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!

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:

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. Add existing people you know on Gliph.

Fill Out Your Channel With Related Marketplace Listing and Channels
You can make it easier for other channel members to find a listing you want to promote in Gliph Marketplace adding Related Channels and Listings. Here’s how:

1. Log into the Gliph Desktop Web App
2. Enter your channel and click on the Set Related Listings or Set Related Channels button.
3. Paste up to three URLs of related channels or listings in the order you want them to appear. for Channels, use the invite link. For listings, use the listing URL.
4. You can Edit these at any time with the Edit link.

We hope you dig these updates and look forward to seeing you in-channel. :)

Featured Channels

• Bitcoiners
  
• Rick and Morty Fans
• New Gliph Users
• Cat Appreciation

Crypto and Tech

• Bitcoin Trading
• Bitcoin Gaming
• Dogecoin
• European Bitcoin Users
• Apple Watch

Gaming

• Hotline Miami
• Classic Gaming
• World of Warcraft
• League of Legends
• DOTA 2

Entertainment

• Comics
• Game of Thrones
• Walking Dead

General Interest

• Fitness and Nutrition
• Life Hack Tips
• Burning Man
• History, Power and Currency
• Sports Talk

Music

• Electronic Dance Music
• Hip-Hop

International

• Japanese Gliph Users
• Russian Gliph Users
• Russian Bitcoiners
• NEM по-русски

On the web app you can now “Browse Groups,” and we’ve added the ability to view Groups the mobile web and Android from the menu.

After seeing how fun it can be to get started on Gliph and make new friends, we’ve decided to start featuring a selection of them. Some of the first groups we’re featuring are the ones that grew out of the Gliph Community. For example Bitcoin Discussion and Cat Appreciation.

One of the groups we’re excited about is Rick and Morty fans. Rick and Morty airs during Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network and online. The show chose the Gliph group as their official home for for real-time chat for fans.

We’re still exploring what can be done to make public groups great destinations on Gliph.

Here is a complete list of public groups available now, we’ll add more over time. If you have a group you’d like featured on the Groups page, please send a message to Support!

Featured Communities
Bitcoiners
Rick and Morty Fans
New Gliph Users Group
Cat Appreciation

Crypto and Tech
Bitcoin Gaming
Dogecoin
Apple Watch

Gaming
Classic Gaming
DOTA 2

Entertainment
Comics
Game of Thrones

General Interest
Burning Man
History, Power and Currency
Sports Talk
Electronic Dance Music

International
Japanese Gliph Users
Russian Gliph Users

Updated Activity Sidebar
The Activity Sidebar (left side of the web app) now shows both recent conversations and the listings you’re actively engaged with in Gliph Marketplace.

You can also Create a Listing or add People or a a Connection or Group from the sidebar.

If you click Marketplace, you’ll be taken to Marketplace Home, which lets you view current deals and past deals you’ve engaged with in Gliph Marketplace.

Buy and Sell using your Laptop or Desktop Computer
You can now create, browse and purchase items from Gliph Marketplace using your laptop or desktop computer. You can take photos and start your listing using the Gliph app for iPhone or Android then finish editing the draft and publish it from your PC.

[Create Listing Screenshot]

When someone has responded to your listing, you can chat with them using the desktop web app. This means you can easily handle the sale of your items whether you’re sitting in front of your computer or on the go.

[Deal Flow Screenshot]

The same goes with buying from Gliph Marketplace. You can browse listings, start interacting with a seller and even complete payment in just a few steps all from the new Gliph desktop web app.

This full-screen experience gives you access to Gliph’s existing features, such as permanent message deletion, Bitcoin payments, and our award-winning privacy point tools. The Desktop Web App also includes support for new bells and whistles including Secure Group Messaging, Profile Photos, Retina Display support, and Chrome Desktop Notifications.

This guide walks through how to use the Desktop Web App.

• The Desktop Web Home View
• Adding New Connections
• Working with Connection Settings and Shared Facets
• Creating and Administering a Secure Group Conversation
  • Setting your Group Photo
  • Managing your Group
• Using Bitcoin on Gliph’s Desktop Web App
  • Attaching your Bitcoin Wallet to Gliph
  • Attach a Coinbase Bitcoin Wallet
  • Attach a Blockchain.info Wallet
  • Viewing your Bitcoin Balance and Transaction History
  • Sending Bitcoin to Another Gliph User
  • Detaching your Bitcoin Wallet

Sign-up and Set Initial Facets
If you’re signing up for Gliph for the first time, you’ll see you can now set a Profile Photo. This is a new Facet type and may be set to globally public or private. (If private, you may still choose to share it with specific contacts or groups you belong to.)

The Desktop Web Home View
Once you’re signed in, the first view you’ll see is the one below. We call this the Home View. On the left side in dark grey is the Left Sidebar. This can be opened and closed using the Gliph Diamond Button in the top left.

The Home View is the default view when signing into Gliph for the Desktop Web

In this example, you can see the first conversations in the Left Sidebar are the official Support and Product Updates gliphs. The Left Sidebar lists conversations in the order of last message received. This is the same order as the Activity View on Gliph’s mobile apps.

In the Home View, the most recent conversation is automatically loaded into the center of the view as a Conversation Pane. More on that in a bit.

Adding New Connections

Connecting with a new person or someone you care about has always been one of the best parts about Gliph.

The Desktop Web app lets you do this using a new Add Connection or Group [+] Button that appears at the top right of the Left Sidebar.

You’ll be presented with a dialog box that lets you choose to either Create a Group or Add a Connection.

Add a Connection or Create a Group with this dialog. You can also copy-paste an invitation URL to connect with someone who is not on Gliph yet.

When you choose Add a Connection, you’ll be presented the option to find an existing Gliph user (using Gliph’s symbol-based username system) or invite someone from Facebook, Google+, or traditional vectors.

When you send your first message, it establishes the connection. Check out Conversation Pane below where Tony has added his pal Rob as a connection.

The Conversation Pane shows your 1-on-1 or group conversation. The Right Sidebar lets you set privacy permissions and notification settings for the connection or group.

The camera icon shows you can attach an image to any message you send here. You can also drag-and-drop an image into this area to attach it to your pending message automatically. If you and your connection have Bitcoin wallets attached, you’ll also see a Bitcoin icon. More on that in “Using Bitcoin on Gliph’s Desktop Web App.”

Working with Connection Settings and Shared Facets
Each Conversation Pane has a Right Sidebar that may be hidden using the Chevron Button. The Right Sidebar shows who is in the conversation, lets you edit the Connection Settings, and specify what personal information (Facets) you want to share.

The Connection Settings Dialog is found in the Right Sidebar of any Conversation Pane.

Click or tap Settings to see a dialog containing the same Connection Settings you get in Gliph’s mobile applications: The Label setting is an important feature if the person you’re connected to has their First Name and Pseudonym set to Private and has not shared either piece of information with you.

When this happens, you see their Gliph instead of their name. Gliph’s can be hard to identify quickly, so a Label is a useful alternative to seeing someone’s Gliph.

Other options in this view include choosing whether to get Push Notifications from a particular person and how much information should be shown in Push Notifications that appear on your mobile device.

You can permanently delete all messages on both sides of the conversation using the Clear Chat History option or delete the connection and all messages completely under Operations. For more information on how Gliph handles message deletion, please see this blog post.

The Facets Settings Dialog is also found in the Right Sidebar of any Conversation Pane.  It sets what you’re sharing with the person or group in the Conversation Pane.

Facet Settings contains all of the personal information you’re sharing with this particular connection or group of people. In the above example, Tony has his Profile Photo, First Name, and Last Name set to public at a global level. Tony’s Phone Number and Email address are globally Private, and he has not chosen to share them with this connection.

If someone says they can’t see your name, double check the Facet Settings for your connection with them to make sure you either have a First Name or Pseudonym set to globally public or shared with that person.

Creating and Administering a Secure Group Conversation
The process for creating a secure Group Conversation on Gliph starts the same way as you would add a new Connection. Click the + button then choose Create a Group.

You’ll be presented a dialog box that allows you to choose among some common group types or specify your own custom group name.

Gliph supplies some default group types you might want to create, but you name your group anything you like.

The next step is to add members to your group. If you already have connections on Gliph, they’ll be shown and you can simply click each one to add them.

Once you’ve added some Group members, you’ll see in the chat area who has been added. Also, each person you add will get a notification that they have been added to the group so they can join the conversation right away.

Setting Your Group Photo
Everything is more fun with pictures, so you may want to set a photo for your Group. You can add this in the Group Settings dialog which can be accessed using the Right Sidebar of the group conversation pane.

Click Edit Photo and choose a .png or .jpg image of at least 360 x 360 pixels, and then crop it to an attractive shape.

While we’re here, let’s check out some Group Settings.

Managing Your Group
Gliph currently allows one group administrator, which is the person who creates the group. As group admin, you have some handy options to keep your group just how you like it. You can:

• Change the Group Photo – Shown above
• Set Group to Open or Closed – An open group has an invitation link that all members can share to add people who are not on Gliph to the group. In a closed group, only the admin may invite new members.
• Manage Membership – You can remove or “kick out” specific members from of the group.
• Clear Chat History or End the Group – As an admin, you can permanently delete the conversation history on all sides of the conversation. (Read more about data impermanence on Gliph)

There are also some Notification Options in the Group Settings that affect privacy and are available to all group members:

• Get Notifications – Choose whether to get notifications from this group.
• Show Group Name in Push – If turned off, your mobile notifications will not include the name of the group.
• Show Message Content in Push – If turned off, your mobile notifications will not include any part of the messages sent from other group members.

Using Bitcoin on Gliph’s Desktop Web App

The Gliph Desktop Web App lets you attach a Bitcoin wallet from an account you already have created on either Coinbase or Blockchain.info. Once you’ve attached a wallet, you can send Bitcoin to any other Gliph user who also has Bitcoin wallet attached to their Gliph account.

You can also attach a Bitcoin wallet using the Gliph iPhone and Android apps; however, you might feel more comfortable doing it on the Desktop Web.

Once you’ve attached your Bitcoin wallet using the Desktop Web app, the wallet will also be set up in the mobile app for iPhone or Android (though, you may need to restart the mobile app to see the wallet was attached properly).

Attaching Your Bitcoin Wallet to Gliph
Start by choosing the Bitcoin option from the Dropdown Menu in the top-right of the Desktop Web App. If you do not have a Bitcoin wallet attached, you will see an option to Create a New Wallet or Sign-In to an existing wallet.

But, I don’t have a Bitcoin Wallet!
If you have never created a Bitcoin wallet before, you need to do so before you can attach it to Gliph. Gliph can attach a wallet from either of the two most popular web-based wallets on the Internet: Coinbase or Blockchain.info.

The Desktop Web App will help direct you to these services; however, after you have created a Wallet, you will need to come back to Gliph and go through the Wallet Sign-In process on your own.

Attach a Coinbase Bitcoin Wallet
In the Bitcoin view, choose Sign-In to Coinbase. You will be presented with the following dialog box, which lets you know that you must be redirected to Coinbase’s site. Click the Let’s Go button to continue.

The Coinbase website will prompt you for your Coinbase login information. Note, if you have two-factor authentication on, the website will also ask for that information:

When you have finished this step, you will be asked to Authorize the Gliph App to have access to your Account in the following dialog box:

Note the access grants Gliph the ability to debit Bitcoin from your wallet. As a result, you should be sure to choose a unique passphrase (aka password) for your Gliph account and take care not to misplace it.

Attach a Blockchain.info Wallet

In the Bitcoin view, choose Sign-In to Blockchain. You will be presented with the following dialog box, which lets you immediately attach your Blockchain wallet.

Note, while you may enter your Alias in the first box, Blockchain will still force you to retrieve your GUID from an email they send you. (A GUID, aka “wallet identifier,” looks something like: b868xx32-0272-as8e-e169-6cdwa3f3e24)

Once this form is filled out correctly, and you’ve completed the necessary authorizations Blockchain requires, your wallet will be attached to your Gliph account.

Viewing Your Bitcoin Balance and Transaction History
Once your wallet is attached, you can view your past list of transactions processed using Gliph by visiting the Bitcoin Start option from the Dropdown Menu in the top-right of the Desktop Web App.

The list of transactions reflects all transactions processed using Gliph since the wallet was first attached. For some of your transactions, you will see someone’s gliph or symbol-based username instead of their actual name. You must ask them to share a First Name publicly or with you to see them here.

All Bitcoin transactions processed using Gliph’s mobile apps will be shown in this view. If you use the QR code scanner on either the Gliph iPhone or Android app to pay someone, the recipient will be shown as “Unknown.”

Sending Bitcoin to another Gliph User
Sending Bitcoin to another Gliph user is easy to do, so long as both of you have Bitcoin wallets attached to your account. First choose a conversation from the Left Sidebar, look for the Bitcoin logo in the message entry area to indicate you both have wallets attached properly.

When both you and the other Gliph user have wallets attached, you’ll both see a Bitcoin icon indicating you can send Bitcoin as an attachment to a message.

Click the Bitcoin icon and enter the amount of Bitcoin or USD that you would like to send.The USD to Bitcoin conversion rate is approximate and is currently sourced from Blockchain.info’s price ticker.

Click the Attach button, type a message and hit enter to send the message with the Bitcoin attached. You’ll see the Bitcoin sent in your conversation.

You can now return to the Bitcoin view and see your transaction listed. Note that the status is pending until Gliph has verified the Bitcoin blockchain has fully confirmed the transaction. It typically takes about one hour for a Bitcoin transaction to reach confirmed status.

Detaching your Bitcoin Wallet
If you would like to remove your Bitcoin wallet from Gliph, you can use the Detach wallet option. You’ll need to access Settings in the Dropdown Menu on the top right of the Desktop Web Application.

Conclusion
The Gliph Desktop Web Application is an entirely new way to experience using Gliph. If you use a computer during the day, it gives you new freedom to keep your conversations going without having to peck them into your smartphone.

If you need help or see a way this guide could be improved, please send a message to the Support Gliph.

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.

When you send a message on Gliph, it originates from either the Gliph iPhone, Android or web applications. At that time, the message is stored in a “cache” (memory) of your device. The message is also stored encrypted on the server, and once it is received by the other Gliph user, it may be temporarily cached on their device as well.

If the same message is deleted, (by either the sender or the receiver), the Gliph app first removes the message visually and from the local cache and then tells the server, “remove this message right now!” The server responds by deleting the information from Gliph’s database. If the other person has the app open, and are looking at the conversation, they will not see the message removed immediately.

However, the next time they refresh the view, the app will realize that the data does not exist anymore. This causes their app to visually remove and also delete the message in the local cache. This completes deletion of a message or entire conversation of messages on the Gliph platform.

Nitty Gritty Details
There are a lot of details when it comes to how “cacheing” is handled, particularly around the security of data stored in a local cache. For example, what happens if you’ve deleted a message but the other person hasn’t opened up the app? Is the message still in the device cache and vulnerable?

The security of this area varies with the platform you’re using and what you’ve done to it. For example, iOS protects application data from being accessed using something called “sandboxing” but may be vulnerable if the device is rooted using “jailbreaking.” Android uses a similar sandbox to isolate application data. However, many Android users seek full control over their devices and “root” their phones.

Both jailbreaking on iOS and rooting on Android present important security implications, because these operations can allow apps to access data they otherwise should not be able to. Android users have access to a variety of tools that look for vulnerabilities in apps on rooted and non-rooted devices and attempt to collect data from these apps. 

Gliph regularly wipes and re-loads the local cache on iPhone and Android to help reduce the likelihood that a jailbroken or rooted phone would have persistent message data. However, we strongly advise people to be aware of the security implications of using Gliph on jailbroken or rooted devices.

How Message Deletion on Gliph Works
There are three ways messages are deleted by the Gliph platform today. All of them follow a process outlined in “Behind the Scenes on Message Deletion on the Gliph Platform” outlined above.

Individual Message Deletion
Gliph’s iOS and web apps allow of you to delete individual Gliph messages. This happens when you swipe a message on the Gliph iPhone app to the left and choose delete. In the web app, you tap the Edit button in the top right of any conversation.  On Android, Gliph does not currently offer individual message deletion.

Conversation Deletion
All of Gliph’s apps allow you to delete all messages in a conversation at the same time. On iPhone, you can delete messages by swiping a conversation from the activity view. We have an animated gif showing this behavior in this blog entry.

On Android, the process has a few steps:

1. Go into a conversation.
2. Tap the ( i ) button in the action bar to go into the Gliph view.
3. Tap the 3 dots icon in the action bar.
4. Choose “clear all messages.”

On the web and iOS you can delete all messages by:

1. Go into a conversation.
2. Tap the center part of the title bar on the web or the ( i ) in the title bar of iOS to get to the Gliph View.
3. Scroll down and choose “Clear Conversation.”

GliphMe
GliphMe (video demo) has its own special behavior in how it handles deletion of messages. Once someone starts a conversation with you using one of your links, Gliph keeps track of when the last message was sent. After 48 hours, Gliph automatically deletes the entire conversation and connection with the GliphMe link respondent.  Connection data is permanently removed from the Gliph database as well.

Gliphme acts like this for two reasons: One, to reduce the clutter from conversations that you probably have no interest in continuing, and two to reduce the amount of unwanted private conversation data that Gliph is storing.

It is possible for GliphMe conversations to avoid this automatic removal after 48 hours. If someone who is not a Gliph user clicks a GliphMe link and uses that page to sign up for Gliph, the conversation will persist just like a normal conversation. At this time, we’re calling this “claiming” a conversation by the respondent. After a conversation has been claimed, the messages can still be deleted from that point using the same procedures outlined in “How Message Deletion on Gliph Works” above.

One area where message deletion is not supported is in a GliphMe conversation that has not been claimed. For example, if you reply to an inbound GliphMe message and then wish to delete that message. You can not do so if the respondent has not claimed the conversation yet. We recognize that this may be in conflict with expectations for uniform deletion behavior across Gliph and are still considering how best to handle this with GliphMe.

Expiring Messages
In the Gliph iOS and web apps, it is possible to set messages to expire after a period of time. This is very similar to how Gliph handles user-directed deletion of messages. Except in this case the server has set a particular time, when it will remove the data from the Gliph database. The next time either the sender or receiver opens the app after the message has been removed from the database, any existing local cache of the message is removed and it will no longer be visible on either user’s devices.

Data Impermanence and Privacy
When other internet services store your conversations permanently, unencrypted, it creates the possibility that that information will be hacked or even misused in the future. This is particularly concerning for messaging services that use advertising-based monetization, or are entertaining acquisition by an advertising-based company. This doesn’t need to happen.

At Gliph, we are designing software to avoid these issues. For example, the new product we released recently, GliphMe, uses automatic deletion of conversations after 48 hours. Another way we demonstrate commitment to this is by honoring what is implied in the interface. As in, “Delete” should mean stuff actually is deleted everywhere Gliph can, as promptly as possible.

The entire Gliph team feels there is a strong connection between privacy and impermanent or ephemeral online activity. This includes not only messages you’ve sent but who you have connected with online in the past.

This issue is particularly important as Gliph extends past simple messaging and into the realm of peer-to-peer transactions. We continue to think deeply about how we can empower people who use Gliph with both user experience and technical implementations that deliver privacy through data impermanence and beyond.

We love feedback! If you have comments on this blog entry or unanswered questions about deletion on Gliph, please send a message to the Support Gliph or to support [at] gli dot ph.

New Feature for iOS and Android: GliphMe
GliphMe is a powerful little link for connecting privately with friends and strangers. When someone clicks a GliphMe contact link they are presented a chat box that lets them communicate with you.

You get push notifications of the new message on your iOS device and can reply directly from the app. Read the blog entry on the feature or learn more at the GliphMe home page.

Gliph for iOS 1.88
We’ve made a variety of improvements to the Gliph app for iOS in 1.88. They include:

• Multi-Invite capability – You can now invite multiple friends to Gliph using SMS and Email during signup or in the Connect View (Use the + button in the Activity View)
• Connect View improved – We’ve cleaned up the view you use to add friends on Gliph.
• iOS 7 swipe behavior – You can now swipe back from a conversation to the Activity View, which is how iOS 7 does things.
• Easier profile setup – You can now add a few profile facets during signup for Gliph.

We also worked to squash some bugs that folks had reported. Please keep the reports coming to the Support Gliph.

• Fixed Crasher when enabling LockDown Privacy Protection
• Fixed emoji being cut off when shown as last message in Activity View
• Fixed tap target area of Message Options button

Gliph for Android 1.35
Over the winter break, we completely rearchitected the Gliph Android app’s internals, allowing us to move forward with more improvements to the app. After a few bug fixes we made the following miscellaneous improvements to the app:

• Better naming – You can now see the tag or shared First Name facet of a connection that you’re talking with in the app. This way you you don’t have to remember people’s gliphs.
• Handle connections – We added a button in the title bar of the connections view to make it more obvious how to edit the connection.
• Help during signup – Commonly, people have a hard time signing up on Android because so many gliphs are already taken. We’re working to improve this, in the meantime we added some text that should help a bit.

As always, we welcome feedback on the apps, particularly bugs or crashes that you’re experiencing. Please reach out to the Support Gliph if you notice something.

Today, we’re pleased to announce initial Gliph support for Blockchain.info wallets. This means Blockchain.info wallet holders now get the same easy Bitcoin transfer as people who use Coinbase and BIPS.

Whether you trade Bitcoin with Blockchain.info, BIPS or Coinbase you don’t have to bother with Bitcoin wallet addresses or their representative QR codes. You just send them a connection request, and then attach Bitcoin like you would a picture message.

How to Connect your Blockchain.info Bitcoin Wallet to your Gliph account
You must first create a wallet on the Blockchain.info website.

1. Tap the Bitcoin option in the Menu, and choose Use a Different Wallet.
2. In the Choose Wallet Provider view, select the Blockchain.info logo.
3. Enter your Blockchain.info identifier and your password into the sign-in page.

Your Blockchain.info account is now connected to Gliph! You can now easily send Bitcoin with other Gliph users as shown in this video (video shows Coinbase, but works the same).

FAQ

Q. Can I create a new Blockchain.info account using Gliph?
A. At this time, Blockchain does not support new account creation over its API. You can create a Blockchain.info wallet on their website. Gliph still supports instant wallet creation on the Coinbase and BIPS wallet providers as shown in this video.

Q. I use two-factor authentication on Blockchain.info, how do I attach my wallet using Gliph?
A. Blockchain.info does not currently support 2-factor authentication over its API. You can work around this limitation by disabling 2-factor on your Blockchain.info wallet, and using Blockchain.info’s “double encryption” or second password on the account.

Regardless of whether you turn this on, we recommend using two wallets. One to keep your bitcoin in, and a second with a low Bitcoin balance for use as a daily wallet which you can more comfortably attach to Gliph.

Q. I’m trying to use my Alias and it isn’t working, what gives?
A. We’ve found that some Blockchain.info account configurations do not allow Alias-based login via the API. If you have trouble, we recommend you use your Blockchain.info GUID.

Q. Where can I learn more about Bitcoin?
A. You can visit Gliph’s Introduction to Bitcoin page.

As mentioned in our announcement about adding support for BIPS a few weeks ago, we’re excited to make transactions with people easier. We hope adding support for another one of Bitcoin’s most popular wallets will make Bitcoin more useful to people everywhere.

If you have questions, comments or just want to say hello, please don’t hesitate to email support | gli.ph or send a message the Support Gliph.

Gliph for Android 1.13

The last major release we did for Android included visual updates and the ability to send and receive Bitcoin. This new release, 1.13 is meant largely to fix bugs and behind the scenes updates:

• People wrote in that it was hard to send messages because the keyboard was displaying on top of text entry field on some Android devices, making it hard to see what the person was typing. This should be fixed now. Please tell the support gliph if you’re still having the problem. Update 7/19/13 11:19am: Galaxy Note owners are reporting this is still an issue. We are currently looking for a solution for those users.
• We added a library that helps us determine when the app is crashing and allows us to diagnose and fix that better.
• We changed out the code that displays the slide-in menu or “drawer” on the left side of the screen. This will prepare the app for improvements in the future.
• There was a bug where if you did not save a first name or pseudonym, the drawer would say null, null. Whoops. That’s fixed now.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Gliph Android App

Q. Why can’t I send picture messages or delete messages in the Android app? UPDATE: Gliph now has limited support for sending Picture Messages from Android!

A. Great question. We want to offer these features, badly. But right now, we are only able to dedicate a certain amount of resources to the Android app. We recognize that these should be in there, and are trying to move forward to get the fixes in as soon as possible.

We’re compensating for the time being by offering these features in the Gliph mobile web app.  Start by downloading and installing the Chrome Browser for Android. Then point the browser to the Gliph mobile web app at https://gli.ph/m. We simply can’t support all stock browsers, so please use Chrome.

When you’ve logged in, all Android devices will be able to delete messages using the instructions given our previous post “Introducing Gliph Message Deletion.”

Some, but not all Android devices support HTML 5 image uploads. This means you may be able to send picture messages from the Gliph web application using your Android. Give it a shot!

Q. Why doesn’t the Android app have the PIN lock like the iPhone app?

A. Another reasonable question. PIN is a wonderful feature and we do offer it on iOS right now. Again, we have to fall back on the fact that we have only limited resources at the moment and can not add this feature to the Android app at this time. We hope to add it in the future.

Q. Will you add emoticons to the Android app?

A. This surprisingly, is not a simple change. But we like the spirit of emoticons an hope to add them in the future.

Q. Do you guys not like Android or what?

A. We think Android is a totally legitimate choice for a mobile device. We simply have to work within our means, and frankly Android is harder to support than iOS. Check this out: when we submitted this last version to Google Play, we got this back:

We believe Google is saying that out of the 3,076 Android devices out there, Gliph runs on 1,771 of them.  On those devices Gliph runs on, all kinds of different weird bugs can occur that we can’t predict and just don’t have the time to find and debug at this stage in the startup.

Contrast this with iOS, where we need to make sure it runs on 5 devices. So it isn’t that we don’t like Android, it is just harder to make work great for the vast majority of its users than it is on iOS.

We have an iOS demo video up if you’re hungry to see how it works.  Also a step-by-step guide to setting it up for Android and for iOS. But this is more than just a new feature for us and we wanted to go into detail as to why we’re adding Bitcoin to the Gliph platform.

Over the past several months the Gliph team has been fascinated by Bitcoin. Bitcoin brings privacy to payments that is unavailable with traditional banking. The software behind Bitcoin is open source and has sustained great scrutiny. The currency itself is distributed, and transfers can take place with little or no fees at all. We love that no one company or government controls Bitcoin, and that even its creator(s) are shrouded in anonymity.

We believe Bitcoin and the ideas behind it have the power to change the world.

But when our team began using Bitcoin every day, we noticed some rough patches. Getting started can be confusing. If you were able to get a wallet set up, it was easy to get stuck asking “what next?” If you wanted to send Bitcoin to a friend, you had to awkwardly copy and paste long wallet addresses into tiny form fields. Existing solutions, even from biggest players, felt too technical and took the fun out of using this amazing new currency.

We began thinking about important questions around financial privacy. Who you give your money to and why is a some of the most private information you have. Although Bitcoin can be used to provide reasonable anonymity to the people transferring funds, folks still need a way to securely discuss their transactions. We noticed that using insecure channels like email to communicate about a Bitcoin transfer could lead to compromising the privacy of a transaction as a whole.

Finally, we noticed that Bitcoin offers very little in the way of an identity to associate with your wallet. One of Bitcoin’s strengths is that transfers are permanent. However, since anyone can have a Bitcoin account and there are no chargebacks, you need to be confident about who you are sending money to.

We realized the Gliph platform could play an important role in solving all of these problems. Today’s release is the start of some major steps from Gliph to improve the Bitcoin experience.

1. We are making it extremely easy to send Bitcoin with other Gliph users.
2. We are providing a secure environment to discuss transactions that end in Bitcoin payments.
3. We are pairing identity with Bitcoin wallet addresses.

These are our goals and today’s release marks the start of our journey toward accomplishing them. We are very excited and hope you’ll join us in making Gliph the best way to send Bitcoin online.

We’re proud to also announce today that Gliph has a new group of partners to help us achieve these goals. You can read about our new partnership with Boost VC in this blog entry.

As always, you can find Gliph on Twitter at @gli_ph and contact support at support@gli.ph.