I see that we can Move (though, in reality, it is more like Copy) replies to a topic or message, but it doesn’t create a new chat - you have to then create a new one based on that new topic.
It seems to me that the truest purpose for moving replies is to clean up the chat to keep it focused. So, it would be very useful/necessary to also have a “Split” function that has one of a few possible mechanisms:
Create a new topic with the selected replies AND automatically create a new chat based on this topic.
Create a new topic with perhaps the first (or even a new custom) selected reply, and the selected replies then populate in an automatically created chat.
Simply split the replies into a new chat, without creating a new topic.
It would also be useful to have the option of removing the replies from the original chat so as to not have redundant thoughts in different places.
Interesting points. This sounds somewhat like a desire to have “threads” within chat (like Slack, Discord, etc. have). Because “simply split the replies into a new chat” is quite a “heavy” solution since “chats” outside the context of a Topic are channels. I agree that some smoother way to handle these kinds of needs would be ideal.
Perhaps existing Discourse topic/thread functionality can be used with integrated chat to indeed create a sort of “thread”, different than but ultimately functioning similar to Slack, etc. So what you’d see in the original chat is the originating message(s), with a link to the forked chat/topic, and count of messages within it. If you click, it takes you to a “topic” that is a “thread” of some kind, whether chat or forum, or perhaps both somehow.
I think this connects with the issue pointed out here that the way to indicate and present a chat in a topic is still rather fuzzy. Once that is better solved I think a more familiar “chat thread” analog can be created.