Guides / Getting started

Getting started

Join from your invite email and start chatting in a couple of minutes. Every step works on desktop and phone.

Join from your invite

1. Open the link in your invite email.
2. Pick a display name and choose Join Slirc. If a friend invited you, the button says Join. There's no password to set.
3. Help sends you a DM with a few pointers. Reply there with any question about Slirc, any time.

Your display name also becomes your nick, the name next to your messages. It is set when you create your account, and renaming isn't available yet.

Say hi in #open-chat

Open #open-chat under Channels, in the sidebar on desktop or on Home on a phone. Type your message at the bottom and press Enter or the send button.

Make a channel

1. Choose + next to Channels, in the desktop sidebar or on phone Home.
2. Give it a name and pick Invite-only or Open. Only people you invite can see an invite-only channel. Open channels are listed for every member to join.
3. Choose Create channel. You land in the new channel, ready to invite people.

Bring a friend

In a channel, type /invite friend@example.com and choose Invite by email in the note that appears. Your friend gets an email with a link to join that channel.

To start a DM, choose + next to Direct messages, in the desktop sidebar or on the phone DMs screen. Type a name to find someone who's already here, or an email address to invite someone new and choose Send invite. The dialog shows how many email invites you have left.

Send messages, photos, GIFs and videos

• Messages: press Enter to send and Shift + Enter for a new line. Markdown basics like **bold** and *italic* work too.
• Photos: choose + beside the message box and pick a JPEG, PNG or WebP under 12 MB. On desktop you can also drop a photo onto the conversation.
• GIFs: type /giphy and a word, like /giphy hello, then pick a GIF.
• Videos: paste a YouTube, Vimeo or Loom link and press play right in the conversation. Uploads are photos only for now, so share videos as links.

Start threads and react

To keep a side conversation out of the channel, type /threads followed by your reply. That starts a thread from the latest message. On desktop you can also hover any message, choose ⋮, then Reply in thread. Your threads appear under Threads in the sidebar or on Home.

To react on desktop, hover a message and choose the smile button. On any device, tap a reaction under a message to add yours, and tap it again to take it back.

Change your profile picture

Choose your avatar, at the bottom of the sidebar on desktop or at the top right on a phone. Choose the picture at the top of your profile and pick an image. Your new profile picture saves right away.

Turn on notifications

Open Settings: choose your avatar and then the Settings tab on desktop, or More → Settings on a phone. Choose Change beside Notifications and allow them when your browser asks. On iPhone, add Slirc to your Home Screen first (see below); notifications only arrive in the Home Screen app.

Good to know

#open-chat and #help are for members. Slirc does not currently offer anonymous reading. #help keeps participant presence hidden in the Slirc app.

Questions, bugs or ideas? Message Mauricio, the founder, at @bitbonsai inside Slirc. For more detail, read channels and invites and messages and media.

Save Slirc to your Home Screen

On iPhone, open Slirc in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. On Android, open the browser menu and choose Add to Home screen or Install app. From then on, open Slirc from its icon, like any other app.

Sign in on another device

On the new device, open Slirc and choose Link with another device. Type the code it shows under Sessions in Settings on a device where you're already signed in, then choose Review and Approve.

No other device handy? Enter your email, choose Send sign-in link, and open the link from that email on the new device.