In short
Messages in the App are the conversations attached to your Connections. There is no inbox of strangers: a conversation exists only where a relationship exists, which is why nothing here is ever unsolicited.
Who can read a conversation depends on who is on the other end, not on a setting. Between two people the messages are encrypted on the devices themselves. With an organization, its authorized staff can read the channel — because answering you is the job.
On this page
Where conversations come from
Every conversation is the messaging side of a Connection you already have. You do not search for people and you cannot be found and messaged by a stranger. Somebody either connected with you and you accepted, or you connected with an organization yourself.
That structural fact does more for your inbox than any filter could. There is no cold outreach in the system because there is no path for it — an organization cannot open a channel with you at all, and another person needs your acceptance first.
Opening your Messages, or a conversation — including from a notification — asks for your face or fingerprint first. A check lasts five minutes and is dropped once the App has been in the background for more than thirty seconds; the reasons are in Your Connections in the App.
Who can read what
| Conversation | Readable by | Encrypted end to end |
|---|---|---|
| With another person | The two of you | Yes, by default, when both are on a current App |
| With an organization | You, and its authorized staff | No, by design — the channel is staffed so it can be answered |
| An event group room | Everyone admitted to the room | No. Treat a room as semi-public |
End-to-end means the platform carries and stores a conversation it cannot open. It requires both sides to be on a current App version, because the encryption depends on both devices having published the key material it works from. If one side is on an older build, the conversation falls back to being protected in transit and in storage rather than end to end — and the App tells you rather than leaving you to guess.
Sending photos and files
Attachments follow the same rule as the text around them. In an end-to-end conversation they are encrypted on your device before they are uploaded, so what sits in storage is an opaque blob rather than your photograph.
Because encrypted media is fetched with a short-lived authorization, an image occasionally fails to load if a conversation has been sitting open for a long time. Reopening the conversation fixes it — the App fetches a fresh authorization.
Voice and video calls
One-to-one calls are end-to-end encrypted, and the encryption state is shown on the call screen itself.
They also fail closed rather than quietly downgrading. If the App cannot establish the key for a call, it declines the call and tells you it could not establish a secure key, instead of connecting you over something weaker. A call that ends immediately for no visible reason is usually this — retry on a stable connection.
Calls ring only on a phone that is signed in to your account; signing out with Logout in Settings stops calls ringing that phone. Missed calls and your call history are in Recent calls — see Your Connections in the App.
Muting, archiving and leaving
| Action | Effect | Visible to them |
|---|---|---|
| Mute | Stops notifications from that Connection — messages still arrive and show as unread. On a brand Connection it silences that brand’s conversation with you | No |
| Archive | Takes a Connection with a person out of your active list without losing anything. Brand Connections are not archived | No |
| Block | Stops that person reaching you and prevents reconnecting later | No announcement is sent |
| Delete the connection | Removes your copy of the relationship. It does not delete the conversation for the other person | No |
History, and what a new phone means
This is the honest cost of end-to-end encryption, and it is better understood before it bites. When the platform cannot read your conversations, it also cannot read them back to you on a new device, and no one at Linxy can recover them for you. That is the same property you were relying on for privacy; it cannot be had one way only.
If an individual message ever displays as an encrypted placeholder rather than text, this device does not hold the key that message was encrypted to — typically after a reinstall or a device change. Newer messages read normally, and support cannot decrypt the older ones.
Symptoms, causes and fixes
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A message shows as an encrypted placeholder | This device cannot decrypt that message — usually a reinstall or a new phone | Newer messages are fine. Older ones cannot be recovered by anyone |
| The App says a conversation is not encrypted | One side is on an App version that has not published key material | Both sides update. Nothing is lost meanwhile |
| A call ends the moment it starts | The call key could not be established, so the call was declined | Retry on a stable connection. This is deliberate fail-closed behavior |
| An attached image will not load | The short-lived authorization for encrypted media expired | Reopen the conversation |
| A brand replied under a different name | The channel is staffed and a colleague picked it up | Expected. The relationship is with the organization |
| No notifications for new messages | Notification permission off at the phone level, or the conversation is muted | Check both |
| You want to add a third person | Person-to-person channels are two-party and cannot be extended | Use an event group room, or connect to each person separately |
Things people commonly get wrong
Related reading: Private channels and message privacy, Types of Connection, Ending a Connection, Consent, and what each side can see, and Setting up the Linxy App.