# Collaborating using Amazon Chime chat
<a name="chime-using-chat"></a>

Amazon Chime gives you two ways to chat—regular Amazon Chime chat and in-meeting chat. The topics in this section explain how to use regular Amazon Chime chat. For information about using chat in meetings, see [Using in-meeting chat](meeting-chat.md).

You use regular chat to collaborate with the people on your contacts list. When you choose a contact for chat, that person's name appears in the side bar. You can:
+ Chat with a contact directly.
+ Add emojis to your messages and use markdown to format your message text.
+ Share attachments of up to 50 MB.
+ Create group chats by adding multiple contacts to a message.
+ Create chat rooms and send messages to everyone in the room.
+ Create a Favorites list of conversations and chat rooms.
+ Search contacts, conversations, and chat rooms.
+ Read conversations on all supported devices.
+ Call a contact, some or all of the people in a group chat, or everyone in a chat room.

**Important**  
By design, Amazon Chime doesn't allow you to delete chat messages after you send them. Amazon Chime does this to comply with data retention policies. If you need to delete a message, you must contact your system administrator or IT department. However, data retention policies may also prevent administrators from deleting messages.

**Topics**
+ [Understanding the chat window](understand-chat.md)
+ [Chatting with another user](direct-chat.md)
+ [Chatting with a group](group-chat.md)
+ [Finding past chats](past-chats.md)
+ [Using call history to chat](call-history-chat.md)
+ [Adjusting the size of chat text](adjust-chat-font-size.md)
+ [Deleting sent messages](delete-chat-messages.md)
+ [Using chat notifications](use-notifications.md)
+ [Using chat rooms](chime-chat-room.md)
+ [Administering chat rooms](chat-admins.md)
+ [Using additional chat features](chat-features.md)
+ [Using status messages](status-message.md)