Built into the Portal is an instant messaging system allowing members in a Portal to chat with one another and see each other's availabilty (presence). When a user is online, their presence will default to "Online," but can change it to "Busy," "Away," or a custom message. When a user is not logged into their Portal, their status is set to "Offline."
Messaging another user will trigger an alert sound for the user and will flash the IM icon on the toolbar. If the user already has IM open, messages will simply pop up.