Barota keeps your inbox calm and safe. Not everyone can message you out of the blue, and businesses can't cold-message you. Here's how it all works.
Barota controls who is allowed to start a conversation with you. Messages from people you don't know don't just land in your main inbox ā they go to a separate Requests area first, so you decide who gets through.
You choose this in Settings ā Privacy ā Who can message you:
No matter your setting, if you and another person follow each other, are connected, or you're in the same Hub, you can always chat. Connecting is the easiest way to open messaging with someone you know. See Follow and Connect.
When someone you don't follow tries to message you (and your setting is "People I follow"), it becomes a request instead of landing in your inbox.
Your personal chats stay personal. When you hire someone through Trade, make a booking, or open a dispute about a Bazaar order, it gets its own chat in Messages, labelled with what it's for and kept apart from any personal chat with the same person. See Chats for jobs, bookings and disputes.
Businesses can't cold-message you. A business or organisation account can only message you if you follow them. This stops spam and unwanted sales messages.
Hub chats are not end-to-end encrypted. A Hub chat is a moderated space, so the Hub's moderators and Barota's safety team can see what is posted there. Keep anything private for a one-to-one chat. See Hubs.
Someone said they messaged me but I don't see it.
Check the Requests tab in Messages ā if you don't follow them, it's waiting there.
I declined someone by mistake. Can I undo it?
Follow them, or ask them to follow you and follow them back ā once a follow relationship exists you can message each other directly.
Why can't I message a business back?
You can, once you follow them. Open their profile and tap Follow.
I run a business ā why can't I message customers first?
To protect people from spam, businesses can only message people who follow them. Encourage customers to follow your page, and reply through order/booking threads for anything transaction-related.
In an end-to-end encrypted conversation, tap āÆ beside your own message:
Every post, comment, profile, Hub, article, event, campaign and listing has a Report button, and so does every Fire and Bond profile. Tap Report and choose a reason; the reasons fit what you are reporting. You'll see "Thank you. We have received your report and will review it within 24 hours." only once it has reached us. If it didn't, we say so and give you another way to reach us. In an end-to-end encrypted conversation you can report a single message: tap āÆ beside it, then Report. Barota's safety team sees that message exactly as it was sent, checked against its signature, and the person is never told who reported it. A message deleted for everyone can still be reported for 30 days after it was deleted. In any other conversation, report the person's profile. The most serious reports (child sexual abuse material, under 18) are treated as critical and go straight to Barota's safety team. A report never suspends anyone by itself: a person decides. When someone is reported as under 18, their access to Fire and Bond, and to starting new conversations with adults, is paused straight away until that person decides. Nothing else about their account changes.
When you block someone, the block is enforced everywhere ā not just hidden in the interface. The person you blocked cannot see your profile (it returns "not found"), find you in search, see your posts in the feed or Explore, or message you, and any existing conversation is hidden from both sides. Manage your blocked accounts in Settings ā Safety.
Restricting sits between muting and blocking, and the person is never told. When you restrict someone, they can still see your profile, but their new comments on your posts are hidden from everyone else until you approve them, and their messages move to a filtered requests area with no read receipts and no online status shown. It is useful when you do not want to block someone outright but want to limit their reach. Manage restricted accounts in Settings ā Safety.
Conversations with people you have restricted move to a separate Restricted tab in Messages, out of your main inbox. The tab shows a count of restricted conversations, and each one carries a subtle Restricted label. You can Unrestrict someone directly from that tab at any time.
Muting is quieter than blocking. When you mute someone, their posts stop appearing in your feed, but they can still see your profile and message you, and they are never told they've been muted. Unmute any time in Settings ā Safety.
Barota automatically filters abusive and hateful language across every supported language. If something you write is not allowed, you'll be asked to revise it before it can be posted. Repeated attempts lead to escalating restrictions, up to a permanent ban.
Audio, video and group calls are only ever between people who are connected on Barota. Nobody can call you unless you've accepted their connection request first, so there are no cold calls. Barota does not record calls, and recording a call without everyone's consent is not allowed. See Calls on Barota for how to start, answer and manage calls.