Direct messages
Your inbox with members, what members can send each other, selling messaging on its own, and the controls you have over all of it.
- messages
- community
- privacy
Direct messages in your console is your own inbox: conversations between you and individual members. Members also message each other, and those conversations are private.
What you can change
The Access and Settings tabs under Direct messages hold the controls, and the important ones are owner only.
Who can message. On the Access tab, one choice of three. Every member is the default: every member with access can message you and each other. Members on a level needs the Growth plan and a second membership level, and members below it either see messaging locked or do not see it at all. Only people I add limits Messages to people who bought messaging or whom you added; members who are neither lose the Messages tab. Nobody is emailed and nothing is deleted, so it all comes back if you switch back. People who bought messaging, or whom you added, can always message.
Photos and files. Each can be allowed or switched off.
The member directory. Whether members can browse each other at all.
Screening. An automated reader that checks messages members send each other for harm. Messages from the owner and admins are never screened. Available on the Growth plan.
Members can only message the hosts
A separate switch in Console > Direct messages > Settings controls whether members can message each other at all, on top of the “Who can message” setting above. It is off by default.
Off. Members can message each other, subject to the “Who can message” setting.
On. Members can only message the owner and admins, not each other. “Hosts” means owner and admin; editors do not count as hosts.
Give someone messaging without the community
You can sell or give a person direct messaging on its own, so a coaching client can talk to you without joining your community. They hold a messaging-only seat: they open Messages and nothing else. They cannot open your courses, your feed or the rest of the community, and Drry tells them their access is messaging only. They do not count toward your member limit. If they later join, buy a membership or are added as a member, they become an ordinary member.
The owner and admins can set this up. Direct messages must be switched on in Customize, under Members.
Pick what they get
Choose Direct (a private 1:1 with you or an admin you pick), Group (a seat in the group chats you pick; they cannot start a 1:1, but you can still message them) or Direct + group. Then pick the person or the group.
Sell it or add them
To sell it, make a payment link and under What they get choose Messaging only. Set the number of days of messaging, from 1 to 3650, and when it starts. See Payment links and agreements.
To add someone yourself, open the Access tab and press Add a person. Enter their email, a name if you like, and what they get. Under Access ends pick a date, or leave it empty to keep them until you remove them. Drry emails them a link to their inbox.
Make a group chat if you want one
On the Access tab, press New group and name it. It starts with just you. People join when they buy a link that puts them there, or when you add them, and leave when their access ends. New people see earlier messages decides whether someone who joins later can read what came before. A group chat holds up to 50 people, you included, on Growth, and 20 on every other plan. You can also make a group chat from inside the payment link form.
To limit what people can post in a group, open it in your console and open Photos and files above the message box. Switch off Photos in this chat or Files in this chat and only the owner and admins can send them there; everyone else loses the attach button, and a late attempt is refused with a notice. A group can only narrow what your community-wide Photos and files setting allows, never widen it, and voice notes are not covered. Editors are held to the switches like members.
The Access tab lists everyone under People with messaging. A bought link shows Active, Starts later, Not paid, Refunded or Ended, and someone you added shows Active or Ended. To take access away from someone you added, press the remove icon on their row. They leave the groups you put them in, you keep the whole history, and if they also bought messaging they keep that.
When the days run out, a client loses access. A refund, a failed installment plan or a lost dispute ends it too. None of this changes anyone’s community access.
Voice notes and their text
Voice notes you and your members send can be turned into text, so the people in the conversation can read them as well as listen. A third-party AI transcription service (Groq) does the writing out. Nobody is signed up for it automatically: the first time a person is about to record a voice note, in the web inbox or in the apps, they are asked Write out your voice notes? and answer Allow or Don’t allow.
It is the sender’s answer that counts. A voice note is written out only if the person who recorded it allowed it. A recipient saying yes does not change that.
Declining still sends the voice note. It arrives as audio with no text.
Anyone can change their answer later. Members find it in the Voice notes card on their account page (where the community has messages on) and in the account screen of the app. You can change yours in the settings of your Drry app. The newest answer is the one that counts.
Where a community uses screening, the text is checked like any other message. A voice note whose sender declined has no text, so screening cannot read it. A report from a member still reaches you.
An assistant you have connected reads your voice notes through their text, so a voice note sent without text has nothing for it to read.
Auto-delete for old messages
The owner or an admin can have older messages removed every night, so a community's storage does not fill up. The rules are in Settings, then Storage, under Auto-delete for members' content, and every one is off until you turn it on.
Photos, videos and files in messages: after 30 days, 90 days, 180 days or 1 year. The words stay.
Whole messages, with everything on them: after 90 days, 180 days, 1 year or 2 years.
Voice messages: 2 minutes or 1 day after listening, or 30 or 90 days after sending. After listening means once everyone else in the conversation has played it. Anyone in the conversation can press Keep to stop a voice message going.
Removed messages cannot be brought back. Members are told nothing until one of their messages is within a week of its limit; then that message says so, for example Photo removed in 3 days. See Storage: what counts and what does not.
Live conversations
An open inbox or conversation updates within about a second, so a new message appears without you refreshing. In a conversation you can see when the other person is typing, and a Seen note shows who has read your latest message. This works the same on the web, on mobile web and in the iPhone app. If the live connection drops, the conversation still catches up on its own, just a little more slowly.
Using it well
The inbox is where retention actually happens. A message to somebody who has gone quiet, referencing the thing they said they were working on, is the single highest return five minutes in your week. Their member record holds the notes that make it possible.
Common questions
Do members get an email when I message them?
If they do not open it, they get a nudge by email shortly after, so a message to a lapsed member is not shouting into an empty room. That nudge counts toward your monthly emails, but it always sends, even when your emails run out.
Can I message everybody at once from here?
No, and that is on purpose. Reaching everybody is what broadcasts are for. A direct message that is obviously a mailshot does more harm than a mailshot.
What happens to messages when somebody leaves?
The conversation stays in your inbox, marked as a former member.
Does a messaging-only client count toward my member limit?
No. They hold a messaging seat, not a community seat, so they never use up one of your member places.
Can a messaging-only client see my community?
No. They see Messages, their own profile and a way to delete their account. Courses, the feed, audio and the rest are closed to them.