Starting a conversation

Your conversations live under Messages in the sidebar. The Messages icon at the top of every page shows how many unread messages you have and opens a quick view of your conversations. On a phone it opens Messages itself.

Ways to start one

Press Message on a listing's page, or choose Message from the More actions menu on its card while you browse.

Press Message on the card of a booked session, under Schedule.

In Messages, press +, choose New Conversation, enter an email address and press Invite.

If you already have a conversation with that person, you are taken back to it and nothing new is started.

Inviting someone by email

If the address belongs to someone who already has an account, the conversation appears in their list. If the two of you have not been in touch before, it arrives as a message request once your first message has passed the automatic message check. If the address has no account, we email them a link to join, which works once and lasts 7 days.

Three new conversations a week

You can start up to three new conversations in any seven days. This keeps the Message button from being used for spam, so it only counts conversations you start from nothing:

going back to a conversation you already have is free

a conversation that opens because you booked a session does not count

a group conversation you create does count

At the limit, you see Can't start this conversation. You can start another one seven days after you started the oldest of the three.

When someone cannot be messaged

Two things can stop a new conversation. Neither affects a conversation you already have with that person, or a session you book with them.

Their listing has no Message button: they have turned off new conversations. You can still book a session with them, and the booking opens a conversation. If you reach them another way, you see This person is not accepting new messages right now.

Their Message button reads Away, back on and a date: they have marked those days as unavailable. You can write to them from the date shown.

If someone you already talk to is away, the conversation shows the date they are back. You can still write, and they read it when they return.

If you offer services, people who have never been in touch with you before reach you as a message request. The article on message requests explains how those work.