diff --git a/src/chat.rs b/src/chat.rs
index 4f4af8e..b4a29fd 100644
--- a/src/chat.rs
+++ b/src/chat.rs
@@ -4,20 +4,30 @@ use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 
 use crate::Task;
 
-#[derive(Debug, Serialize, Deserialize, PartialEq, Eq)]
-#[serde(rename_all = "snake_case")]
-pub enum Role {
-    System,
-    User,
-    Assistant,
-}
-
 #[derive(Debug, Serialize, Deserialize, PartialEq, Eq)]
 pub struct Message<'a> {
-    pub role: Role,
+    pub role: Cow<'a, str>,
     pub content: Cow<'a, str>,
 }
 
+impl<'a> Message<'a> {
+    pub fn new(role: impl Into<Cow<'a, str>>, content: impl Into<Cow<'a, str>>) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            role: role.into(),
+            content: content.into(),
+        }
+    }
+    pub fn user(content: impl Into<Cow<'a, str>>) -> Self {
+        Self::new("user", content)
+    }
+    pub fn assistant(content: impl Into<Cow<'a, str>>) -> Self {
+        Self::new("assistant", content)
+    }
+    pub fn system(content: impl Into<Cow<'a, str>>) -> Self {
+        Self::new("system", content)
+    }
+}
+
 pub struct TaskChat<'a> {
     /// The list of messages comprising the conversation so far.
     pub messages: Vec<Message<'a>>,
@@ -42,12 +52,20 @@ pub struct TaskChat<'a> {
 impl<'a> TaskChat<'a> {
     /// Creates a new TaskChat containing one message with the given role and content.
     /// All optional TaskChat attributes are left unset.
-    pub fn new(role: Role, content: impl Into<Cow<'a, str>>) -> Self {
+    pub fn with_message(message: Message<'a>) -> Self {
+        TaskChat {
+            messages: vec![message],
+            maximum_tokens: None,
+            temperature: None,
+            top_p: None,
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Creates a new TaskChat containing the given messages.
+    /// All optional TaskChat attributes are left unset.
+    pub fn with_messages(messages: Vec<Message<'a>>) -> Self {
         TaskChat {
-            messages: vec![Message {
-                role,
-                content: content.into(),
-            }],
+            messages,
             maximum_tokens: None,
             temperature: None,
             top_p: None,
@@ -55,11 +73,8 @@ impl<'a> TaskChat<'a> {
     }
 
     /// Pushes a new Message to this TaskChat.
-    pub fn append_message(mut self, role: Role, content: impl Into<Cow<'a, str>>) -> Self {
-        self.messages.push(Message {
-            role,
-            content: content.into(),
-        });
+    pub fn push_message(mut self, message: Message<'a>) -> Self {
+        self.messages.push(message);
         self
     }
 
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 57575fe..edc0283 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ use semantic_embedding::{BatchSemanticEmbeddingOutput, SemanticEmbeddingOutput};
 use tokenizers::Tokenizer;
 
 pub use self::{
-    chat::{ChatOutput, Message, Role, TaskChat},
+    chat::{ChatOutput, Message, TaskChat},
     completion::{CompletionOutput, Sampling, Stopping, TaskCompletion},
     detokenization::{DetokenizationOutput, TaskDetokenization},
     explanation::{
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ impl Client {
 
     /// Send a chat message to a model.
     /// ```no_run
-    /// use aleph_alpha_client::{Client, How, TaskChat, Error, Role};
+    /// use aleph_alpha_client::{Client, How, TaskChat, Error, Message};
     ///
     /// async fn chat() -> Result<(), Error> {
     ///     // Authenticate against API. Fetches token.
@@ -202,7 +202,8 @@ impl Client {
     ///     let model = "pharia-1-llm-7b-control";
     ///
     ///     // Create a chat task with a user message.
-    ///     let task = TaskChat::new(Role::User, "Hello, how are you?");
+    ///     let message = Message::user("Hello, how are you?");
+    ///     let task = TaskChat::with_message(message);
     ///
     ///     // Send the message to the model.
     ///     let response = client.chat(&task, model, &How::default()).await?;
@@ -212,7 +213,12 @@ impl Client {
     ///     Ok(())
     /// }
     /// ```
-    pub async fn chat(&self, task: &TaskChat<'_>, model: &str, how: &How) -> Result<ChatOutput, Error> {
+    pub async fn chat<'a>(
+        &'a self,
+        task: &'a TaskChat<'a>,
+        model: &'a str,
+        how: &'a How,
+    ) -> Result<ChatOutput, Error> {
         self.http_client
             .output_of(&task.with_model(model), how)
             .await
diff --git a/tests/integration.rs b/tests/integration.rs
index 7743c89..bb17fed 100644
--- a/tests/integration.rs
+++ b/tests/integration.rs
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 use std::{fs::File, io::BufReader, sync::OnceLock};
 
 use aleph_alpha_client::{
-    cosine_similarity, Client, Granularity, How, ImageScore, ItemExplanation, Modality, Prompt,
-    PromptGranularity, Role, Sampling, SemanticRepresentation, Stopping, Task,
+    cosine_similarity, Client, Granularity, How, ImageScore, ItemExplanation, Message, Modality,
+    Prompt, PromptGranularity, Sampling, SemanticRepresentation, Stopping, Task,
     TaskBatchSemanticEmbedding, TaskChat, TaskCompletion, TaskDetokenization, TaskExplanation,
     TaskSemanticEmbedding, TaskTokenization, TextScore,
 };
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@ fn api_token() -> &'static str {
 #[tokio::test]
 async fn chat_with_pharia_1_7b_base() {
     // When
-    let task = TaskChat::new(Role::System, "Instructions").append_message(Role::User, "Question");
+    let message = Message::user("Question");
+    let task = TaskChat::with_message(message);
 
     let model = "pharia-1-llm-7b-control";
     let client = Client::with_authentication(api_token()).unwrap();