Messages
Every outing has a group conversation. The person out there and everyone following them are in it.
It exists for one job: keeping the alarm meaningful. One line saying "slower than expected, back by 19:00" prevents a chain of phone calls and a 112 call that did not need to happen.
File: img/myjikita/messages-01-thread.png
Shows: The outing message thread with grouped messages from two people.
Where it is
- If you are the one out there — from your outing card on the map.
- If you are following someone — in the lower half of their panel. See Following someone.
It works without a signal
Messages are queued on the phone and sent when there is coverage, in both directions. A message that seems to have gone nowhere has not been lost; it is waiting for a bar of signal.
Each message shows what has happened to it:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| (nothing) | Delivered. A delivered message shows only its words. |
| Queued | Written, waiting for coverage. |
| Failed | Could not be sent. Try again when you have signal. |
Only the messages that have something to say say anything. That is why a normal delivered message carries no clutter at all.
How the thread reads
Consecutive messages from one person collapse under a single header — the time and the name, once — rather than repeating both on every line. Three quick messages from one person read as one block, the way a conversation actually looks.
Your own messages are labelled You.
Times are shown on a 24-hour clock.
What to send
Useful things, in rough order of value:
- "Running late, all fine, back by ~19:00." The single most valuable message in the app. It moves the alarm instead of letting it fire.
- "Changed plan, heading down the north side instead." A deviation you chose is very different from one nobody knows about.
- "All good" in answer to somebody checking on you.
- "Stood down, he called, he's fine" — if you are a contact and you have resolved a worry, tell the other contacts. A group that knows it has been stood down does not call 112 twice.
If you are the one worried, ask. A message costs nothing and will be delivered the moment their phone has signal.
What not to rely on
- It is not an emergency channel. In an emergency use SOS and, if you can, call 112.
- It is not instant. A thread is only as fast as the coverage at both ends. Do not read an unanswered message as bad news; read the clock.
- Messages are plain text. No photos, no attachments, no clickable links — short, deliberate, and cheap to send on a bad connection.
Privacy
Outing messages are visible to the people on that outing: its owner and the contacts it was shared with. They are stored so that they can be delivered to somebody whose phone was off, and they are covered by the same retention rules as the rest of the outing — see the Privacy Policy.
Messages are carried over encrypted connections. They are not end-to-end encrypted: the server can read them, which is what allows a message to be delivered to a phone that was offline when it was sent, and what allows a conversation to be preserved if it becomes part of a rescue. Treat the thread as a safety channel, not a private one.