Productivity

Odoo Discuss: team chat & email software

Community + Enterprise

Chat, mail gateway and private channels

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Odoo Ready Partner
★★★★★4.9 on Clutch
Calgary, in-house team
Odoo Discuss logo
What it does

What Odoo Discuss does

Odoo Discuss is the app that runs the chat, email, and activity layer underneath every other Odoo app. Internal team channels, direct messages, customer email threads, the chatter that appears on every entry (a sales order, a customer profile, a support ticket), and the activity reminder system that drives every follow-up across Odoo all live here.

Every business running Odoo uses Discuss, whether they realize it or not, because every other Odoo app inherits its messaging from this one. It's read by the rest of Odoo more than it's used directly. You can test Odoo Discuss free on the Odoo trial; pricing kicks in only if you install more than one Odoo app.

For Odoo's own product overview, see Odoo's product listing.

How it works

The day-to-day flow

Discuss runs three connected things: direct messages between users, team channels (Slack-style group chats organized by team, project, or topic), and the chatter that surfaces on every business entry across Odoo. When a sales rep adds a note on a deal, that note runs through Discuss. When a customer replies to an email about an invoice, that reply lands on the invoice's chatter through Discuss. When a project task gets a comment, that comment uses Discuss.

From the user's perspective, the Discuss app is the inbox view: every direct message, every channel mention, every chatter notification across every entry they care about, on one screen. Click an item to jump straight to the source entry. Type a reply and Discuss routes it back to the right place (an email reply on an invoice goes back to the customer; a chatter note on a deal stays internal; a channel message goes to the team).

Email gateways close the loop: each Odoo team and project can have its own inbound email address. A customer emailing support@yourdomain creates a Helpdesk ticket with the email body as the first message; replies from the team email the customer back from the same address; the customer's reply lands on the ticket's chatter. The same pattern works for sales, project intake, vendor communications, and any other inbound email flow.

Calibre configures Odoo Discuss for Alberta businesses: step by step, in writing.

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In this module

What's inside Odoo Discuss

Direct Messages and Team Channels
Direct-message any colleague or create team channels for ongoing conversations. Channel access uses two settings: an authorized-group setting that controls who can see and join the channel (set it broadly for a company-wide channel, narrowly for a department-only one), and an auto-subscribe setting that automatically adds members of named groups when they exist. Private group-DM channels (a multi-person direct message) are a third channel type with manual invitation only. Pinned messages and threading keep long discussions manageable.
Chatter on Every entry
Every business entry in Odoo (a sales order, a customer, an invoice, a project task, a helpdesk ticket, an inventory transfer) carries its own chatter at the bottom of the form. Internal notes, customer-facing emails, file attachments, and activity history all live there in chronological order, so anyone picking up the entry has the full context.
Email Gateways per Team and Project
Set up an inbound email address per Helpdesk team, per Project, per Sales channel, per ECO type, or per Quality team. Inbound emails create the right kind of entry (a ticket, a task, a lead, an ECO) and route to the right team. Replies email out from the same address so external counterparties communicate naturally.
Mentions and Notifications
Mention a user with @ in any chatter or channel message and they get a notification. Mentions show up in the user's inbox view and optionally as email notifications based on each user's preferences. Reduces the back-and-forth of dragging the right person into a conversation.
Activities and Scheduled Follow-Ups
Schedule activities (a follow-up call, a document review, a deadline check) on any business entry. Activities show up on the assigned user's inbox and calendar with the due date; overdue activities surface in red. Useful for any work where the next step has a specific person and a specific time attached.
File and Image Sharing
Drag any file (PDF, image, spreadsheet, video) into any chatter or channel message to attach it. Images render inline; other files attach as downloadable links. Useful for sharing supplier datasheets, customer screenshots, internal documents, or onboarding files without sending them through email.
Threaded Replies
Reply to a specific message in a channel by starting a thread. Long discussions on a specific topic stay in their own thread rather than cluttering the main channel feed. Useful for active channels where multiple conversations happen in parallel.
Voice and Video Calls
Start a voice or video call from any direct message or channel. Group video calls support multiple participants, screen share, and chat alongside the call. Useful for quick syncs that do not warrant a scheduled meeting. Calls run in the browser without a separate app to install.
Per-Channel Notification Control
Each member can set their per-channel notification preference to All Messages, Mentions Only, or Nothing (fully muted). The account-wide default is a two-way switch: All Messages or Nothing. Both levels are independent, so a user can mute a noisy channel while keeping everything else on. Channels can also be hidden from the sidebar without leaving them.
Server Action Hooks for Posting Messages
Configure server actions that post messages to specific channels or send direct messages on specific events (a new high-value lead, a stalled deal, a critical alert from an automation). Out-of-the-box, the engine drives Discuss-native channels; there is no shipped bridge to Slack or Microsoft Teams, so a cross-posting integration requires a custom outbound webhook against the receiving tool's API.
Built for

Is Odoo Discuss right for your team?

Outgrowing the entry-level tools

SMBs whose data lives in QuickBooks, HubSpot Free, or Excel spreadsheets that were set up when the business was smaller. The team now spends hours building reports by hand and reconciling between tools every month-end.

Paying per Slack or Teams seat

Teams on Slack Business+ or Microsoft Teams where chat and customer records live in separate worlds. A mention in a deal channel does not post to the deal record.

Operations across multiple tools

Retail, manufacturing, mechanical, or professional services businesses with 10 to 200 employees running on a patchwork of point tools. The team wants one database for the whole company instead of Zapier holding it together.

At a glance Community + Enterprise Cloud, Odoo.sh, or self-host iOS + Android app 15-day free trial CSV migration from current tool Odoo Ready Partner support Integrates with Twilio
Bundle

Apps people often run with Odoo Discuss

Odoo Discuss is the messaging layer the rest of Odoo reads from and writes to. Odoo CRM, Odoo Sales, Odoo Helpdesk, Odoo Project, Odoo Recruitment, Odoo Manufacturing, Odoo Inventory, and every other Odoo app surfaces the chatter on every entry through Discuss. Email gateways feed inbound emails into the right records on the right teams. Web push notifications work in Community so a phone-browser session stays alive on new messages; the polished native mobile app is part of the wider Odoo Enterprise mobile experience and brings every Odoo app, Discuss included, into one app on iOS and Android.

Odoo CRMTrack leads and close opportunities
Odoo SalesFrom quotations to invoices
Odoo HelpdeskTrack, prioritize, and solve customer tickets
Odoo ProjectOrganize and plan your projects
Odoo RecruitmentTrack your recruitment pipeline
Odoo ManufacturingManufacturing Orders & BOMs
Odoo InventoryManage your stock and logistics activities
Odoo PhoneMake and receive phone calls from within Odoo.
Comparison

Odoo Discuss vs the alternatives

List-price comparison against the team chat tools Calibre most commonly migrates customers off. The deciding factor is usually integration, not the line-item price. Odoo Discuss sits on the same database as every other Odoo app you install, so the data flows between modules without separate bridges.

Tool Per month (annual plan) What you get
Odoo Discuss CA$35.20/user/mo All Odoo apps included, free 15-day trial
Slack Business+ US$15/user/mo Team Chat only
Google Workspace US$12/user/mo Team Chat only
Slack Pro US$7.25/user/mo Team Chat only
Microsoft Teams US$4/user/mo Team Chat only

Annual-commitment rate where published; monthly list rate otherwise. Sourced from vendor pricing pages, 2026-05. Plans and regions vary. Full cost calculator on the Odoo overview page.

Pricing

What Odoo Discuss costs

One App Free
CA$0
forever
  • One app, unlimited users
  • Multi-company allowed
  • Odoo Online hosting
  • Dependent apps included free
If Odoo Discuss is the only Odoo app you install
Most teams pick this
Standard
CA$35.20
/user/month, billed yearly
  • Every Odoo app included
  • Odoo Online hosting
  • Free 15-day trial
  • iOS + Android mobile app
Start free trial →
Charged monthly: CA$44/user. Yearly billing saves 20%.
Custom
CA$55
/user/month, billed yearly
  • Everything in Standard
  • Studio (no-code customizer)
  • Multi-company management
  • Hosting: Online, Odoo.sh, or on-premise
  • External API access
Choose this when you need custom layouts or multi-company management.
Calibre Implementation
Quote
phase-by-phase, in writing
  • Scoping, configuration, training
  • Data migration from your current tool
  • Named engineer through go-live and support
Book the call →
Free 45-minute scoping call. Quote in writing before any code ships.

Pricing source: Odoo's published Standard and Custom plans as of 2026-05. Calibre quotes in CAD; conversion from Odoo's local pricing in your region may vary.

Questions

Common questions about Odoo Discuss

Is Odoo Discuss free?
Yes. Odoo Discuss is part of the free Odoo Community edition. The One App Free rule means if Discuss is the only Odoo app you install, you pay nothing for the software. In practice every Odoo setup includes Discuss because every other Odoo app uses its messaging layer; it's rarely a standalone install.
What's the difference between Odoo Discuss in Community and Enterprise?
The core messaging engine is the same in both editions. Direct messages, team channels, chatter on every entry, email gateways, mentions, activities, file sharing, threaded replies, voice and video calls, notification preferences, server-action hooks, and even web push notifications all ship in the free Community edition of Discuss itself. The Enterprise difference is at the surrounding-app level: the polished mobile app, Studio (the no-code customizer that lets you reshape chatter widgets on records), and tighter integration with Odoo VoIP for phone-call logging are Enterprise. Discuss's own messaging primitives are Community.
Can Odoo Discuss replace Slack or Microsoft Teams for our internal communication?
For Odoo-centric teams, yes. The standard direct-message, channel-message, mentions, threaded replies, file sharing, and voice or video call set is comparable to the basic Slack or Teams feature set. Where Discuss wins is the per-entry chatter integration: a conversation about a specific deal, ticket, invoice, or task lives on the entry rather than scrolling away in a separate channel. Where Slack or Teams wins is the broader integration ecosystem with non-Odoo apps and the polish on the chat-first experience. Many teams use both: Discuss for entry-context conversations, Slack or Teams for general company chat.
Can we migrate our chat history from Slack or Microsoft Teams into Odoo Discuss?
Not as a supported, out-of-the-box import. Odoo Discuss does not ship a Slack or Teams importer; the standard practice is to leave historical chat on the source tool (as an archived workspace or read-only export) and start fresh in Discuss for go-forward conversations. If a specific channel's history is genuinely load-bearing, a custom import that posts each historical message as a Discuss message can be scripted against Odoo's API; Calibre can scope this during rollout, but for most teams the cost-benefit favours archive-and-cutover.
Does Odoo Discuss have an inbound email gateway for customer emails?
Yes. Set up an inbound email address per Helpdesk team (support@yourdomain), per Project, per Sales channel, per CRM team, per Quality team, per ECO type, or per Recruitment role. Emails sent to that address create a new entry of the right type (a ticket, a task, a lead, etc.) with the email body as the first message in the chatter. Replies sent by the team email out from the same address. The customer's follow-up replies land back on the chatter. Useful for any inbound email flow that needs structured handling.
Is there a mobile app for Odoo Discuss?
Two layers, often confused. Discuss itself ships web push notifications in Community (so a logged-in user on a phone browser gets push alerts on new messages even when the tab is in the background). The polished native iOS and Android mobile app is part of the broader Odoo Enterprise mobile experience and provides a more refined chat surface alongside the other Enterprise apps. If push reliability on a phone matters most, the Community web-push path covers the basic case; the Enterprise mobile app is the upgrade for teams that want the full native app experience across every Odoo app, not just Discuss.
Can external partners or customers participate in Discuss conversations?
Yes, through portal access. External users (customers, partners, vendors) can be granted limited access to specific records' chatters: a customer can comment on their own ticket or quote without seeing internal notes; a vendor can comment on a purchase order they are involved in. Internal notes are clearly marked and not visible to portal users. The same chatter handles internal team discussion (visible to staff only) and external counterparty discussion (visible to the right portal user) on one entry.

Working with Calibre

How long does a Calibre implementation typically take?
Single-module rollouts on an existing Odoo setup run 2-6 weeks depending on data migration scope. Greenfield Odoo with a multi-module rollout runs 4-16 weeks. Calibre commits to a written, phase-by-phase timeline after the free scoping call before any code is written.
How much does a Calibre implementation cost?
Cost depends on module scope, user count, custom work, and migration complexity. Calibre's posture is a written fixed-phase quote after the scoping call rather than an hourly engagement, so the cost is committed in writing before the first commit.
What happens to our data if we ever want to leave Odoo?
Everything exports. CSV, XML, or a full PostgreSQL database dump, yours on day one. Migrating off Odoo has been done before and it's not a one-way door.
Speak to an Implementation Specialist

Talk to Calibre about Odoo Discuss.

Written, phase-by-phase quote before any code is written. Odoo Ready Partner, Calgary. In-house team, no offshore handoffs.

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What you get

  • Free 45-minute scoping call with an Odoo-certified engineer
  • Module-by-module fit/gap assessment
  • Written, phase-by-phase quote
  • Named engineer for implementation and support
  • Data-export commitment in writing