The chat list: All, Unread, Invitations
What the three views on the chat side show, how unread badges and ordering work, and what the list deliberately does not do — no search, pinning or muting.
The chat side of Private.Ki has three views, listed in the sidebar (or the ☰ drawer on a phone): All, Unread and Invitations. They are filters over the same conversations, not folders — a chat is never "in" one of them, and there is nothing to move.
123123The three views
All is every conversation you have: one-to-one chats and groups together, newest activity at the top. A group row shows a people icon with the number of members, and the preview is prefixed with who wrote it — You: or the sender's first name.
Unread is the same list, reduced to conversations with at least one message you have not opened. When there are none it reads No unread chats. Opening a chat marks it read.
Invitations is not a list of chats at all. It shows the email invitations you have sent to people outside Private.Ki that have not yet been accepted, with when each one expires. It is covered in Invitations: pending, cancelled, expired.
Unread badges
A conversation with unread messages shows its name in bold and a purple count on the right. The count stops at 99+. The Invitations entry in the sidebar carries its own count of pending invitations, and the Chats half of the Email / Chats switch shows a dot whenever any chat is unread — so you see it from the email side too.
123123To change the state by hand, right-click a row (or long-press on a phone) and choose Mark as read or Mark as unread. Marking as unread is a way of leaving yourself a reminder; nothing is sent to the other person.
Ordering
Rows are sorted by the time of the last message in the conversation, most recent first. There is no other sort, and nothing stays put: any new message brings its row back to the top.
Two other things appear on a row when they apply: a green padlock after the name (every chat has one — it is the Encrypted conversation marker), and on the desktop a small timer chip such as 1 w when a self-destruct timer is on in that chat. See Self-destructing messages.
On the phone the three views live in the ☰ drawer at the top left. The list itself is a single column; swiping a row to the right deletes the conversation (with six seconds to undo), and a long-press opens the same menu as a right-click on the desktop.
What the list does not do
Being honest about this saves you looking for it:
- No search. There is no search box for chats. If you have many conversations, scroll.
- No pinning. You cannot fix a conversation to the top.
- No mute. Notifications are per account, not per chat — see Push notifications.
- No archive, no folders, no Trash. A chat is either in the list or deleted — see Delete a chat.
Common questions
Why does a group row say "You:" but a one-to-one row does not?
In a one-to-one chat the sender is obvious from the row. In a group the preview names whoever wrote last so you can tell at a glance.
Someone deleted our chat on their side — will it disappear from my list?
No. Deleting a chat removes that person's copy only. Your row stays until you delete yours.