Usage

Dens is built for independence: there are no central servers, and nothing you need from its developer once it’s installed. That’s great for many reasons, but it has limits. Each den is fully isolated: there’s no federation. If you have the same friend in two dens, you have two sets of DMs with them, and if a den shuts down, you lose touch with everyone who was only there. For friends you’d like to stay in touch with, share some other way to reach each other, or host your own den.

Joining

A den is one community: its channels, its members and their DMs, on a computer run by one of them. You need an invite from someone there, a long code starting with dens1:.

1. Open Dens and choose Add a den.
2. Paste the invite, and choose Join as someone new.
3. Pick a username, a display name and a password for this den. The username can’t change.
4. Save your recovery codes and your DM recovery key somewhere safe, such as a password manager.

You have a separate profile in each den, and no den can link it to your others. Each den has a Den ID, which everyone in it sees the same: compare it with someone already there to be sure you joined the den you meant.

Your passwords and keys

There’s no company keeping your account for you, so Dens asks you to keep a few things most apps don’t.

You’ll find the last three again under the den’s Manage, in You in this den, and the local password in Settings, under System.

Signing in from another computer

Every computer runs its own Dens. On the second one, choose Add a den, paste an invite to the den, even a used one, or the den’s address, and choose Sign in to my account there. Enter your username and den password, then approve the sign-in from a device that’s already in: type the digits each screen shows into the other. That proves the new device is the one in front of you, and hands it what it needs to read your DMs.

No other device at hand? Use a recovery code instead, then enter your DM recovery key to read your DMs. Forgot your den password? Choose Forgot your password? Use a recovery code when signing in: you’ll set a new one, and your other devices are signed out.

If a sign-in you didn’t start asks for approval, refuse it, and change your den password: whoever asked has it.

Direct messages

DMs are end-to-end encrypted: only you and the other person can read them, not the den. Open someone’s profile and choose Message; it opens at once.

The den passes your keys between you, so if it were tampered with, it could slip in keys of its own. To be sure it didn’t, compare codes.

Comparing codes

Open the lock beside the person’s name in the DM, or Compare codes on their profile. Read your code out to them, and type theirs as they read it out. If both match, nobody sits between you, and a check shows beside their name.

Compare somewhere the den can’t reach: in person, on a call where you know it’s really them, or in a den one of you owns. Not this one, even if it’s yours: whatever tampered with it could change the digits there too. Be wary of “I’m @them over there, let’s compare there” for the same reason. If the digits don’t match, don’t trust the DM until you’ve compared somewhere else.

Group DMs

A group DM is a DM of three to ten people, end-to-end encrypted as a DM is. Start one from + New group above your DMs, or from Add people on the profile beside a DM. Someone added reads it from when they joined, not before, and someone removed, or who left, reads nothing written after. Anyone in it can add people, rename it or leave; whoever made it can remove people. Each change is signed by the member who made it, so the den can’t add anyone on its own. Groups have no calls.

Disappearing messages

Anyone in a DM or a group DM can have its messages disappear 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week or 4 weeks after they’re sent: pick a time under Disappearing messages, on the profile beside a DM or below a group’s members. When its time comes, a message is gone from the den and from everyone’s devices, even ones that were offline, with its photos and files. Anyone in the conversation can still copy or screenshot it before then.

Notes to self

Your notes are a conversation with yourself, at the top of your DMs: links, lists, drafts and files you want on each of your devices. They’re end-to-end encrypted with a key made from your DM recovery key, so only your devices can read them. Resetting that key, or leaving the den, loses them.

Around the den

Channels, calls, screen shares, reactions, polls, emoji, events and the soundboard work as you’d expect. What’s different:

• Calls are end-to-end encrypted, and the lock beside one lists who’s in it, to compare codes with. Everyone in a call hears the soundboard, and one sound plays at a time. Turn anyone up to 200% from their ⋯ in the call; past 100% a loud voice may crackle. Settings → Voice holds push to talk’s Release delay and a Toggle deafen shortcut.
• Polls can be anonymous to everyone in the den, its owner included; the den itself still knows, since it counts each vote once. With After voting, each person sees the totals once they vote, and their vote is then final.
• Reactions in a DM or a group are sealed like its messages: the den sees that yours changed, not what they are.
• Spoilers: choose Spoiler on a photo or video before you send it, or write ||text||.
• Events, at the top of a den’s channel list: choose ☆ Interested and Dens tells you as one starts, on your phone too. Be in a voice-channel event’s call for a minute and you earn its badge, which shows on your profile; hide any badge with its eye on your profile. Nobody sees who’s interested, only how many.
• Your profile is per den. A crown marks the den’s owner, a shield a moderator. Photos you send lose their location and camera details before they leave your computer.
• Name style, in your profile: a font, a color or a gradient for your name, which everyone in the den sees. A color may show lighter or darker on someone else’s theme, so it stays readable there. To see names plain, or in their colors alone, set Settings → Appearance → Name styles.
• Compact messages, a line each, is under Settings → Appearance → Messages. On a computer, the sizes of photos and videos and of YouTube players are there too, up to Largest.
• Themes: Settings → Appearance has a few dozen, and New theme makes one of your own from three colors. Copy code turns yours into a line of text to send someone, who adds it with Paste a code. Your themes stay in the browser you made them in.
• Chat background puts a picture of yours behind your messages, as dim as you set it. Your Dens keeps it, so each browser you open Dens in shows it, and nobody else sees it.

Notifications

Nothing notifies you until you turn it on: in Settings, under Notifications, turn on Direct messages, Mentions, or both. The bell beside a den’s name mutes the den, and the bell at the top of a channel or DM mutes just that one. A notification shows the start of the message to anyone who can see your screen; turn off Show the message and it says only who sent one.

Leaving

Open the den’s Manage, from the den’s name at the top of its channel list, and choose Leave den at the bottom. You can come back with a new invite, as yourself: join with your old username and den password, and your history comes back with you. Your notes don’t.

If Dens can’t reach the den, because its server is gone for good, say, Leave den offers Remove from this computer instead: it deletes your keys for the den on this computer, and the messages and files it kept. If the den comes back, sign in again from Add a den.

Sending logs

When something goes wrong, such as a call that keeps dropping, Dens’s logs say what it did and when. In Settings, under System, set Log level to debug, let it happen again, then Download the newest logs there and send the file. Set the level back to warn after: at debug the logs grow faster.

The logs hold no messages, keys, passwords or network addresses. They name your dens, and channels and members by number, and they’re plain text, so you can read them before you send them. For a call that drops, the den’s logs help too: its owner gets them the same way, or on a server with dens logs.