Messages, chats and message requests
StudyStream has direct messages (1-to-1 and group chats) on both the website and the mobile app, and channels on the
website. This guide covers where everything lives, why you sometimes can't message someone, and what a message request
is.
Where are my messages?
On the web
- Click "Conversations" in the left sidebar. The page lists Threads, Saved items, Channels and Chats.
- The Chats icon (speech bubble) at the top-right of the page opens a small chat tray on any page, so you can reply
without leaving a focus room.
- To write to a specific person: open their profile and click "Message", or, inside a room, open the "…" menu on their
tile and choose "Message".
On the mobile app (iOS & Android)
- On the Home tab, tap the chat icon at the top-right. The "DMs" screen has two tabs: "Chats" and "Message requests".
- To write to someone: open their profile and tap "Message".
Why can't I start a chat?
The usual reasons, in order of how often we see them:
1. You're on the Free plan. Starting a new conversation is a paid-plan feature: Free accounts can't open new chats,
Basic accounts can open a few new chats a day, Premium has no limit. The app tells you with "Please upgrade to be
able to start new chats with other users." You can still reply in any conversation someone else started with you,
including message requests you accept. See: Plans and daily focus room time limits.
2. Their privacy settings don't allow it. Everyone chooses who can message them ("'s privacy settings does not allow
you to message them."). Nothing to do but respect it.
3. Professionals and Pre-University students can't message each other. This is a safety rule and applies on every plan.
Group chats of three or more people are still possible.
4. One of you has blocked the other. A blocked chat becomes read-only: "This conversation is read only. You cannot
currently send messages here."
5. Your messaging is paused while we look into reports about you. You'll see "You are blocked from sending messages
while we investigate user reports about you." and, after 7 days, how to appeal. See: Reporting users, blocking, and
appealing bans.
What is a message request?
When someone you haven't chatted with before writes to you, their first message may land as a message request instead of
a normal chat. Nothing is lost: it waits until you decide, and there's no time limit.
- The sender sees their message in the chat with the note "Recipient must first accept your message before you can
chat with them." They can't send more until you accept. Nothing is wrong on their side: whether a first message
waits as a request or lands straight in your inbox is decided by your "Who can skip message requests?" setting
(default Smart filter), and there is no time limit on accepting.
- You find it under Message Requests: on the web, open "Conversations" and click the envelope icon next to "Chats" (a
blue dot means something is waiting); in the app, open the "Message requests" tab of the DMs screen.
- Open the request to read it. It shows the sender's name, whether you have mutual followers, and the buttons
"Accept", "Ignore" and "Report". Until you choose, the reply box says "You must first accept the message before
chatting with the sender."
- Accept turns it into a normal chat. Ignore deletes the request (you'll be asked to confirm: "Ignoring will delete
this message request"). Report sends it to our moderators.
Whether a first message arrives as a request or straight into your inbox depends on "Who can skip message requests?" in
your Privacy settings: with the default "Smart filter", messages from people you haven't interacted with are held back
for you to check. Full guide: Privacy settings explained.
A word of caution that the website shows above every request, and which holds in the app too: don't reply to people you
don't know or whose face you haven't seen in a focus room. In the app a request opens with "Accept" and "Ignore" buttons
under the message (Ignore acts at once, without the confirmation the website shows); Report and Block are in the
three-dot menu at the top-right.
Why did my message turn into a message request?
Because of the other person's privacy setting, not because of anything you did. Their "Who can skip message requests?"
row decides whose first message goes straight into their inbox; with the default "Smart filter", a first message from
someone they haven't interacted with waits as a request until they accept it. It isn't a block or a bug, and there's no
time limit on the request.
Who can message me, and how do I stop someone?
In Privacy settings (web: profile picture (top-right) → "Privacy settings"; app: profile picture (top-left) → "Settings"
→ "Privacy settings") the Messaging tab has three rows: "Who can message me?", "Who can skip message requests?" and "Who
can add me to group chats?". (The app words them "Who can message you?" and so on.)
Two things catch people out:
- These settings apply to new conversations. People you already have a chat with can keep writing in it, whatever you
set. Setting "Who can message me?" to "No One" stops new chats, not existing ones.
- To stop one specific person, block them. Blocking makes your existing chat read-only in both directions and removes
you from their rooms and search. See: Reporting users, blocking, and appealing bans.
Can someone on the Free plan message me first?
No. Starting a new conversation is a paid-plan feature: a Free account can't send the first message to anyone, a Basic
account can open a few new chats a day, Premium has no limit. A Free user can still reply inside a chat that already
exists, including one you started with them. On top of the plan rule, your own "Who can message me?" privacy setting
decides who may write to you at all, and depending on your "Who can skip message requests?" setting a first message may
land as a message request. If a Free user did message you first, the conversation already existed, or they were on a
paid plan at the time.
Group chats
- On the web: in "Conversations", click the "New Chat" (pencil) icon next to "Chats", type a few letters of each name
and pick the people. With two or more other people you can name the group. Inside a group chat, the header menu has
"Group Info", "Add Participant" (admins), "Mute Group" and "Leave Group".
- On the mobile app: on the DMs screen tap "+" ("Choose message recipient"), search and tick the people, then tap
"Start Group Chat" (with a single person the button says "Message" and opens a direct chat). The group's menu has
"Leave group", "Mute group", "Mark as unread" and "Delete chat"; the group's admins also see "Add participants" and
"Group Settings".
- If you leave a group, only one of its admins can add you back.
- Whether others can add you to groups is the "Who can add me to group chats?" privacy setting. People can't be added
when their settings don't allow it ("Can't be added to a group due to their privacy settings").
Channels, threads and saved items (website only)
Channels are public rooms like #announcements or #bugs, created by the StudyStream team. On the website, open
"Conversations" and use the Browse icon next to "Channels" to find and "Join" one; use the channel's header menu to
"Mute" or "Leave" it.
- Everyone can read channels. Posting in channels is part of the paid plans; on Free you'll see "Upgrade to post in
channels" instead of the reply box.
- Some channels are team-only, and the #bugs and #feature-requests channels open for posting once your account is 5
days old.
- Threads (replies to a message) and Saved items (messages you bookmarked from a message's hover bar) have their own
pages in the Conversations sidebar.
The mobile app doesn't have channels, threads or saved items.
Muting, archiving and deleting a chat
- Mute: the chat's menu → "Mute Chat" (or "Mute Group" / "Mute Channel"). You keep the chat, without the pop-ups and
sounds. To silence all chat sounds on the web, see Managing email and push notifications.
- Archive (web): the chat's menu → "Archive Chat" moves it out of your list; the Archive icon next to "Chats" shows
archived chats and lets you bring them back.
- Delete: the chat's menu → "Delete Chat" ("Delete chat" in the app). This deletes your copy of the history and can't
be undone, by us either. The other person keeps theirs, and if they write again they'll see "This thread no longer
exists for the receiver because they have deleted their chat history." In the app, deleting is in the chat menu as
well.
- Mark as read / unread is in the same menu on both platforms.
Something not working?
If you can send to some people but a message to one person fails, it's almost always one of the reasons under "Why can't
I start a chat?" above. If messages fail for everyone, a chat opens but stays blank, or a reply shows up in the wrong
conversation, that's on us: start a chat with us at app.studystream.live or in the StudyStream app (no login needed) and
tell us the name of the person you were writing to and roughly when it happened.
