Chat is a BBO feature that is especially important in club games. If you have not used chat please activate it so the directors can communicate with you during games.
Here are some of the reasons being able to send and receive chats is important:
It's how the director sends messages, some of which are important, to the group and to you as individuals.
It's a back-up for sending and receiving "alerts". For example, if you forget to alert a bid, you can immediately click on "opponents" and private message them the alert through chat (see below).
It's the way to get questions answered after the auction is over (see below).
It slows down the game when opponents are waiting for you to answer a question they sent via chat.
It's more social, particularly when playing in your home club.
Here are possibilities why you are not be seeing chats:
1. You have chats turned off. Default is to have chat on, but maybe yours is off for some reason.
To fix this, when in BBO, go into account, go into settings, go down to chat, and slide it back on.
2. More likely, because you want the playing screen big so you can see everything better, you have closed the "shade" on the part of the screen that would show chats.
You need to open up that shade by dragging the bar at the bottom back up.
Here is how to use chat:
1. Chatting to the Table is the default once the game has started.
Simply type in the line next to the little blue box that at the lower left.
2. Chat to the opponents only by clicking on that blue box and selecting opponents.
This is how you "fix" a mistake when you forget to alert a call. IMMEDIATELY chat to JUST the opponents and tell them you should have alerted the bid and what it means. Make sure you are just chatting the the opponents, your partner should not see your alert.
3. Chat to anyone else at the table by clicking on their BBO name. Their profile and a chat line will come up.
4. Or, chat to someone at the table or anyone online in BBO by clicking on that blue box, selecting Private, and typing in their BBO name. You can do this even before the game has started while the default is Lobby.