Welcome Levi Luke to Gliph Customer Support

One of the most important aspects of Gliph is our Customer Support. We dedicate a great deal of attention to the specific requests of Gliph’s users.

Today, we’re excited to welcome a new member to the Gliph team, who will help us maintain and improve our customer support, Levi Luke. Gliph customer support runs the gamut of resolving problems with logging in to identifying and tracking bugs that require development work to fix.

Levi distinguished himself as a user of Gliph first, including creating the intro video for Gliph’s desktop web app. In learning more about Levi, we found he brings a variety of technical and media expertise to the team.

Levi has been helping out at Gliph for a little while now, and we feel like it is time to recognize his work.  Next time you are in the Gliph app, please consider saying hello and welcoming Levi to the team. You can simply send Support a message in-app, or you can reach him at support@gli.ph.

Please join us in welcoming Levi! You can say hello by sending a message to Gliph Support.

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

Major Gliph Release Today

Today’s a big day, with major updates across every client on Gliph’s platform. We’ve created blog entries to support each aspect of the release, here’s a summary of each update along with a link.

Bitcoin has been Returned to the Gliph iOS Application
We’ve just released version 1.90 of the Gliph app, which was approved by Apple for the App Store late this last week. The release restores the ability to send Bitcoin between Gliph users, and adds the new capability of paying outside the Gliph network using QR codes.

New Desktop Web Application Now Available
Gliph now supports all modern web browsers with a brand new desktop web application. Whether you’re on a tablet, laptop or desktop computer you can now take advantage of everything Gliph has to offer.

Revamped Android Application
We’ve completely rebooted our Android application and it now stands in near-parity with our iOS application. We’re particularly pleased to bring this long awaited update to the Android platform.

The update includes a refreshed look, Secure Group Messaging support, Profile photos and a brand new QR code scanner. You can now use Gliph on Android to spend Bitcoin from your Coinbase or Blockchain wallet outside the Gliph network.

Introducing Secure Group Messaging
Gliph now supports secure group messaging across all of its existing clients and its new Desktop Web application. Group messaging offers the same data impermanence technology as Gliph’s existing 1-to-1 conversations.

Privacy Policy Update
With all of these product updates, we also took the time to make the first update to Gliph’s Privacy Policy since we first got started. Our entire team stands behind this policy, and it served as the basis for many of the features that Gliph continues to offer.

We improved the Privacy Policy by focusing on its readibility and clarifying language on how we handle personal data. We have a blog that explains every change in great detail, and encourage everyone to have a look.

Bitcoin Transfers Back into the Gliph iOS Application

Gliph, Bitcoin and Apple in a Love triangleThe Gliph core team is very pleased to announce that Bitcoin transfers have returned to the Gliph iOS mobile application. In today’s release, we have not only returned Bitcoin transfers between Gliph users, we’ve added the ability to scan QR codes and pay using Bitcoin.

Apple, Bitcoin and Gliph

The call from Apple Worldwide Developer Relations came just before Thanksgiving last year. Without much elaboration as to why, Apple told us the Gliph iOS app would need to remove the ability to send Bitcoin or risk being pulled from the App Store.

That event kicked off months of publicity in reaction to our blog post on the state of Bitcoin in the App Store and Google Play. The press feasted on the controversy of Apple’s behavior and Gliph became something of a poster-child for Bitcoin’s fight for mainstream acceptance.

If you wiped away the media hype, and focused on the appeal letter we made public, you would find the real reason why Apple should not have made that choice in the first place:

“By inhibiting the creation of Bitcoin apps Apple holds innovation back from the world. We are witnessing the dawn of a massive technological innovation. The potential impact of virtual currencies stretches further than any company or platform.”

Continue reading

Introducing Gliph for Desktop Web


If you work with a desktop or laptop computer on a regular basis, you know how nice it can be to have an app designed for that lean-back experience. Gliph offers a fantastic Desktop Web experience when you visit the app from a tablet or desktop web browser: https://gli.ph/d

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.

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.)

Gliph desktop web app Continue reading

Big Update to the Gliph Android Application

screenshot of the new Gliph Android app running on a Samsung android smartphoneToday we’ve released the biggest update to the Gliph Android app yet. We’re happy to announce it is now just about equal with the Gliph iPhone application in features, even goes beyond it in some cases. We want to thank all of our Android users for their patience while we brought it up to speed.

The new application is based on the new Gliph Mobile Web application, and joins the new Gliph Desktop Web and an updated Gliph iPhone application also released today.

Support for Secure Group Messaging
Gliph on Android now supports secure group messaging! You can use the app to assemble and manage your own groups from your existing contacts. You can also create a group and invite non-Gliph users to join at the time of creation. For more information about secure Group Messaging on Gliph please see this post.

QR code wallet address for donating to web comic xkcd

Donate to the XKCD web comic.

Scan and Pay QR-code Bitcoin Wallet Addresses
The new Gliph Android app now allows you to transfer Bitcoin outside Gliph’s network. This means that you can pay with Bitcoin at any business that accepts Bitcoin. Dell, Expedia and Newegg are just a few of the many businesses around the world that accept Bitcoin.

As before, you must attach a Coinbase or Blockchain wallet to your Gliph account in order to use the feature. You’ll find it in the Bitcoin screen, which you access using the menu. Simply tap Scan in the top right corner and the Gliph Android app will guide you through completing the payment. Continue reading