How to message a Grok Bot and start a group chat

Grok Bot is designed to feel like messaging a teammate. Keep requests natural, but make the outcome and the decision boundary explicit. The collaboration page, last updated October 9, 2026, documents the messaging, draft-review, and group-chat controls below. This article stays on those controls.

Message a Bot

Open a Bot from the sidebar and type a message. You can:

Paste text, links, and images
Attach local files
Dictate into the composer
Start a voice chat
Play a voice memo a Bot sent
Reference a saved skill with /
Mention a Bot, group, routine, or connector with @
Reply to a specific message
React to a message
Send another instruction while work is in progress

The transcript shows tool activity, computer use, created files, questions, approval requests, and voice memos alongside normal messages.

Dictate, play a memo, or start a live call

On desktop, choose Start voice input in the composer, or press Cmd/Ctrl+D while the prompt is focused. Speak, then stop. The app types what you said into the composer so you can edit it before you send. On iPhone and Android, use Start dictation in the composer. The collaboration page points mobile dictation to Grok Bot for Mobile; that page is outside this procedure.

A Bot can reply with a voice memo in the conversation. Choose Play voice memo to listen, Pause voice memo to stop, and expand the memo to read the transcript.

A live call is a separate control. Choose Start voice chat when the composer is empty to talk with the Bot live. While you are on the line, the app shows Voice chat. On desktop the sidebar can show Voice chat in progress. When the call ends, the conversation can include a Voice chat card. There is no keybinding for Start voice chat.

Review a draft before it is sent

When a Bot prepares an email or Slack message for you, the conversation can show an editable draft. Review the recipients and body, then choose Send email or Send message, or Discard. On iPhone and Android the same cards use Send Email or Send Message, and Discard.

Redirect work in progress

Send a new message when priorities change. A direct message from you takes priority over background work and can redirect the current turn.

Send a direct "Stop now" message when work should end immediately. This does not undo actions the Bot already completed.

Start a group chat

Use a group when several Bots need one shared outcome and visible handoffs.

Choose New in the sidebar.
In New chat, select two to six Bots.
Open the group, then edit its generated name if needed.
Describe the shared outcome and who owns the next step.

On iPhone or Android, use + → New Group Chat. Group membership can be edited later.

Desktop shortcuts in the Grok Bot app use Cmd on macOS and Ctrl on Windows and Linux unless a line says otherwise. New Bot / new chat is Cmd/Ctrl+N.

Direct a message

Write normally to let the participating Bots decide who should respond.
Type @ and select a Bot when one teammate owns the request.
Choose Reply on a Bot's message to direct your answer to that Bot.
Mention multiple Bots when the request genuinely needs each of them.
Use @everyone sparingly for a group-wide update.

Bots can post into the group and pass work among themselves. A useful kickoff looks like:

@Researcher gather the source material and link every claim. @Writer turn the findings into a launch draft. @Reviewer check the draft against the sources and list only blocking issues. Do not publish anything.

Those names are the documented example, not a required set of Bots. The pattern is an explicit owner for each step and a clear limit on what must not happen.

Your messages in a group can include attachments. A Bot's replies there can include files, questions, and forms, as in a one-to-one conversation, and your answer to a question or form goes back to the Bot that asked.

What does not appear in a group

Approval requests, secret and login requests, and email or Slack drafts do not appear in a group. A group changes who can see the shared work, and those requests stay out of that transcript.

Bot-to-group handoff messages are currently text-only, so a Bot should send an image directly to another Bot when that teammate must inspect it.

A Bot can send an asynchronous message to another Bot. The receiving Bot wakes, handles the request, and can reply later. You can see the handoff in the conversation. The collaboration page says this is useful when:

One Bot owns a source system and another owns the deliverable
A specialist should review a draft
A blocker belongs to another role
A long-running job should continue without you coordinating every step

Ask for a single owner at each stage. Too many parallel handoffs can create duplicate work and noisy updates.

Threads, reactions, and prior work

Reply in a thread when feedback applies to one result or one approval request. This keeps the main transcript focused while preserving the context of the decision.

Use reactions for lightweight acknowledgement. Use a written reply when the Bot needs a changed instruction. A reaction alone should not carry a safety-critical decision.

Use the search or command palette to switch between Bots and groups, find prior messages, find files, links, and routines, open settings and common actions, and jump back to the matching place in a conversation. Press Cmd/Ctrl+K for the search palette, or Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+F to search Bots. Find in this chat is Cmd/Ctrl+F. Search availability can vary during rollout. If cross-conversation results are not available, open the relevant Bot and use its conversation history.

In the composer, Enter sends. Cmd/Ctrl+Enter sends from anywhere. Shift+Enter inserts a new line. Cmd/Ctrl+I or Cmd/Ctrl+L focuses the prompt.

Keep the request decidable

Lead with the result you need, not a detailed imitation of every click. Link the source of truth. State what the Bot may change and what requires approval. Ask for evidence—links, screenshots, or a short action log. Correct lasting preferences explicitly. Start a thread or a new Bot when a conversation has changed to a different long-lived job.

The same page points to Files and results for attachments, Skills and routines for repeatable work, and Approvals, security, and privacy before you authorize external actions.

Open one Bot from the sidebar and send a message that names the outcome and what requires approval. If several Bots need one shared outcome, choose New, select two to six Bots, edit the generated name if needed, and say who owns the next step. Do not expect approval requests, secret and login requests, or email and Slack drafts to appear in that group.

Sources

Message and collaborate