Chat

Chat stands in three places and is one thing. The Chat screen in the hub, for reading and long conversations; a window that floats over any screen, for a quick message; and a full-screen view over the writing space with Return to book. All three hold the same rooms and the same messages.

There are four kinds of room. Global, one per guild you belong to, one per friend, and one per book you share with somebody. A friend room is named by the friendship itself rather than by two usernames, so neither side has to build a name out of the other’s.

The screen puts the rooms, the conversation and the room card side by side. On the phone it is two views: the grouped room list, and then the room alone with Back to the list. The window is the same two views, list then room.

Rooms sit in groups you can collapse: favourites, global, guilds, friends and books. A star makes a room a favourite, which keeps it in its own group as well, and a switch decides whether the favourites stand above the global room or below it. The name field narrows every group at once.

A row carries what the room holds unread, and opening the room marks it read up to its last message. Counts leave out your own messages.

What global chat lets you send depends on the account. A free account reads freely and sends one message a minute without links; a paid account sends freely. The published rules are pinned beside the room. A guild master decides who may send in the guild room: everyone, paid accounts, or officers, and the room says which.

A message can carry a location link to a chapter, a scene and a span of the prose, where the sender has access to the book. Opening it goes to the writing screen and takes the editor to those words, resolving them against the prose as it now stands. This is not a comment: a comment is anchored to a span and stays with it.

A refusal is said where the message would have gone. Muted, one message a minute, no links, or officers send here: the composer says which and nothing was sent.

A guest sees what the rooms are and no message. The rooms are described, the account action stands under them, and nothing anybody wrote is shown.

Try: open Chat, pick a friend’s room and send a line. The row’s unread count clears, the message stands under your name, and the same conversation is in the chat window over every other screen.