Category Archives: Gliph Messaging

Adding a Chat Channel to Your SubReddit

If you want to add a chat room to your subreddit, Gliph Chat Channels are a quick and easy way to do that. Gliph has been chosen by popular subreddits over many other chat solutions because it has solid apps for iPhone, Android and a great desktop client. Gliph chat channels offer user privacy and can be customized to your theme.

Here’s how to add a Gliph Chat Channel to your Subreddit:

Step 1. Use the Create Channel Wizard

  1. Log into the Gliph Desktop Web App
  2. Click the Create Channel option in the Menu
  3. Set a Photo,  Banner and short description for your Channel and click Next. Levi made a handy photoshop template to help you get your banner size right.
  4. Share the invitation link with a friend so you know everything is good.

Step 2. Add Your Chat Channel to your Subreddit’s Sidebar

        1. Visit your Subreddit’s settings. The URL is: http://www.reddit.com/r/[YourSub]/about/edit/
        2. Customize this markdown sample code to build out your sidebar:
          ***
          **Community Resources**
          * [Triathlon Chat]([YourChannelInviteLInk]) – Chat with other Triathletes from this Subreddit from your computer or smartphone.
          ***

Example used by /r/ocd

Example used by /r/rickandmorty

Step 3. Submit a new link to your subreddit alerting people to your new chat channel.

We’re here to help! Send an email to support@gli.ph or ‘support’ on Gliph and we’ll help you get going!

Gliph Chat Channels – Discuss Topics that Matter to You

We’ve been excited to see the growth of public discussion groups and are graduating them to a new jam on Gliph called “channels.”

What Existing Channels are Available?
You can view and join channels currently available by logging in to the Desktop Web, mobile web or Android applications and tapping View Channels. A complete list of channels available at the time of this writing are at the bottom of this blog entry!

Special Features of Channels
We’ve already begun adding features unique to channels on Gliph:

  • Channels allow the creator or ‘admin’ to choose and promote moderators who can delete messages by any other member of the channel and if necessary kick out a misbehaving member.
  • Channels have a special wizard that allows you to quickly setup and add friends. This wizard also lets you import a list of email contacts to your channel with a single copy-paste.
  • Channels may be joined during signup by new users on Gliph and can be cross-promoted using “related-channels.” Gain new members over time. Admins choose when a channel gets listed in Gliph’s Channel Directory.
  • Channels may show a related listing from Gliph Marketplace. This allows admins and moderators to promote particular items they’re selling to all members of the channel.

All of these features are available today in Gliph for Desktop web and will be making their way to the mobile apps.

Use the Create Channel Wizard
Channels are especially fun with a mix of people you know and those you don’t. Here’s how to get a channel started: Continue reading →

Introducing Gliph Marketplace

Today marks an important expansion of Gliph with the release of Gliph Marketplace: a new way to buy and sell locally using cash and the Bitcoin digital currency.

Our team has brought together secure messaging, transaction workflow and digital payments into an awesome new P2P transaction experience we call Deal Flow.

  • Deal Flow helps you stay focused on completing a deal by integrating messaging and useful push notifications into the buying and selling experience. Gliph Marketplace has privacy built-in eliminating the distraction of “burner” phone numbers and “email gateways.”
  • Deal Flow saves you time with intuitive listing status updates. For example, when someone is ready to buy something from you, the status moves from “Q&A” to “Offer Submitted.” Deal status updates ensure you have the most recent information so you can make the best decision with your time.
  • Deal Flow earns you money faster by making digital payments an integrated part of the Gliph Marketplace experience. Once you’ve accepted an offer, paying for the item using Bitcoin is handled in a single tap.

You can view a complete video demo of Gliph Marketplace and Deal Flow here:

Continue reading →

Gliph Transitions to New Username System

Gliph is transitioning away from its Legacy username (symbol-based) to a new alphanumeric Gliph username system. You may now identify yourself on Gliph with a unique username made up of letters and numbers.

This new username may be set by signing in and editing your account profile on the Gliph iPhone, Android and web applications.

You can use your new Gliph username to be found on Gliph via username search or by accessing a Profile Page webpage. Gliph Profile Pages are a new feature on Gliph and covered in this blog entry.

Privacy
Gliph is committed to providing a private communication experience. If you already have a Gliph account and a Gliph Legacy username, you may continue to use Gliph without choosing a new Gliph username.

If you do not pick a Gliph username, you will not be found using the username search function and you will not have a Profile Page webpage.

If you do pick a Gliph username, your public Facet information will be available on your Profile Page.

To ensure you’re sharing what you want, we recommend you review your Profile and privacy settings on your personal information before setting your username. 

Username Selection Details
If you’re thinking about what your new Gliph username will be, here are some details to keep in mind:

  • Gliph usernames may be anywhere between 3 and 16 characters long.
  • They may contain letters, numbers and the underscore character.
  • Usernames are first-come, first serve and are may only be used once.
  • Once selected, you can not change your username.
  • Your new Gliph username will automatically set your your Profile Page URL to https://gli.ph/[username].

And some additional tips for success:

  • Gliph usernames are not case-sensitive at entry, but they will display the CaSe Style YoU choose.
  • Shorter usernames will be easier to remember and share with friends or associates.
  • Gliph is a burgeoning community that relies on trust. Please do not choose usernames intended to deceive, intimidate or threaten other people.

Why the Change?
As regular users of Gliph ourselves, we have found the Gliph Legacy usernames have not become easier to use over time. Though stylistically unique, Gliph Legacy usernames got in the way of the experience in a few ways.

First, people from the Gliph community told us they like the service but find it too hard to connect with other people. A basic function is being able to look up another person in the system and the symbols added friction to that process.

Sometimes when the symbol-usernames were shown in a public group conversation, it was challenging to track who was who. An emerging problem with Gliph Legacy usernames is that they don’t store well in password management tools like 1Password.

The symbol-based usernames were a daring and interesting way to stand out for a company championing privacy and security before people were paying attention to these things.

Privacy and security are still top priorities with us, but Gliph is bigger than those two things. Gliph now helps people connect and transact with each other using Bitcoin. We want the focus here, not on a novel username system.

Moving to alphanumeric usernames simplifies the Gliph platform without sacrificing pseudonymity. You don’t have to remember the symbols that your friend chose or find them on our symbol keyboard. You just need to know their unique written username and type it in.

Supporting Legacy Gliph Usernames
All existing Legacy Gliph usernames will still be supported. You will still be able to search for them and create a 1-on-1 connection or to add them to Group. However, the default search will be to the new alphanumeric Gliph username system.

Fond Farewell
We want to thank everyone who customized their Gliph Legacy username and those who took the time to explain the system to other people.

When we shared this change with friends and family in the Gliph community, there was a combined expression of sadness and also relief. Many of Gliph’s biggest fans memorized and cherished their Legacy username. Some of Gliph’s initial backers took particular interest in the uniqueness of our Legacy username system.

Sadness quickly became nostalgic, though, as folks acknowledged a simpler username system would be to the benefit of all Gliph users in time.  What we lose from leaving behind Gliph Legacy usernames, our team will work to add practical, useful and fun features to take their place.

Blocking and Unblocking Users on Gliph

To help ensure you have a great experience on Gliph, we’ve now made it possible to block and unblock other Gliph users.

If you receive unwanted contact on Gliph, this new option allows you to remove your connection with them and prevent a new connection from being created.

This means your existing conversation with the opposing user will be permanently deleted and you will no longer receive notification of direct messages from them. You also will not be able to send direct messages to them.

How to Block and Unblock People on Gliph
Blocking someone is pretty easy, and can be done using Gliph’s web application. Start by logging in to the Gliph mobile or desktop app. Then visit the profile page of the person you want to block.

You can access someone’s profile page by clicking or tapping on their Profile Photo in any conversation.

Blocking Users and Group Conversations
Blocking another Gliph user will not silence them if you are both in the same Group conversation. If someone is giving you grief in a group conversation, we recommend the group admin set the group to Closed and kick the user from the group. This will prevent them from re-joining.

Gliph’s Terms of Service already do not allow harassment of other users. However, we realize people may want immediate and direct resolution to unwanted communication. This new feature is our first step toward providing this.

Updates to Group Notifications

Today, we released an update to improve Gliph’s notification service for group conversations.

When someone sends a message to a group you’re in, your smartphone will vibrate and play your chosen notification sound. However, after the initial messages, Gliph will enter a cooldown period until you’ve visited the conversation and left it again.

During the notification cooldown period, you’ll still get visual notifications but your phone will not vibrate or make noise. This cooldown period ends after five minutes. That way, if you just missed the first notification you’ll get another reminder about ongoing, unseen activity in your group.

In case you did not know, you can shut off notifications for a particular group or private conversation. This allows you to more carefully control what conversations are important enough to interrupt your day.

Notifications are important in letting you know something happened on Gliph. We know they need to be reliable, and useful. As a result we’ve done revisions to make them more helpful. We believe notifications are a critical part of Gliph’s platform and we will continue to iterate and improve their behavior over time

Gliph Adds Secure Group Messaging

Today we’re releasing secure group messaging for Gliph! We’re excited about this release for two reasons: Gliph users have been requesting group messaging and because group messaging is our first release to leverage the powerful improvements we made recently to the Gliph platform.

There are many group messaging apps to choose from, so what makes group messaging on Gliph unique?

  • Strong Identity Controls – Leverage Gliph’s unique privacy capabilities to show your real name to one group on Gliph, and a pseudonym to another.
  • Data impermanence / Deletion – Erase history by deleting any of your messages permanently from a group conversation, removing it for all group members.
  • Protection from Group Snooping – Keep your conversations completely private to you and your group members using Closed Groups in combination with Lockdown Privacy Protection.

It also has some terrific features that make it a great choice for all your Group messaging needs:

  • Cross-Platform – Include Android, iOS, and web users in your group conversations. Access the discussion from your mobile, tablet or desktop computer.
  • Group Profile Photos – Represent your group with a nice photo. (Admin set)
  • Group Notification Preferences – Choose whether to get notifications from any given group.
  • Group Invitation Links – Open groups have single links that allow people new to Gliph to sign up and automatically join your group.

These features also come with new System Messages, which helps show when someone has been invited to or removed from the group.

Group messaging has been requested by Gliph users for a long time, so we’re very pleased to bring it to market on all of Gliph’s clients. Enjoy!

We Updated some of Gliph’s Systems

Over the past few months the Gliph team has been working on a project to improve how things work behind the scenes. If you’re following the company and want the inside scoop on what’s new that you can’t see, this blog post is for you.

We’re excited about improving peer-to-peer transactions and providing a great platform for identity. In following this passion, we’ve iterated on Gliph by adding new features and changing the way the system works.

Some of the additions were in response to insights along the way. For example when we learned that  the majority of Craigslist deals were handled via email and lacked privacy, we built Cloaked Email to make that a better experience. Later, we realized Bitcoin would be a a fantastic way to close transactions and built in simple Bitcoin transfer into Gliph secure messaging.

We’ve learned a lot about email and believe communication can be faster and better than that. GliphMe‘s secure and private instant channel is the first of our efforts here.

Adding these capabilities over time caused a build-up of technical debt. And like any debt, it can not be ignored. But unlike some debt, it wasn’t the type of thing that could be paid off slowly over time. As a result, this re-factor was focused on two areas of the Gliph platform:

Continue reading →

How to Delete Messages on Gliph

One of the unique aspects of Gliph is that you can permanently delete messages and other data in the system. This blog entry explains how message deletion works on Gliph, how it is different from most messaging apps and why we believe the removal of data is part of a solid privacy experience.

What happens to Information We Put Online?
It is hard to understand what happens to data we store online. Every text we send, every picture that is transmitted, and every person we connect with is represented by data. This data is transmitted across the Internet and ultimately saved on one or many servers and sometimes multiple devices such as smartphones, desktop computers and laptops. What happens to this data?

Social platforms commonly offer “deletion” or “removal” features that make it appear that you can permanently remove stuff you have put online. Unfortunately, these services are often misrepresenting what actually happens with information.

For example, messaging services like GroupMe and Whatsapp offer to remove messages for you. But depending on the app, your unencrypted messages are saved in a database with a flag marked deleted. Services may be built in a way that they are unable to delete the message on the other person’s phone, instead only “hide” it from your end of the conversation.

For a long time, Facebook would not actually remove photos that you had deleted from your account. Now that Facebook has fixed their system, your photos actually be will be actually deleted within 30 days. Today, you can “Delete this Photo,” however Facebook’s platform may not actually delete it for weeks.

A lot of questions have been asked about how Snapchat handles removal of data. You send a photo to someone, and it is supposed to disappear within a short period of time. However, Snapchat has made it clear that images sent over the service will persist for up to 30 days or until all recipients of the image have opened the photo. More concerning to some is that snaps are not being removed properly from smartphones and can in fact be recovered.

Update (5/8/14): Snapchat settled charges from the FTC that it misrepresented how it was handling user data collection practices.

This is a pretty big problem, since if you don’t have a background in Computer Science, you must rely on what you’re being told in the interface. If it says “Delete,” does that mean right now, forever, from everywhere?

Behind the Scenes on Message Deletion on the Gliph Platform
When we first introduced message deletion on the Gliph platform, our focus was on clarifying why Gliph deletes from both sides rather than allowing complete archiving. (Please see “Our Thinking on Message Deletion“). What follows in this entry is a more general overview of what Gliph is doing with deleted messages. Continue reading →

Introducing GliphMe, a New Way to Connect Online

The team is pleased to announce the release of GliphMe! GliphMe is a powerful little chat system that can replace email and SMS texting. It can save you time and be used to increase your privacy online.

Introduction
GliphMe lets you create a web link that anyone can use to start chatting with you on your iPhone or Android. When someone clicks one of your links and sends you a message, you will be notified by the Gliph app. You can reply immediately wherever you are from your mobile device. Gliphme is useful in a variety of cases online, and you can learn more at GliphMe’s explanation page.

How GliphMe Works with ScreenshotsGliphMe Mobile Messaging Privacy Security Menu Item
Here’s how it works: You start by creating a new GliphMe link using the menu in the Gliph iPhone, Android or web app. GliphMe appears just below the Bitcoin option.

The first time you enter the GliphMe Management view, you will see you already have one link created automatically. This link is used for invitations you send from Gliph in the recently revised Connections View. You will also see that you have the option, Create new GliphMe link. Continue reading →