Open Contacts.

Add someone

1. Enter their username.
2. Send a contact request.
3. They accept (or decline) on their Contacts page.

You can only message people who are accepted contacts.

Nicknames

Set a private nickname on a contact (up to 32 characters). Only you see it — it appears in your contact list, message composer, and history. Their real display name stays visible as a secondary hint when a nickname is set. Nicknames are plain text only (markup and control characters are stripped).

Mute

Temporarily mute a contact for 15 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours, or 24 hours. Their messages are still stored; they will not play live until the mute ends. Mute is one-sided — they can still hear you.

Reply

When a contact messages you:

• Open the message from Messages and tap Reply, or
• Tap Reply on the full-screen Spotlight card when it is a personal message

Either way the composer opens with that person already selected (same as messaging them from Contacts).

Next: Composing messages · Sound board