In short
Person-to-person Fusion connects two people without either of them handing over a phone number, an email address or a phone to type into. One side offers a touchpoint or a link, the other asks, the first accepts — and a private channel exists that neither the platform nor anyone else can read.
The part worth knowing before you use it: your display name is the only thing that crosses by default, and what you share with somebody is a completely separate setting from what they share with you. The dials never mirror each other.
On this page
- Why swapping numbers is the wrong primitive
- Request, accept, two independent dials
- Four ways to introduce yourself
- What they see when your request arrives
- Your card, and who can see it
- Deciding what to share, per person
- Turning inbound requests off
- Symptoms, causes and fixes
- Things people commonly get wrong
Why swapping numbers is the wrong primitive
Exchanging phone numbers does two things at once, and only one of them is what anybody wanted. It creates a way to talk — and it permanently hands a stranger a key that reaches you everywhere, works forever, cannot be scoped, cannot be revoked, and gets sold on if their phone is compromised or their address book is scraped.
A Connection separates those. The channel is the channel: it opens because you both agreed, it closes when either of you says so, and it reaches you only inside the App. Your number stays yours, and becomes something you can hand over later, to specific people, when there is a reason — and take back.
This matters most in exactly the situations where people currently hesitate. A tradesperson at your door. Somebody at a conference you might want to talk to and might not. A buyer for something you are selling. A person you have just met. In all of these, “here is a way to reach me” is welcome and “here is my mobile number” is a bigger commitment than the moment deserves.
Request, accept, two independent dials
Four ways to introduce yourself
| Path | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Your connect code (your invitation Mark) | Made in the App under Connections. You show it on your phone or on a tablet at a table; they scan it and a request reaches you. It is on only while you are showing it, so a screenshot does nothing — unless you switch on Always on for a printed card or a signature | Meeting in person: shows, events, a desk. See Your connect code |
| An NFC tag | A tag you write from the App to your invitation. They hold their phone against it; tags keep working while your screen is off, and each can be removed on its own | Reusable placements: a badge you wear all day, a tag on a desk, a door |
| Your code | They type your short code into the App | Spoken introductions, phone calls, situations where nothing can be scanned |
| An invitation link | You create a link and send it. Each one works once and expires after seven days. Claiming it raises a request that you still approve — a link is an introduction, not an automatic Connection | Following up with somebody you can already reach, or introducing one specific person |
In the App, New look replaces your code and retires the previous one; the first code is free and your plan sets how many changes you have per month. Retiring is always free. On the web you may hold several invitation Marks, with one designated as live; retiring the live one promotes the next oldest.
What they see when your request arrives
A request is not silent and it is not anonymous. The person receiving it sees your display name, how the two of you met, and anything short you chose to write with the request. The “how you met” part is generated rather than claimed — scanned your Mark, tapped your tag, entered your code, used your invitation link — which is what makes a request from a stranger answerable at all.
Then they accept or decline. Nothing opens on a request alone, no channel exists in the meantime, and a request nobody answers expires after fourteen days rather than sitting there indefinitely.
Declining is quiet. The person who asked is not sent an explanation, and a decline can optionally block further requests from that device if somebody is being persistent.
Your card, and who can see it
Your invitation Mark leads to a card: a display name, a headline, optionally a photo, and up to eight links to public pages of your choosing. You can also add a short context note with an expiry date — “at the Chicago show until Friday” — which stops showing itself after the date you set.
You can point the Mark somewhere else instead: at a page you have built on the platform, or at any address you choose. If that page is later deleted or the address is malformed, the Mark falls back to the card rather than failing.
Deciding what to share, per person
Once connected, open the Connection and set what that person can see about you: your name, email address, phone number and photo, individually. Your display name is always shared and cannot be switched off — a conversation with nothing to call you by does not work.
Set it per person, not once. The colleague you work with daily can have your number; the person from the same event, three weeks ago, does not need it. Changing your mind later takes two taps and does not disturb the conversation or notify anybody.
One honest limit: turning a field off stops future access to it. It does not reach into what somebody already read or wrote down. Decide before you disclose rather than relying on being able to undo it.
Turning inbound requests off
There is a single switch that stops new connection requests reaching you. With it off, people who try are told you are not accepting requests right now — they are not left wondering whether their scan worked. Existing Connections are unaffected.
It is worth knowing this exists in both directions. If your own requests are being refused with that message, nothing is broken on your side and there is nothing to retry; the setting belongs to the person you are trying to reach.
Symptoms, causes and fixes
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| “Not accepting connection requests right now” | That person has inbound requests switched off | Ask them directly. Retrying will not help |
| A request has sat unanswered for weeks | Not accepted, or already declined quietly | Requests expire after fourteen days. Send a fresh one, or exchange an invitation link instead |
| You shared your number and they cannot see it | You edited the wrong direction — what they show you, rather than what they can see about you | Use the control labeled as what they can see about you |
| They still show only a display name | They have not disclosed anything else, which is the default | Ask in the conversation. There is no way to request fields from your side |
| An old card in someone's wallet no longer works | That invitation Mark was retired | Expected. Send them an invitation link, and re-print with the current Mark |
| An invitation link says it cannot be used | It has been claimed already, revoked, or is more than seven days old | Create a new one. Each link works once by design |
| Somebody keeps sending requests after a decline | Declining alone does not stop them | Decline and block, or switch inbound requests off for a while |
Things people commonly get wrong
Related reading: Types of Connection, Consent, and what each side can see, Managing Connections in the console, Ending a Connection, and Private channels and message privacy.