new user interface that better conforms to Android’s latest design guidelines.

This is no half-hearted port of an iOS app or a thin “native” wrapper around a web app. We treat Android as a first-class citizen around here, so this app is 100% native Android.

Don’t have the latest Android phone? That’s OK, you can still upgrade. All of this new hotness is compatible with Android 2.2 (froyo) and higher.

You should also know that this is just the beginning. We’ll continue to add new features and other improvements to the Android app well into the future, so feel free to keep the Beta installed if you want to stay on the bleeding edge.

For more information on Sara’s visit to HubSpot, jump over to her blog!

But we know Linux users have been anxiously awaiting their own native app…

Ever since Adobe AIR stopped supporting Linux, a native Linux app has become our number one customer request. Jason, your wait is finally over: today we’re excited to announce the public release of our HipChat for Linux Beta!

Not only will the new Linux app make it easier for Linux users to install and upgrade HipChat, it’s also super fast. Your HipChat experience on Linux is about to get a whole lot smoother.

Take a look

To reward your patience, we’ve also added some Linux-friendly features such as integrations with standard desktop Linux notifications and tab completion for nicknames.

Remember: Like the Mac app, this app is still in beta so there will be bugs. We’d greatly appreciate if you report any feedback or bugs.

Known Issues

• Some features are not yet complete: creating rooms, file sidebar, etc.
• Whatever has been reported here.

Windows Users

We haven’t forgotten about you. The Windows app is coming soon and the trifecta will be complete… Sign up to be the first to know.

HipChat is now free for teams of up to 5 users.

We began as a bootstrapped start-up so we know what it’s like out there. Finding the right tools to run a small business at the right cost is tough. We believe every team – no matter how small – should have access to the best tools possible, tools that enable teams to remain agile and productive in an increasingly competitive environment. Staying true to our roots, today we’re making HipChat free for teams of up to 5 users. 

I have a 5 person team and currently pay for HipChat, what do I have to do? 

Nothing. Say goodbye to your bills. If you currently have 5 users or fewer, you won’t be charged again. We’ve updated your subscription and you don’t have to do anything. 

Once your team grows to 6 users or more, HipChat will continue with our original pricing of $2 per user per month.

I have a 5 person team and don’t use HipChat yet.

Go ahead and sign up. Once your 30-day free trial is over, you’ll automatically be put on the free plan for 5 users (if you have 5 or fewer users in your account).

What’s next for HipChat?

It’s going to be a big year for HipChat customers – we have a lot planned for the next 6-12 months. We’ve been cranking on the backend to give customers a reliable and fast chat experience (and recently launched a brand new Mac client beta, along with updates to our Android mobile app). Atlassian is footing the bill so every team can now join the 4,500+ groups that collaborate in real time with HipChat. Thanks Atlassian!

Know of any teams that could use some free HipChat? Help us spread the word 

If your team has 5 or less users and your subscription hasn’t updated, please contact us at support@hipchat.com.

1. Connect to JIRA and Pivotal Tracker

Every company has projects they need to manage. Keeping up with the issues your team needs to address for these projects is a breeze with HipChat. Integrate with project management tools like Atlassian JIRA or Pivotal Tracker, and receive updates whenever an issue is opened, commented on, or resolved.

2. Collaborate on code with Bitbucket or GitHub

With software eating the world, your team most likely has some code to work with. Tie in your repositories from Github and Bitbucket to receive a notification whenever a teammate pushes code, creates a branch, opens a pull request and more.

3. Builds and deploys with Bamboo or Jenkins

Deploying clean code is critical to your team’s success. Integrate HipChat with a continuous integration tool like Jenkins or Atlassian Bamboo and be the first to know whenever your code passes or fails a build. If your team deploys with Heroku, you can have HipChat send you a message to let you know a team member deployed your app.

4. Tackle customer service with UserVoice and Zendesk

No matter what your company does, the customer is critical to your success. Stay connected and provide immediate kick-ass service to your customers by bringing UserVoice and Zendesk into HipChat.

5. Missing something? Zapier has you covered

Using Zapier, you can integrate HipChat with any other tool your team uses. Zapier supports 200+ services and has a simple interface, so your team doesn’t have to spend any time writing code to get these integrations set up. Start getting notifications in HipChat in just a couple steps. Check out the list of services and instructions to set up your Zaps, and when you’re ready, sign up through this link to get an extra 100 tasks per month!

There’s no need to fumble around to stay updated of what’s going on. Keep a pulse on your team’s activity by integrating the tools you use with HipChat. With one service sending notifications, your team spends less time distracted and more time shipping awesome products.

What may be more exciting is the release of our new Android Beta client.

The biggest change you’ll notice is a complete Holo redesign (including the Action Bar pattern, thanks to Jake Wharton’s amazing ActionBarSherlock), but other new features include:

• Capturing and sending photos
• Sending other arbitrary files from your device
• Real time lobby search

Better yet, just take a look for yourself:

We’d recommend enabling automatic updating if you install the Beta, since new features and fixes should roll out relatively quickly!

What are people saying?

Aw thanks guys for the love!

What can you expect next?

We love you too, and our heads are down to keep improving your team’s collaborative experience. In fact, Chris, our awesome OS engineer, just released an update for the Mac beta today. In it, he tackled:

• Add cmd+f to bring up search UI
• Added retina versions for app icons
• Handle dragging images from browsers
• Add UI for changing topic (double click topic bar)
• Don’t trigger notifications when the app is focused
• Add functions for controlling font size (cmd +/-, menu options)
• The signup and help links on the login screen should no longer show “Random error messages”
• Set window title when focusing a chat
• Allow cycling through tabs with keyboard shortcuts
• Fix font for email in profile sidebar

We’re also working hard to push out the Linux and Windows beta clients as well. Make sure you leave us your email address so we can notify you as soon as they’re ready. Stay tuned as big things are coming this year. Happy chatting!