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 there. 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 or Unread (and, where your community uses Beans, by the Beans in each deal, highest or lowest first), and can show Unread Only or Friends Only.
On the phone, 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.
On the phone, a chat with a deal that needs you has the same tag under the name as in the web app (below): Action Required (2), or Release Credits (2) when every one of them is Beans of yours to release. A chat where you only have a finished deal to rate says Review Needed.

In the web app this is the Chat tab. It lists all your chats, groups' and events' too, with All, Transactions, Direct and Groups at the top, and it has no search or filter. A chat with a deal that needs you has a tag under the name, Action Required (2), or Release Credits (2) when every one of them is Beans of yours to release. It counts only the deals where the next step is yours: Beans of yours held in trust, or a request on your listing waiting for your answer. A deal where you are the one being paid adds nothing to it. A chat with a finished deal you haven't rated also says Action Needed: Review Partner.

At the top of a chat with one person, tapping their name opens their profile (an enterprise's page for an enterprise), on the phone and the web.

Deals in a chat

When you and the other person have a deal, it is pinned above the messages, on the phone and in the web app. There is one card for each deal that still needs something, with the name of the item and the Beans held for it, marked completed once the deal is done. Tap a card to open the listing at that deal.

If you are paying, the card has Release and Cancel. Release only once the other person has done what you agreed. Both ask you to confirm first. Release cannot be undone; Cancel gives the Beans back to you.
If you are being paid, the card says ⏳ Awaiting release. The Beans are held for you, and only the person paying can release them.
When a deal is finished and you haven't rated it, the card has ⭐ Review.
If the other person has asked for your listing, the card says Waiting on you: answer. No Beans are held yet, so it has no buttons of its own: tap it to open the listing and answer there.

When you are paying for just one deal in the chat, it is in the bar above the messages instead of a card: ⚠️ Action Required: Release Credits with Release and Cancel on the phone, 🔒 Trust Hold with ✅ Release Credits and Cancel in the web app. If you are paying for several, the bar has the newest and the cards have the rest.

Starting a chat

From a profile: open their profile and tap Message. You can also add them as a friend there.
From Talk: tap the pencil button, then find the person by name. On the worldwide community, New Message lists the people you've dealt with and your friends. To find anyone else, type at least 2 letters of their name.
From the members list: Talk, then People, and tap 💬 next to a member's name in Community or Friends.
From a post: tap Message and the person's name.

In the web app, use Message on their profile, 💬 on their row under People, ✉️ New DM, or the 💬 Message button on a post.

Sending

Type in Message... and tap the send button.
To send a photo, tap +, then Camera, Gallery (opens on Albums), or Browse files. 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. In a locked group chat you can send one photo per message, with or without a caption, on the phone and the web; photos there are made at most 800 px on their longest side. Tap a photo to open it full screen, on the phone and the web. In a chat between two people on the phone, a photo goes on its own, without words. Photos cannot be sent in event chats or enterprise chats: the community's server can read those chats, so they have no photo button.

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.

The clock and not delivered are on the phone. In the web app a message that fails stays in the box, and the app says so.

Reply, react, edit, delete

On the phone, 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".

Both apps have Reply, React, Edit and Delete (in the web app they are small words on each message).

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 (⋮ in a group's chat), then Mute notifications: For 8 hours, For a week or Always. Tap the same button and Unmute to undo it. Group chats can be muted in both apps; one-to-one chats on the phone only for now. 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. On the phone, 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.
A group's chat is end-to-end encrypted too, on the phone and in the web app: only the group's members can read it, and the people who run your community's server cannot. Above the message box it says it is End-to-end encrypted. Your community's server still sees who wrote, when, who was mentioned, which message each line answers, the emoji reactions, and which lines are photos and how large each one is. You see a group's chat only from the day you joined: nothing written before is shown, and your phone never holds the key to it. Photos in a group chat are encrypted like the words: only the group's members can open them, and only for the time they were in the group (a newcomer doesn't see photos from before they joined; a removed member sees none from after). A photo that can't be opened, such as one someone else swapped on the server, reads 🔒 Image unavailable. A message that cannot be locked is not sent. A line that cannot be checked as written by a member reads This message couldn't be verified., as nobody's. If your community's server is older and cannot lock group chats yet, the chat says so, and the server can read it. When the server is updated, those earlier messages are removed, and a line in the chat says so. See "Groups".
Enterprise and event chats are not encrypted. The people who run your community's server can read them, and the server could write in them in anyone's name. Because the server can read them, photos cannot be sent in event chats or enterprise chats: they have no photo button, and in the web app a pasted or dropped picture shows Photos can't be sent in this chat: the community's server can read it.
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".
An event's chat can also be read by the host and everyone going (where the host lets people in, the ones the host has let in).
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 to open their profile (an enterprise's page for an enterprise), on the phone and the web. Tap Block, then confirm: Block User in the phone app (Block on an enterprise's page), OK in the web app. In the web app you can also tap Block at the top of the chat, then OK. See "Blocking someone".

Message requests

Where your community's owners have turned on message requests, a first message from someone you haven't added as a friend, messaged before, or traded with arrives as a message request. You can read it before deciding. The sender cannot write anything more until you accept, and they are never told if you ignore the request or block them. Messages from your community's admins and moderators, and chats that come with a trade, always arrive straight away.

If your community turns message requests off, every message arrives straight away, and any request still waiting becomes an ordinary chat. See "How this community works".

On your phone: in Talk under Messages, tap the Requests pill at the top. You will see who wants to message you, with a preview of their message. Tap Accept to reply, or Ignore to dismiss it without letting them know. You can also tap Block to block them. If you have several requests waiting, you can tap Ignore all. A push notification that says someone wants to message you opens this Requests section directly when tapped.
In the web app: the same Requests pill appears above your list of chats.
When you send a request: your first message is sent as a request. While you wait for them to accept, you cannot send further messages or photos, and you see Sent as a request. {name} will see it under Requests. You can write more once they accept.
Cancel request: beside the waiting line on both the phone and the web, you can tap Cancel request. This withdraws your request and removes your first message for both of you. You can then write a fresh message if you wish.

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 162.