Message people with Pinglar

Pinglar is the messaging app built into Viremail, on the same account. A message in Pinglar is called a ping. It works between people who have an address on this mail service.

1. Open Pinglar: on a computer, Pinglar on the left, just under Mail; on a phone, Pinglar in the bar at the bottom. A green number on it shows how many messages are waiting.
2. Choose New ping and pick a friend, or type an email address.

Chat from anywhere

On a computer, the speech bubble in the top bar, just before the bell, opens a quick panel on the right: your favourites, friends, groups and channels (groups where only admins post), each with a dot that shows who is online, away (in quiet hours they share with you) or offline, when they were last seen, and the place on their profile if they share it. Point at someone for voice and video call buttons.

Select a name and a small chat window opens at the bottom of the screen, wherever you are in Viremail. Up to three sit side by side, and more wait as round pictures at the right. Minimise folds a window to its name, with a count of new messages; the arrows open the chat in Pinglar. Windows stay open as you move between apps, and step aside while you are in Pinglar itself. They are the same chats as in Pinglar, so encryption, confidential and disappearing messages work just the same.

You can also start a chat from anyone's profile card: select their name or photo in an email.

In a chat you can:

• reply to a message (swipe right on a phone, or use the reply button),
• edit a message for 15 minutes after sending it,
• delete a message for you, or for everyone within 48 hours,
• react with any emoji. Double-click a message to send a heart,
• search a conversation with Ctrl+F, or search Pinglar from the box at the top,
• jump to any conversation with Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac).

You see when the other person is typing and when they have read your message, unless one of you turned that off in Settings, Pinglar and calls.

Find your way around

On a computer Pinglar is laid out like a team chat:

• The sidebar has four buttons under its title: Mentions, Later, Calls and Friends (point at one for its name; a red number shows what's new). Below them come Stories, then your conversations in sections: General for your groups, Direct messages, then Favourites, Requests, your own folders and Other, then your email as chats, the threads you follow and, with Viremail Business, Leads. Each conversation shows its picture, its name and the last message. Select a section's name to fold it. Unread conversations are bold, and a pencil marks one with a message you haven't sent yet. The button at the top left folds the sidebar to a strip of pictures.
• The header of a conversation shows its topic and who is in it, and has buttons for calls, threads, pinned messages, files, search, notifications and details. These open in a panel on the right.
• Messages show as rows, with a name and time over each run of messages. Point at one for its toolbar: react, reply, reply in a thread, forward, pin, save, copy a link to it, or edit your own. From its menu you can also make it a task, save it to Notes, turn it into a calendar event or send it as an email (not for end-to-end encrypted messages, so their text never leaves the chat). In the sidebar's options you can switch back to bubbles.
• Formatting: choose Aa next to the message box, or write *bold*, _italic_, ~strikethrough~, a backtick on each side of code, and lines starting with - or 1. for lists.
• Commands: type / in an empty message box for /call, /video, /poll, /remind, /search, /mute and, when GIFs are on, /giphy.
• Keyboard: Alt+Up and Alt+Down move between conversations (add Shift for unread ones), Ctrl+Shift+A shows everything unread, Up in an empty box edits your last message and Esc closes the panel on the right. Press ? for the whole list.