Messaging: DMs, groups & Circle rooms

Messages is where you talk on Waypoint Realms: one-to-one direct messages, group chats you start, and the rooms that come with your Circles, campaigns and Session Chats.

Finding a conversation

On a computer, Messages is laid out in columns, left to right:

• The Circle column — a tile for Home, one for Direct messages (your DMs and groups), then one for each Circle you belong to, most recently active first. A tile carries its unread count. The + at the bottom finds or starts a Circle. You can move between tiles with the arrow keys, and the Circle you had open is remembered on this device.
• The rooms column — the rooms for the tile you picked. Home gathers everything under Campaign Chats, Circle Chats, Session Chats, Groups and Direct Messages; each heading starts closed and shows the unread count inside it until you open it. A Circle's tile lists its rooms under the headings its Circle Lead chose, with voice rooms on their own. Use + DM and + Group at the top to start a conversation.
• The room — the conversation you opened, with its title and topic above it and the message box below.

At the bottom of the rooms column you'll find your name, the microphone and headphone controls for a voice call you're in, and the gear for message settings.

Your atlas of conversations

Open Messages without choosing a room and you get a map of every conversation you're in, each one a waypoint. The more unread a conversation has, and the more recently it was active, the larger its waypoint, and a line runs through them from the most recent.

• Heat puts the conversations with the most going on first; Recency puts the latest first. List swaps the map for a plain list.
• Click a waypoint once to see its latest messages and reply without leaving the map. Click it again, or use its open button, to go into the room.
• With a keyboard or screen reader, the conversations are a list in recency order: Tab through them and press Enter to open one.

In a conversation

Point at a message (or long-press it on a touch screen) and a small bar appears over it:

• React — pick an emoji. Tap a reaction that's already there to add yours or take it back.
• Reply — quote the message above what you type.
• Threads — open the room's threads.
• Pin — keep the message where everyone can find it. Pinned messages sit behind the pin button in the room's header.
• ⋯ — everything else: edit or delete your own message (edited messages are marked; deleted ones show as removed), or Report someone else's to our moderators. With a keyboard, Tab to a message's ⋯ menu to reply, pin, edit, delete or report; the room's threads are behind the Threads button in its header.

You'll also see:

• Photos — attach an image from the message box; images are screened before they send.
• Who's here — who is online, and a live “is typing” line above the message box.
• Seen — under your last message, once the other person has read it (“Seen by 2” in a group).
• Dice rolls — in a campaign room, a roll made on the server shows as a card with every die and the total, so everyone can trust the number.

Threads

Replies to a message gather into a thread. The Threads button in a room's header shows how many thread replies you haven't read, and opens the room's threads in a panel at the side, with the conversation still beside it. Choose a thread to mark it read and jump to the message that started it. Direct messages don't have a Threads button: with two of you, the conversation is the thread.

Voice

In a room with voice, join from the voice button in the header. While you're in the call a bar across the top of the room shows who's there and who's speaking, with your microphone, camera, screen sharing and Leave.

On a phone

Messages opens on a strip of tabs — DMs (with your groups), Games for campaign and Session Chats, then your Circles — over a list of that tab's rooms. Tap a room to open it. To go back, tap the arrow at the top or swipe right. Threads and the other room controls are behind the ⋯ button in the room's header, and pinned messages show as a strip at the top of the conversation.

Sound and look

On a computer, open the gear at the bottom of the rooms column. These settings are saved on this device only, so your phone and your laptop can differ.

Messages has a set of five quiet tabletop sounds. Turn them all off with Play sounds in Messages, set how loud they are with Volume, or turn each one on or off. Preview plays a sound at the volume you've set.

• Felt tap — a message arrives in the room you're reading. Never for your own messages.
• Dice tick and bell — someone mentions you, or @everyone, wherever you are on Waypoint Realms.
• Wooden tick — someone reacts to your message.
• Chair pulled up — someone joins the room's voice.
• Clatter — a dice roll lands in a campaign room.

The same panel sets the text window background for rooms without a Realm's own look, message spacing, and whether sender avatars show. Reset to defaults puts everything back.

Starting a conversation

1. Message a person

   Open someone's profile from the player directory or a session and choose Message, or use + DM in Messages. This opens (or reuses) your direct conversation with them.

2. Start a group

   In Messages, use + Group to create a group chat and add the people you want.

3. Send

   Type in the message box and press Enter. New messages arrive live, with no need to refresh.

Staying on top of replies

Unread conversations show a count on their room and on their Circle's tile. How and when you're notified is up to you: see notifications.