Account
Messaging
Direct messages, read state, typing indicators, and blocking someone.
Messaging is one to one, reachable from the Messages tab and from the button on a profile.
Who can start one
Everyone, only the people you follow, or nobody. Note the middle one: the people you follow, not the people who follow you.
Read receipts
Turning yours off stops your read time being shown to the other side. Your own unread badge keeps working, because that is a separate private record.
Typing indicators
Live and deliberately ephemeral, held outside the database so they leave nothing behind.
Image
A conversation with the composer and a typing indicator.
Blocking
It works in both directions: new conversations are refused and so are messages in threads that already exist. The other side is never told, and the refusal reads identically from both sides.
Its scope is messaging only. It does not unfollow anyone and it does not hide profiles or events.
Messages never ring the in-app bell; they show as a badge on the tab instead. Push goes out per burst rather than per message, when you have nothing unread and it has been a couple of minutes since you last looked.