Personal chats & contacts
Personal chats are for the people you've accepted as contacts, and they're end-to-end encrypted. They need an account, because friends find you by your username.
Add a contact
Open Contacts and add someone by:
- Username: search for it.
- Invite link: anyone with your link can send you a contact request.
- QR code: show your contact code, or scan theirs.
Message requests
Messages from people who aren't your contacts wait in Requests until you choose.
- Someone you haven't accepted can send one message, and any media they send stays hidden until you accept.
- Accepting adds them to your contacts. By default, contacts can see your status and when you were last seen.
- You can report a request, choosing a reason.
Block someone
A blocked person can't message you or send you requests, and isn't told. You can unblock them in Contacts.
Online status and read receipts
| Setting | Choices | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Online status | Everyone, your contacts, or nobody | Contacts |
| Read receipts | On or off | On. Turn them off and you won't see when others read yours either |
Chat list
- Pin, Mark as unread and Mute notifications from a chat's menu.
- An unread mention of you adds @ beside the count.
- An unsent draft shows in the chat list.
- Archive a chat to tidy your list. Nothing changes for anyone else in it.
Who can read a personal chat
The people in it. AChat's moderators see a message only if someone in the chat reports it. See Passwords & encryption.
Starting something new
With no chat open, the main area offers Message a person, New group, Create an anonymous room and Join a room (paste a room link or ID), and your recent chats. The + above the chat list, the button on a phone, and Alt+N open the same choices.
Adding a contact by invite link or QR code
Add a contact has three ways: Username, Invite link and QR code. Your invite link and your code carry /invite/ and your username; anyone who opens or scans it sees you in Add a contact and can send you a contact request. Scan a code reads someone's code with your camera, where your browser can.
Typing
In a personal chat or a group, a line above the message box shows when someone is typing. Nothing is stored, and anonymous rooms never show it. If your presence is set to Nobody, others don't see you typing.