Hey Pickful community,

Today we’re shipping something the community has been quietly asking for: direct messages. Starting now, you can have 1:1 private conversations with any Pickful user — no more shouting in the comment section or @-ing across threads.

💬 Why we built this

The community keeps growing. People want to swap details about an interview, share a hot tip, or just send a single emoji of solidarity — none of which is a great fit for public comments. It was time.

Our answer: one private thread per pair, text plus images, delivered in real time. Online recipients see it instantly; offline ones see it the next time they’re on Pickful.

🚀 How to use it

• Hit the Message button on any user’s profile to start a thread
• A new Messages entry in the side menu shows unread counts with a red badge
• The composer supports text plus images (PNG / JPEG / WebP / GIF)
• Sent something you regret? You have 2 minutes to retract — the message turns into a “Message retracted” placeholder on the other side
• Done with a thread? Hit the trash icon in the conversation header — it disappears on your side only, the other person still has the history

🛡️ Anti-harassment, by default

DMs are more intimate than comments, so we baked the protections in from day one:

🔒 Privacy

• DM content lives only in Pickful’s database; only the two participants can see it
• We don’t read your DMs. We do retain minimal metadata (timestamp, participant IDs) for compliance
• Retracting is a soft delete: the body is wiped immediately, the record stays for auditing
• No third-party analytics, no ad SDKs

📅 What’s next

This is v1, intentionally scoped tight:

• No group chats (1:1 only)
• No “read by” receipts (privacy-sensitive — coming as an opt-in)
• No emoji reactions (low demand for 1:1 threads)

If you bump into something you need, tell us — in comments, on Twitter, or now: just DM us 🎉

💬 To the community

DMs are how a community moves from “a public square” to “a network.” Squares are great for announcements, but the real connections happen one-on-one. As of today, two Pickful users who want to talk no longer have to take the scenic route.

This is live across Web, iOS, and Android — no app update required.

The Pickful team
May 13, 2026