FAQ

How do I make a chat room?

Press the green button, then Create, and type a name. Room names use letters and numbers only — no spaces, no punctuation — up to 32 characters.

You land in the room as soon as it is made. It is empty until you invite someone, so share the link next.

Writing a room's name in a message, like #games, makes the room too, and anyone can tap the name to go there. If a name is already taken, Create simply takes you into that room.

How do I share a room?

Press the blue button in any room you are in. Your phone offers its usual share sheet; on a desktop the link is copied to your clipboard.

The link is the entire invitation. Anyone who opens it picks a name and joins you. No room is private, so treat the link as public once you have sent it.

How do I join a room?

Press the green button. The rooms that are always there — arts, business, computers, games, health, home, news, recreation, science, shopping, society, sports — are listed as pills; tap one to go in. Search finds any other room by part of its name.

Opening a link someone sent you does the same thing. If you arrive with no room in the address, or the link is to a room nobody has made, you land in #lobby.

Can I use emoji and other alphabets?

Yes. Messages are plain text in any script, and emoji work exactly as they do anywhere else. A message can be up to 500 characters.

Common swear words are replaced with BEEP!. That happens before the message is stored, so nobody sees the original — not other people in the room, and not whoever reads reports.

The filter matches inside words as well as around them, so running words together does not get past it. The cost is that an innocent word which happens to contain a filtered one is beeped too.

How do I block someone, and how do I unblock them?

Type Block <name> into the chat, with the name exactly as it appears beside their messages. Their messages vanish from your screen immediately, including the ones already there. It only affects your view, but the line you typed is posted like any other, so the room, them included, can read it.

A block lasts until you close the tab: your next visit starts with nobody blocked. To unblock sooner, press the grey settings button. Blocked names are listed there; tap one to remove it, and what they said comes back. More detail is on safety.

How do I change my name?

Press the grey settings button and choose Reset username. That frees your old name for anyone else and takes you back to the entry screen to pick a new one.

Your name is remembered on this device, in a cookie. A different browser, a different phone or a cleared cookie means picking a name again. Names are unique while they are in use, and a name goes back in the pool after 60 days without being used.

How do I send a private message?

Start the message with @name, then what you want to say — for example @dave are you coming out later.

• Only that person sees the text.
• Everyone else in the room sees a line saying a private message was sent to them, without the text.
• Write the name exactly as it appears, straight after the @, then a space. Put a comma, a colon or a space after the @ instead — @dave, hi — and it is an ordinary message the whole room reads, which is handy for talking to someone in front of everyone.
• They don't have to be in the room. The message waits there for whoever holds that name. A name with a capital letter, or one nobody holds, reaches no one.

Private means hidden from the rest of the room, not encrypted or unrecorded. It is stored like any other line, and if the person you sent it to reports you, your message goes with the report. Treat it as quiet, not secret.

How do I delete my account?

There is no account to delete. Nothing is stored that identifies you: no email address, no password, no phone number, no payment details.

What exists is a name, a gender letter, and whatever you typed. Reset your username in settings and that is gone. Messages you have already sent stay in the room until they age out — 30 days, or sooner once the room's last 100 lines have moved past them.

Your data lists everything that is stored and for how long.

Does it cost anything?

No. There is no payment, no subscription and no advertising, which also means there is no third-party tracking to carry either.