Direct messages

Write to one person or to a group without opening a channel. A direct message is a conversation between named people: it has no name, it stays out of the channel directory, and nobody joins on their own.

One-to-one and group

Pick one person to talk one-to-one, or several to open a group. The group is fixed: its participants are its identity, so Swarm adds and removes nobody afterwards. If you need somebody else, start another group.

The directory

Open View all messages to go through all your direct conversations together, with their last message, how many people are in them and the last activity.

Filter by kind (one-to-one or group), by unread and by recent activity. Search by participant. Sort by activity, by name or by participant count.

The recent-activity filter brings back the conversations that have dropped off the sidebar.

What you can do

Do almost everything a channel allows: attach files, react, reply in a thread, pin, save, remind, forward and create tasks. Mentions work differently: every message reaches every participant directly, so Swarm offers no @channel or @here. A thread reply raises no separate alert either.

Privacy

Your direct messages are private: not even a Swarm admin can see them. The conversation has no manager role, and every participant has the same control over it. The digests on Swarm home cover channels, not direct conversations.