Send messages and media

Send your first message

1. Open a conversation

   Add your contact, then open the chat. If Auris asks you to verify a changed identity, compare safety numbers before continuing.

2. Write and send

   Type in the composer and tap the send arrow. The first message establishes the encrypted session, so it can take a little longer.

3. Add a voice note or photo

   Use the photo control to attach an image. With an empty composer, the microphone control starts a voice note when attachments are available.

When your contact is offline

Auris queues encrypted, undelivered messages for the receiver's configured retention period, from one to seven days. The queue releases its copy after acknowledgement or expiry. A message can expire before the recipient returns.

This queue lifetime is separate from a disappearing-message timer, which controls retention on the devices after receipt. The delivery reference explains acknowledgements, retries and routing.

Choose what the chat keeps

Set a disappearing-message timer in the contact's controls to give the conversation a retention schedule. The timer is shared inside the encrypted session and applied by cooperating clients.

Choose carefully what you share: a recipient can keep a screenshot, export or other copy after a timer expires.

Photos and voice notes

Auris encrypts attachments with separate random keys delivered inside the conversation. The photo-send path re-encodes image pixels to remove source metadata.

Saving a received image to Photos or another app puts that copy under the destination's storage and privacy settings.

Choose receipts and typing indicators

Read receipts have a global default and per-contact overrides. Typing indicators have their own per-contact control. Review those choices separately from the security dial.

These controls travel inside the encrypted conversation. A receipt indicates a client action; it cannot tell you whether a person understood a message.

Edit or unsend

Edit and unsend apply to your own messages when the receiving client processes the update. They cannot take back content someone has already seen or copied. Screenshot and recording notices depend on what the operating system can detect.

Delete local history

You can remove individual messages, a chat, or a contact with its history. Local deletion changes the active encrypted store. Copies in exports, device snapshots or your contact's possession have separate lifetimes.

To choose what unlocks the history you keep, see history protection.