Who can you message? Your friends, people who each have the other's number saved, or someone who messaged you before. Anyone else gets a friend request with an optional intro note (up to 200 characters) — this protects you from messages from strangers.
Start a chat: Messages → New chat → choose a person.
Message ticks:
| Tick | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🕓 | Not on the server yet (no internet — it is sent automatically when you're back online) |
| ✓ | Reached the server |
| ✓✓ grey | Delivered to their phone |
| ✓✓ coloured | Read |
| ⚠ red | Not sent — tap to retry |
Long-press a message for: reactions (💚 😂 👍 😮 😢 🙏), Reply (or swipe the message sideways), Edit, Translate / Show original, Copy text, Forward, Listen (reads it aloud), Star, Report, Delete for me, and Delete for everyone for your own messages.
Deleting:
- Delete for me: the message disappears from all your devices for good — it doesn’t come back after signing in or on a new phone. The other person still sees it. Deleted by mistake? Tap Undo within a few seconds.
- Delete for everyone: for your own messages within 48 hours of sending. Its text and file are wiped from the server and "This message was deleted" stays in its place. After 48 hours the message is part of the other person’s chat too — this protects them and keeps evidence if they need to report it.
Limits: a message can be up to 4,000 characters.
Editing a message: long-press your text message → Edit → correct it and send. Available within 15 minutes of sending, up to 5 times. Both of you see "edited" next to the time, and the edited message is translated again for the other person. Photos and files can’t be edited — delete them and send again.
Location 📍: tap + → Location:
- My location now: arrived safely? Tellu reads your location once and shows you the city before sending. It arrives as a map card with the city and an Open in Maps button. No tracking and no live sharing — your location is only read when you tap.
- Ask for location: they get a request with a Send my location button — one tap if they agree, or they can ignore it.
- An address from Google Maps: in Maps tap Share → Tellu → choose the chat. The address appears as a card with the place name and a button to open it in Maps.
- In an encrypted chat the location stays end-to-end encrypted.
Starred messages ⭐: long-press a message → Star. Find everything you starred, from all chats, with the ⭐ button at the top of Messages; tapping a message opens the chat right at it. Stars are kept in your encrypted backup and come back with you on a new phone.