Messages in the Community

Keep the conversation going

Messages lets you talk privately with someone you met in the Community, or with a few people at once. Open it from Messages in the bar at the top of your dashboard. (Don't see that bar yet? Use the Messages button at the top of any Community page.)

The Hubabble team turns Messages on one community at a time, and while it's new, for a few people at a time. If you don't see Messages anywhere, it isn't on for you yet.

Who you can message

You can message anyone you share a space with in the same community. Tap their name in a thread or a space's members list and choose Message, or choose New message and search for them. If there's no Message button, you can't message that person right now.

Choose more than one person to talk with a few people at once, up to 8 including you. Anyone in the conversation can add people or rename it, and anyone can leave. When you add someone, you decide what they see: they start from the moment they join, unless you turn on Let them see earlier messages, which shares the whole conversation from the start. Everyone in the conversation at that moment sees a line saying you shared it.

Message requests

Your first message to someone arrives as a request. They can Accept, Ignore, or Block.

• Until they accept, you can write up to 3 messages, words only. Attachments and GIFs are not available until they accept.

• If they ignore it, you aren't told. It waits under Ignored in case they change their mind.

• Links in a request stay plain until it's accepted.

Requests for you wait under Requests. Rather not get any? Open Settings, choose Notifications, and in the Messages section set Who can send you message requests to No one. People you've talked with one-to-one can still message you, and the Hubabble team can still reach you about your account.

Photos and files

Tap the paperclip beside the message box to add photos or files. You can attach a PDF, a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file (.docx, .xlsx, or .pptx), a Markdown file (.md), or a text file (.txt), up to 10 MB each, and up to 4 photos and files in one message. Office files with macros, and the older .doc, .xls, and .ppt formats, can't be sent.

Every file is checked for viruses before anyone can download it. While the check runs, the file says Checking for viruses..., and you can still send it. Once it's done, anyone in the conversation can Download it. Files are download only: they never open inside Hubabble. If the check finds something harmful, the file is blocked and deleted, and if a file couldn't be checked, it can't be downloaded.

Edit, delete, and "Seen"

You can edit a message for 15 minutes and delete it any time. A deleted message disappears for everyone in the conversation. Delete conversation only takes it out of your own inbox.

In a one-to-one conversation, your latest message shows Seen once the other person reads it. If you turn off Show when you've seen messages (in the same Messages section), you won't see theirs either.

Blocking and reporting

Open a conversation's ⋯ menu to Block someone. They won't be able to message you or add you to a conversation, and they won't be told. You'll still see each other's posts in spaces. You can unblock anyone under Blocked people, in that same section.

To report a message, open its menu and choose Report. Reports about messages go to the Hubabble team only, along with that message and the few just before it, so we can see the context. You can block the person in the same step.

Who can see your messages

Only the people in the conversation. Community moderators never see them. The Hubabble team sees a message only when someone in the conversation reports it, and every time we open one is logged. Messages aren't end-to-end encrypted, so treat them like the rest of the Community: the Community Guidelines apply here too.

Emails

If a message is still unread after a while, we email you who sent it, never what it says. Turn these off with Email me when I have unread messages in the Messages section of Settings, under Notifications, or mute one conversation from its menu.

Connected apps

If you connect an assistant to your account, it can't read your Messages unless you tick the separate box for them when you connect. If someone you're talking with ticks that box, what you write to them can be read into their assistant, the same way it shows on their screen.