Direct messages and groups

Direct messages and group chats are private conversations outside any channel. They're end-to-end encrypted, so only the people in them can read them.

Start a direct message#

Open a person's profile, or search for their username, and choose Message. The conversation is set up between your two devices. The first message to someone new can take a few seconds while that happens.

Start a group chat#

Choose New group, add people and give the group a name. Members can be added or removed later. When someone leaves or is removed, the group's encryption keys change, so they can't read anything sent after they left.

Same tools as channels#

Replies, edits, deletes and reactions all work in direct messages and groups, just as they do in channels. See Channels, messages and replies.

Post-quantum protection#

Direct messages use a hybrid post-quantum key exchange (X-Wing, which combines ML-KEM-768 with X25519). That protects them against someone who records encrypted traffic today and hopes to break it with a quantum computer later. See How encryption works for exactly what is and isn't covered.

Storage for files you send#

Files sent in a direct message or group outside a workspace count towards your personal storage. Personal storage is 1 GB on the free plan. People receiving a file never pay for it. See Files and storage.