People, profiles and invitations

Choose what people see on your profile, follow people, invite friends to join DonutChat, and block someone you don’t want to hear from.

Your profile

The Profile tab shows your photo, name, @username, email address and introduction, plus your Followers and Following counts. Only you see your email address.

Photo: select your photo on the Profile tab to change it. The desktop app can’t change your photo.
Introduction: select Add introduction or Edit introduction and write up to 500 characters. In the desktop app, use About you in Settings > Profile.
Display name and username: you can change these only in the desktop app. Go to Settings > Profile, edit Display name or Username (usernames have 3–30 characters), then click Save profile. You need to be able to sign in to the desktop app, and accounts created with Apple can’t. See Sign in on the desktop app.

Other people see your name, @username, photo and introduction, the date you joined, and your follower and following counts.

View someone’s profile

Select a person in search results, in a chat’s member list or in a follow notification, or select an @mention in a message. In a direct chat, you can also open Chat info > View profile.

A profile shows the person’s photo, name, @username, introduction and Member since date, and their follower and following counts (you can’t open other people’s lists). It has Follow and Message buttons, and a More (…) menu with Block User.

In the desktop app, choose View profile from a person’s More options menu. The Profile dialog has Message, Follow or Unfollow, and Block….

Follow people

Anyone can follow anyone on DonutChat. There are no private accounts or follow requests.

To follow someone, select Follow on their profile or in search results. The button changes to Following.
To unfollow, select Following. There’s no confirmation.

The person gets a follow notification. People you follow are listed when you start a new direct chat, and if they own or manage a group, they can add you to it directly. You can’t follow someone you’ve blocked or who has blocked you.

Followers and following lists

On the Profile tab, select Followers or Following. You can also use More > Followers on the Chats tab.
Switch between the Followers and Following tabs.
In Following, select Message to chat with someone, or × to unfollow them.

In the desktop app, open People > Followers. People you follow are under Following in People > Find people.

You can’t remove someone from your followers. To stop someone from following you, block them.

Invite friends to DonutChat

New accounts need an invite link from someone who already uses DonutChat. Your personal invite link lets friends create their account.

Open the Search tab and select Invite friends (or My invite code at the top). The Invite friends screen shows your link as a QR code and the date it’s valid until.
Select Share invite link to send the link with a short invitation from another app, or Copy link to copy it.

Friends can scan the QR code with their phone’s camera. DonutChat doesn’t have its own QR scanner. The link works until the date on the screen; to get your current link, open the screen again. To see what your friend does next, see Create your account.

In the desktop app, click Invite in People, or go to Settings > Invite friends. Click Copy URL to copy your Invitation URL; the dialog shows when it expires. If it has expired, click Get current invitation. The desktop app doesn’t show a QR code.

Invite people from your contacts

On iPhone and Android, you can text your invite link to people in your phone’s contacts. You send the text yourself from your messaging app.

iPhone
Android

On the Invite friends screen, scroll down to Invite from contacts.
Tap Allow contacts, then allow access when your iPhone asks.
Select the people to invite. To find someone, use Search name or phone number.
Tap Invite selected. Messages opens with your invitation, ready to send.

You can select up to 100 recipients at once. DonutChat reads your contacts on your phone only to show this list. It doesn’t upload them or check which of your contacts use DonutChat. You can still share or copy your link without giving DonutChat access to your contacts.

Block someone

Blocking someone stops direct messages between you, hides you from each other in search, and removes any follow between you. Select Block User in the More (…) menu on their profile (desktop app: Block…). For what blocking does in groups and how to unblock someone, see Block someone.