Cliq - Get connected with External Users

Cliq - Get connected with External Users

Scenario:
You are part of the admin team in your company and incharge of interior decor for the new block coming up. You collaborate with your furniture vendor - FurnSquare (FS) . Numerous round table meetings take place within your team to arrive at the design theme - Ethereal nature. Now you being incharge of this decor, is the mediator between your team and FS team. As always email is the mode of communication. Based on your theme, the designers in FS come up with few sample designs and send them over to you. Guess what happens next? Yup, you are jam packed with back and forth email threads of design change requests from your team to the FS designers team. To and fro round table discussions with your team and then endless emails to FS team for each tiny requirement and change, phew! You're so done.

Now let’s get down to business and analyse why this process taxes you!

# The primary mode of communication email, is not instant. At times the reply to the previous mail is after hours.
# When sharing design attachments along with the numerous existing back and forth conversations, it becomes difficult to keep up with the mail threads.
# You are the mediator between your company and FS. For a project like this, which involves major work, i.e. agreeing on a design, changes in minor details, ideas of each team member, etc... you have to convey all this to FS team.
# Each time designers from FS send you designs, you need to get to your team about it.


Throw in a few more calls and basic onsite meetings with designers from FS and you are tied up (well not literally). This whole process is demanding and leaves you with very little time for your other works.

How would you feel in a situation like the above one? You may not exactly be the mediator of a design project, but you will for sure establish communication with other people like vendors, distributors, clients etc... Would you like to go about it in the old fashioned way of sending emails to and fro or would prefer to have instant communication?

Instant communication it is!

Instant communication is achieved by Cliq - the Team messaging software within your organization, but what about the users who are not part of your Cliq organization, say your vendors, clients, etc... We at Cliq know the importance and necessity of workplace communication of our clients with external users and hence we offer External Channels and 1-1 chats. Let me brief on how this can be useful for you.

For the above scenario with FurnSquare, an external channel #vendor-furnsquare can be created. (psst.. if you are new and wondering what a channel is, then head over here ) In this channel the designers from FS can be invited as participants and your team can collaborate seamlessly in a single chat window. Through this channel, all the designs can be shared, discussions and ideas can be hosted, request for changes can be made and so on. This mode of communication is instant, easy and not taxing. Video discussions can be hosted through PrimeTime and furthermore 1-1 individual chats can also be established with the FS designers if needed.



There you go :) Hope this brief example helped you get an idea of how you can make use of our External Channels and 1-1 Chats for communication and collaboration with users from other organizations. For more info regarding this feature, please refer our help doc on External Users . You can also write to us through comments below letting us know of what you think.



Until next time!
Princy


    • Sticky Posts

    • What's new in Zoho Cliq - Our 2020 updates

      Hi Everyone!  We work arduously around the clock to ensure that Cliq is constantly improving by releasing new features and updates, aimed towards enhancing user experience and productivity. Here we have put together the list of all new features and improvements to make sure that you stay up to date on what's new at our end. Remote Work - Set up your office workspace with Cliq We delved into the challenges attached with remote working and came up with a swift solution that integrates your office space

    • Cliq works in Hindi across all interfaces

      We're thrilled to announce that Cliq has added Hindi to the list of supported languages. Read on to know how you can localize Cliq with just a few clicks! Cliq Web & Desktop App  Tap on your display picture to open the user panel Click on My Zoho Account to land on your account set up view and click on My Profile Info In the Language field, search and select हिंदी   Save your preference!  Cliq Android  Go to Settings, then Language and input, and switch to हिंदी . Now, Cliq will adapt to the language

    • Simplify and Centralize your workflows with Forms

      Hello Everyone, We're thrilled to kickstart this new year with a feature release! Forms in Cliq - just got bigger and better. Forms allow you to work with multiple pieces of information at one go! Creating a survey, assigning a task in your project management software, raising a request with your IT team, or anything else that requires you to perform a multistep task, across single or multiple applications— Forms can do it all. A quick rundown of the uniquely powerful features of Forms Dynamic -

    • Farewell, Zoho Chat! Welcome, Zoho Cliq!

      Hello all,   As the heading says, Zoho Chat is now Zoho Cliq with power packed features that will keep you hooked. Cliq is designed to provide you with topnotch collaborative services that will keep you connected at all times.  Let me list a few features outlining it's functions:  Audio & Video calls: The calls are available in 1-1 Chats. Get connected instantly with your contacts and colleagues from anywhere.  Commands and Bots: You can now create Commands and Bots to integrate your internal tools

      • Recent Topics

      • Slow Performance on desk.zoho.com. 11/3/2025

        I’m not seeing any active service alerts for desk.zoho.com, but everyone on our account is currently experiencing very slow load times when opening or navigating tickets. We’ve already tried the standard troubleshooting steps — clearing cache and cookies,

      • Create View to See Tickets Closed within the last 3 days

        I'm trying to create a view in Zoho Desk that shows me "recently closed ticket," which I will define as tickets closed in the last 3 days. I want this view to update so that whenever I click to view it is recalculates and shows me tickets closed within

      • Introducing Profile Summary: Faster Candidate Insights with Zia

        We’re excited to launch Profile Summary, a powerful new feature in Zoho Recruit that transforms how you review candidate profiles. What used to take minutes of resume scanning can now be assessed in seconds—thanks to Zia. A Quick Example Say you’re hiring

      • Send Whatsapp message from Whatsapp template with custom variables

        Hi, I'm trying to do some basic integration for sending WhatsApp messages from Zoho CRM using Zoho Desk whatsapp templates. When creating new whatsapp template in Zoho Desk we can choose ticket related fields as variables but it's not clear how to use

      • Recurring Events Not Appearing in "My Events" and therefore not syncing with Google Apps

        We use the Google Sync functionality for our events, and it appears to have been working fine except: I've created a set of recurring events that I noticed were missing from my Google Apps calendar. Upon further research, it appears this is occurring

      • Dissociate account from contact

        Hello, When I make the call through the API to "Dissociate account from contact" using, /api/v1/contacts/**integer**/accounts/**integer**/dissociate I get this response back, 422Unprocessable Entity (WebDAV) (RFC 4918) { "errorCode": "INVALID_DATA", "message":

      • Zoho Desk and Zoho People Integration - is it possible in order to alert whether an agent is available

        Hi, We use Zoho People for our employees to log absence (Paid Time Off etc). I was wondering if it was possible that this information can be shared in to Zoho Desk, so that when allocating a ticket to an agent, if they are on leave there is an onscreen

      • Add Save button to Expense form

        A save button would be very helpful on the expense form. Currently there is a Save and Close button. When we want to itemize an expense, this option would be very helpful. For example, if we have a hotel expense that also has room service, which is a

      • Change Currency symbol

        I would like to change the way our currency displays when printed on quotes, invoices and purchase orders. Currently, we have Australian Dollars AUD as our Home Currency. The only two symbol choices available for this currency are "AU $" or "AUD". I would

      • Call transcrition working for ringcentral?

        I don't see anything about what telephony providers can be used. The Zoho support person A said that RingCentral isn't supported. Zoho support person B said that it works, just make sure the call recording link works. Excellent instructions here: Call

      • How to Send Email from within a custom module (with or without an email template)

        It is possible to send an email from the Deals module. However, I can't find a way to send an email from any of our custom modules. I have tried adding an email field to the modules (even though we don't really want one or need it there). That doesn't

      • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

        The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Managing addresses

      • Zoho Inventory - Managing Items With Multiple Suppliers

        Hi community, I'm working on a project at the moment for a car parts wholesale business. Each Item (part) has its own original manufacturer part number (sometimes more than one part number for the same item). When purchasing parts from 3rd party suppliers,

      • Kaizen #59 - Creating alerts and custom messages using Client Script

        Hello everyone! We are happy to resume our Zoho CRM Developer Community series - The Kaizen series! Welcome back to the new start of Kaizen! This post is about Client Script and its simple use cases involving ZDK Client functions. What is Client Script?

      • Retainer invoice in Zoho Finance modlue

        Hello, Is there a way of creating retainer invoices in the Zoho Finance module? If not can I request this is considered for future updates please.

      • How do I see the total leads during a certain period?

        I understand I can get the count of leads and potentials but the total number of leads in a certain period should be equal to Leads+potentials because when we convert a lead it gets moved to potentials and no longer exists there. is there a way i could

      • Function #46: Auto-Calculate Sales Margin on a Quote

        Welcome back everyone! Last week's function was about displaying the discount amount in words. This week, it's going to be about automatically calculating the sales margin for a particular quote, sales order or an invoice. Business scenario Where there is sales, there's also evaluation and competition between sales reps. A healthy rivalry helps to better motivate your employees to do smart work and close deals faster and more efficiently. But how does a sales rep get evaluated? 90% of the time, it's

      • Where is the Global Search field?

        I am looking for an alternative to SF.com. Zoho CRM seems to be work fine, and be customizable in terms of the fields and reports. But there's one big thing missing and it's going to prevent us from using it: there's no global search box at the top of

      • API 500 Error

        Hello amazing ZOHO Projects Community, I get this message. How can we solve this? { "error": { "status_code": "500", "method": "GET", "instance": "/api/v3/portal/2010147XXXX/projects/2679160000003XXXX/timesheet", "title": "INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR", "error_type":

      • In place field editing for candidates

        Wondering about any insight/best practices for efficiently updating candidate records while reviewing them in a Job Opening pipeline. We can do in-field editing (e.g. update job title or City) only when we have the full candidate record open, however

      • Default tax type for mileage?

        Where we are, mileage includes a government tax. Is there any way to set a default tax for the Personal Car Mileage category of expense? (Or any other way?)

      • Analytics Portal

        I have the "standard plan" and want to explore the portal option; I activated the 15-day trial but do not see the pricing for the add-on. How can I get the price under "Upgrade add-ons." Thanks Rudy

      • The Social Wall: October 2025

        Hello everyone, As we head toward the end of the year, we’re bringing you a few updates to help give your social media efforts a strong finish. This month, we’re rolling out new enhancements across both the web and mobile app. Post Preview Have you ever

      • Show price book list price

        When using price books, once you add products to the price book in the Products related list you can display the Unit price which is the default list price; however, there is no option to show the price book list price. To see the price book list price

      • Cliq File Upload

        While uploading large file like 500MB, it takes time, that fines. But if you resize window or move window in other screen, that uploading disappears. After upload complete & sent it will be visible

      • Resizing a Record Template Background Inage

        Hi everyone, I have an issue which I can't seem to resolve: Basically, I'm designing a record template in certificate form. I've specified A5 landscape. I've set my background image the same dimensions with total pixels at 443,520. Whatever I try, when

      • Zia Actions: AI-powered Workflow Automation for Faster and Smarter Execution

        Hello everyone, Workflows got a notch better with AI-based actions. Actions such as field extraction, prediction, auto reply, and content generation facilitate quick execution with improved speed and accuracy. Zia can intercept useful details in newly

      • Constant color of a legend value

        It would be nice if we can set a constant color/pattern to a value when creating a chart. We would often use the same value in different graph options and I always have to copy the color that we've set to a certain value from a previous graph to make

      • What's New in Zoho POS - October 2025

        Hello everyone, Welcome to Zoho POS's monthly updates, where we share our latest feature updates, releases, changes, and more. Let’s take a look at how October went. Process returns for refunds, exchanges, or offer store credit Returns and exchanges can

      • Loan and purchase

        My husband is lending me mobey to buy a vehicle intersst free ... I need to know how to record the cash receipt and how I pay it back... the money is for a vehicle do I just post the invoice for that as I normally would usung the loan money to pay for

      • Zoho Connect Module in Zoho Trident

        Hi I really like where Zoho Trident is going. Having Mail and Cliq in one place is especially powerful. However, Zoho Connect really needs to be included to make this a true communication and collaboration hub. I would like to request that Zoho Connect

      • Zoho FSM API Delete Record

        Hi FSM Team, It would be great if you could delete a record via API. Thank you,

      • File Field Validation

        Hello all, We are tracking our customer NDA agreements in our CRM and have created 2 fields to do so, an execution date field and a file upload field. I want to create a validation rule to ensure that when the execution date field is populated that the

      • 100 record view limitation

        I have just migrated from another CRM and am starting in ZOHOcrm with over 5000 contacts. It seems that my searches and sorts are limited to 100 live records....or am I missing something. This seems to be very limiting...in a lot of scenarios (mass email,

      • ZUG Meet-ups are back - Across India (December 2025)

        The Zoho User Group (ZUG) meet-ups are back, and this time, we’re travelling across India to reconnect with our amazing community! From Chennai to Delhi, Bengaluru to Mumbai, we can’t wait to meet you all in person and talk everything Zoho SalesIQ, automation,

      • Categorise Attachments

        We take ID, proof of address, right to work documentation and more.  I can upload a single file in to field, but we often receive multiple files for each category e.g. someone may send a separate file for the front and back of their national ID card.  My team don't have time to manipulate the files in order to upload them as a single file. The options, as far as I can tell, would be to create additional fields on attachments in order to categorise what the file is, or to be able to upload single

      • Scheduling a meeting for just a 1:1 phone call

        My business is B2C and many of my customer's don't want to engage in an online meeting for what can be handled in a regular phone call. I am trying to create a new meeting invitation, but there is no venue optoin for "phone call". How are other's handling

      • Need more details on API Usage Dashboard

        Hi Team, We have implemented Zoho Expense for a client and has done some integrations with well known third party ERP via api. Recently we have noticed a huge spike in the API consumption. But we couldn't get the root cause for the same. I accept there

      • Power of Automation:: Automating SLA Timelines for First Response & Resolution for Issues module.

        Hello Everyone, Ever wished SLAs could update automatically based on issue severity i.e no manual tracking, no missed timelines? That is exactly what one of our customers, Alex, wanted to achieve in the Issues module. So, we have setup a simple automation

      • Finding missing records

        I have a challenge and I am not really sure where to start with it. I can't find any similar threads on here, can anyone help: I have two forms, FormA and FormB. Both forms have records that contain a field called Job_Number. What I am trying to achieve

      • Next Page