Stay connected with your practitioner through Practice Better's secure messaging feature. Your secure messaging connection with your practitioner helps maintain ongoing support between appointments, making it easier to ask quick questions, share updates, or receive guidance when you need it. You can send messages, share files, and communicate directly from your Client Portal whenever it's convenient for you.
In this article:
- Accessing Your Messages
- Starting a Conversation with Your Practitioner
- Sending and Managing Messages
- Managing Message Notifications
- Messaging with Family Accounts
- Exporting Your Message History
- Understanding Who Sees Your Messages
- Getting Help
Accessing Your Messages
You can access your messages in two convenient ways within your Client Portal. The Chat icon in the top-right corner of your screen opens your full Messages page, where you'll see all your conversations with your practitioner.
Alternatively, the Messenger tab in the bottom-right corner lets you chat while browsing other areas of your portal, making it easy to send a quick message without navigating away from what you're doing.
Your Messages page displays all active chats, including any pinned messages and documents your practitioner has shared with you through messaging.
Starting a Conversation with Your Practitioner
Once you've activated your Client Portal account, you can begin messaging your practitioner directly (if they have enabled this for you). Simply click on your practitioner's name from your Contacts list to start a conversation. Your messages are sent through Practice Better's secure system, keeping your health information protected.
You can send messages at any time that's convenient for you, though your practitioner will respond according to their availability and business hours. If your practitioner has set up an autoresponder, you may receive an automatic acknowledgment letting you know when to expect a reply.
Sending and Managing Messages
Composing messages in Practice Better is straightforward. Type your message in the text box at the bottom of the chat window and press the send button. Your practitioner may have set a character limit for messages (otherwise, up to 5,000 characters), which helps keep conversations focused and manageable.
Sending Attachments and Voice Notes
Need to share a document, photo, or recording with your practitioner? Click the (+) button beside the message text box to attach files. Practice Better supports various file types to accommodate different communication needs.
For audio files, you can attach MP3, MPEG, and M4A formats. Video files in MP4 and MOV formats are supported up to approximately 82 MB. If you're using the mobile app, you can record voice messages up to 5 minutes long or capture photos directly. General documents and files can be up to 120 MB in size.
📍 Note: These file size and type limits ensure smooth delivery while maintaining the security of your information.
Replying to Specific Messages
When you want to respond to a particular message in an ongoing conversation, click the Reply button on that message. This keeps the original message context visible, making it easier for both you and your practitioner to follow the conversation thread, especially in longer discussions.
Adding Emoji Reactions
Sometimes a quick reaction says it all. Click the smiley face icon under any message to choose an emoji reaction. This is a great way to acknowledge information or show appreciation without typing a full response. If you change your mind, simply click the same emoji again to remove your reaction.
Flagging Messages
If you glanced at a message that you need to come back to later, or just want to save something your practitioner sent, Practice Better’s secure messenger makes it easy to flag messages for yourself.
Under the More Options menu (3 dots) of every message from your practitioner, you’ll find options to mark the message as unread or pin it.
When you have unread messages, an indicator will appear on the messenger icon in the top navigation.
When you arrive on the messenger page, you’ll see your unread messages at the top of your Active Chats.
Alternatively, you can pin a message, saving that message under the Pins folder in your right-hand chat sidebar.
To unpin a message, click the More Options menu (3 dots) > Unpin message on the message either within the chat, or under the Pinned Messages folder.
Deleting Your Messages
If you need to remove a message you've sent, click the three dots beside your message and select Delete message. You can only delete your own messages, and once deleted, they can't be recovered. Your practitioner has the same ability to manage their own sent messages.
Click the check box and the Delete button in the pop-up to confirm the deletion of the message.
Managing Message Notifications
Staying informed about new messages from your practitioner happens through multiple notification channels. You may receive instant alerts while using the portal, email notifications, and in-app notifications, depending on your notification preferences.
You have control over how and when you're notified. If you'd prefer not to receive constant alerts, you can adjust your notification settings in your Client Portal notification preferences. Go to your notification settings to customize which types of alerts you receive and through which channels.
Learn more about Managing Notifications in Your Practice Better Client Portal →
From the Messages page, click the More Options menu (3 dots) near the top right to quickly access either your Messaging or Notification Preferences.
Manage options for how you start new video chats with your practitioner through the portal, choosing to either open the video chat in a new tab, the same tab, or a new window.
Decide whether you want to send messages after hitting the enter key on your keyboard, and click the check box next to this option to set your preference.
After making updates onthis page, be sure to click Save Changes near the top-right.
📍 Note: If your practitioner has enabled message content in email notifications, messages from them may appear in your email inbox. However, emails are not as secure as the portal itself, so you can avoid sharing highly sensitive or confidential information if you know it will be included in email notifications.
Messaging with Family Accounts
If you're part of a family account where multiple people (such as children or dependents) share one primary login, it's important to understand how messaging works. Your practitioner maintains a single conversation thread with the family account, and all messages are accessible to anyone who can log in to that shared account.
This setup enables parents or guardians to monitor and manage all correspondence for family members, ensuring that nothing is missed. However, it also means there isn't separate private messaging between the practitioner and individual family members within the same family record.
Exporting Your Message History
You can export the chat history of individual chats your a part of (not group chats).
From your messages page open a chat in the middle part of your screen. Tap the 3 dots near the top-right and select Export. This will automatically download a spreadsheet file to your local device, and you can easily repeat these steps for any other chats you want to export.
Understanding Who Sees Your Messages
Your messages are primarily between you and your practitioner, but there are some situations where other team members might have access. If your practitioner works as part of a healthcare team, they may share your direct chat with other practitioners or administrative staff who are involved in your care. This might include practice administrators who help with scheduling, sending resources, or coordinating aspects of your treatment.
This sharing capability ensures seamless care coordination, but your practitioner controls who has access to your conversations based on your care needs. You’ll know if you’re part of a shared chat by seeing your practitioner’s name and “+ 1 more.” Shared chats are just between you and your care team (1 client only in shared chats).
These differ from group chats in that group chat can include multiple clients and practitioner team members. A group chat in Practice Better will have a title that’s not simply a contact’s name, and the group chat itself may look different from a standard chat, if your practitioner has updated the group chat to a feed style.
Learn more about Group Chats vs. Shared Chats →
Getting Help
If you're not receiving responses from your practitioner within the timeframe you expected, the best approach is to reach out to your practitioner directly about their communication practices and typical response times. Each practitioner manages their own availability and response schedules.
However, if you're experiencing technical difficulties with the messaging feature itself or other aspects of the Practice Better platform, contact Practice Better's support team for assistance. They can help troubleshoot any technical issues that might be preventing messages from sending or being received.✅ Remember: Practice Better's support team handles platform technical issues, while your practitioner is responsible for clinical communication and care-related responses.