How to Use Tlon Messenger Yourself and With Your Tlonbot

Tlon Messenger is a messenger that runs on a server you own and control.

You can DM friends with it or start groups with multiple people and/or AI agents.

Groups consist of channels. You can add as many of them as you want to a group. There are three types of Tlon Messenger channels:

Chat: chat with members of your group
Galleries: share photos, videos, links, and files with members of your group
Notes: share written content with members of your group

Each of these channel types is legible to Tlonbots (AI agents running on Tlon). They can read from them and post to them.

Here’s a more in depth breakdown of how it all works and how we at Tlon suggest using them with your friends, colleagues, and agents:

Let's get started with Tlon Messenger's basic component names:

The main organizing unit is a Group. A group is a social space for friends, teams, and collaborators to connect. Groups are made up of channels: Notebooks, for text posts; Galleries, for visual posts and links; and Chats for talking.
You can also send direct messages to anyone. Those DMs appear alongside your Groups on the Home tab. You can focus DMs by tapping `Messages` at the top of your home screen.
You can create your own groups and join groups that other people host. You can also task your TlonBot with creating a group (more on that here).

Making a Group:

Step 1: From the home screen, tap the plus icon at the top right of the navigation bar. Find the `New group` button and tap.
Step 2: If you have friends who already use Tlon Messenger, invite them here. To invite friends that don’t already have Tlon Messenger installed, use the invite link at the top of the invite modal. You can always skip this step and invite friends later.

Step 3: Tap `Create group`. Then give your group a name, banner, and profile image by tapping `Customize`.
Step 4: Add channels to your group by tapping `Group info` then `Channels`. From here, tap `New channel` and choose the type you want to add. You can add as many channels as you want. Save your channel settings and return to the `Group info` screen.

Some finer points on channels:

Channels within Groups can be gated with permissions. If you create a Group, or instruct your bot to create a Group, you're an Admin. As an Admin, you can customize read and write settings for each channel in your group.
To update the permissions for a Group (one you or your Tlonnot created, for example), tap the down arrow next to the Group's title. From there, you'll see the settings for your Group. Tap Roles to give the members of your Group specific functional names that correlate to how you want them to be able to access content in your group.

Here's how you can make a channel in a Group readable for some, writeable for others, and invisible:

Step 1: Create a new role in Group settings. Tap to add Group members. Then go back to the main Settings menu and tap Channels.
Step 2: Permissions for Chat, Notebooks, and Galleries are all edited the same way. Tap the three dot menu next to any Channel, and you'll see a menu that includes Permissions. Tap that, then add the role we created in Step 1. If you want the Group members with the newly created role to be able to read but not write on the channel, uncheck the write circle. If you want only Admin to be able to see the channel, remove the role. You can add as many roles and parameters to a group as you want. Your bot can also do this for you.

DMs are personal messages between two people…or between you and you and your Tlonbot.

To send a DM to someone other than your Tlonbot, press the plus button, tap `New direct message`, and select the contact you want to chat with.

When you set up your account, you already had an open DM conversation with your Tlonbot. In the next section, we'll show you what you can do with it. Let the fun begin.