Messages
Start a chat, send photos, reply, react, edit, delete, mute, and what is private.
Your chats
Talk has three buttons at the top: Messages, Groups and People.
Tap Talk in the row of tabs, then Messages. Your chats with people are listed under Inbox. Deals that need you are at the top, under Action Required.
Chats that belong to a group, an enterprise or an event are under Groups, not here. See "Groups".
- Search with Search chats, posts, partners....
- The filter button sorts by Recent, Unread or credits, and can show Unread Only or Friends Only.
- The search and filter button slide away as you scroll down. Scroll up a little and they come back. Tap Talk again to jump to the top.
Starting a chat
- From a post: tap Message and the person's name.
- From Talk: tap the pencil button, then find the person by name.
- From your friends: Talk, then People, then Friends, and tap the message button next to a name.
Sending
- Type in Message... and tap the send button.
- To send a photo, tap +, then Camera or Gallery. In the web app, use the 📎 button, or paste or drag a picture straight into the chat — it shows you the picture first, and anything you have already typed goes with it as a caption. Photos can only be sent in chats between two people.
The ticks under your message:
- one tick: sent;
- two blue ticks: read;
- a clock: still sending;
- not delivered: it failed. Tap it to Resend or Discard it.
Reply, react, edit, delete
Tap a message. Small round buttons appear beside it:
- Reply quotes it above what you write next. Tap the quote in a sent message to jump back to what it answers.
- React opens seven emojis. Tap one to add it, tap it again to take it back. One reaction each; tapping a different one swaps it. The reactions show as a small badge under the message.
- Edit, on your own messages, for 15 minutes after you sent it. The message then shows edited. Photos cannot be edited.
- Delete, on your own messages, at any time — there is no time limit. It asks Delete for everyone? once. The message then reads This message was deleted for both of you, and nobody can react to it or reply to it.
The same buttons are in a group's chat. See "Groups".
Deleting takes the words off your community's server too, so a new phone signing in later never sees them.
Muting a chat
Tap ⋮ at the top right, then Mute notifications: For 8 hours, For a week or Always. Tap ⋮ and Unmute to undo it. See "Muting a chat".
What is private
- A chat between two people is end-to-end encrypted: it is locked on your phone and unlocked on theirs, so your community's server cannot read it. The chat shows End-to-end encrypted at the top. Photos in it are encrypted too, and so are your edits.
- Each message is also locked to who sent it, to that one message, to its chat and, if it is a reply, to the message it answers. So the server cannot show your message as the other person's, send it again as a new message, or point your answer at a different message. Where it tries, the app shows This message couldn't be verified, so it isn't shown. in the middle of the chat, as nobody's, instead of the words. A photo the server swaps for another reads Image unavailable.
- If the server puts a message into another chat, the app refuses it there. When two of your chats with the same person are joined into one, each message carries the chat it came from. One sent since this update then shows with Moved here from another conversation. underneath. One sent before it shows the older-version line instead (see below).
- Each message also remembers the newest message its writer had when they wrote it. If the server shows it before that one, it reads Shown out of the order it was written in. underneath. Two messages written at the same moment, neither after the other, can come in either order without it.
- Anything in a chat between two people that is not locked is never shown as either person's words: it reads This message wasn't encrypted, so BeanPool can't confirm who wrote it. in the middle of the chat, and its words are not shown. Your list of chats shows the same line.
- A message your community's admins send you from the server's admin page is not locked, and is not a private message. It shows in the middle of the chat, never as someone's own message, with From your community's admins. Not a private message: the community's server can read it. underneath.
- Messages sent before this update, by any app, were locked without these checks: the server could have changed who they seem to be from, or sent one again. They still open, and every one reads Sent from an older version of the app: BeanPool can't confirm who wrote it. underneath, wherever it is in the chat. Someone still on an older app cannot read messages from an updated one until they update.
- A reply shows the message it answers the way that message itself is shown. It names the writer only when their message opened, and carries that message's line underneath, such as the older-version one. It names Notice for one of the server's notices and Your community's admins for the admins' message. Anything that didn't open or wasn't locked is quoted as Not confirmed, with the line that stands in for its words.
- So the server alone cannot make either of you seem to write words you did not write. It can still hold a message back, deliver it late, or make it read This message was deleted. It can show an edited message's earlier words instead of the new ones: both are really the sender's. It sees which message each message answers, but cannot change that unseen. It can add or take away an emoji reaction in either person's name: reactions aren't locked. And it can add its own notices to a chat. A notice shows as a notice, is quoted as Notice, and reads Notice: in your list of chats, never as either of you.
- Locking proves a message came from one of the two of you, not which one: the other person, with the help of the people who run your server, could put words in your name.
- All of this rests on your app having the other person's real key, which it gets from your community's server, as the encryption itself does. In the web app it also rests on the app itself, which your community's server sends to your browser. The phone app comes from the app store.
- A message that cannot be locked is not sent. If the app cannot find the other person's key yet, or locking fails, your words stay in the message box with a line saying so. Send again in a moment. Your community's server also refuses a message between two people that is not locked.
- The notices BeanPool adds to a chat about a deal are not encrypted: beans held for the trade, paid out, or given back when it is cancelled, the amount, and how an admin settled a stuck trade and why. The people who run your community's server can read them.
- The server also knows who messaged whom, and when, which message each one answers, and sees the emoji reactions. A message an older version of the app sent without the lock stays readable on the server.
- Group, enterprise and event chats are not encrypted. The people who run your community's server can read all of them, and the server could write in them in anyone's name.
- A chat between two people can never be turned into one of those. Once your app has seen a chat as one between two people, or it holds an encrypted message, it stays one, whatever the server says: it opens only as that chat, with all the checks above, and what you send in it is always locked. A phone or browser that has never seen the chat, and is given none of its encrypted messages, can't tell: to it, such a chat looks like any other group's chat, readable by the server. In the web app that also goes for a browser that has been signed out since, a private window, or one whose site data was cleared: the web app forgets which chats were between two people. The phone app keeps that list.
- Deleting a message asks your community's server to replace it. It cannot reach a copy someone has already read, or a screenshot.
- Deleting your account does the same to every message you wrote, in every kind of chat, and deletes the photos you sent. See "Leaving or deleting your account".
- A group's chat can also be read by the group's members.
- An event's chat can also be read by the host and everyone going.
- An enterprise's chat can be read by any member of your community. It is the enterprise's public discussion, the same one its page shows, and anyone in the community can write in it too. It is not a private chat for its keepers.
Blocking someone from a chat
Tap their name at the top of the chat. Their profile opens. Tap Block, then Block User. See "Blocking someone".
Related
- People and friendsFind members of your community, add friends, and vouch for someone.
- Blocking someoneHide someone's posts and messages from you, and undo it later.
- Event chatTalk with the host and everyone going to an event.
- GroupsYour groups and their chats, talking in them, starting a group, inviting people, and joining by invitation.
- Muting a chatSilence a chat — one person's, a group's or an enterprise's — for 8 hours, a week, or for good.
- The top barThe bean, the small icons that show when something needs you, and the buttons at the top right.
The same guide is in the BeanPool app, and works there without a connection: open Settings, then "Help & how it works" under BeanPool. Every other rule, guide and manual is in the Help Centre. Guide version 112.