Frequently Asked Questions

Account management

How do I reset my password?

Please note that we cannot reset passwords or reactivate UCMeet Chat accounts if no email address is attached to your account. In that case, contact the administrator of your UCMeet server.

Do I need an email address to register?

Adding an email address when creating a UCMeet account is optional. It makes it easier for other users to find your account and helps you reset your password if needed.

Ultimately, the server administrator decides whether an email address is required when creating a UCMeet account.

For accounts on the UCMeet home server, an email address is optional during registration, but UCMeet may occasionally request one to prevent abuse, as described in the privacy policy.

What is my username used for?

We use your username to create your identifier — your UCMatrix ID — which distinguishes you from other users who may have the same display name. This also helps keep your email address private. 🙂

Can I register using a phone number?

Not anymore. Sorry!

Chat

How can I mention someone?

Just type their name and they will receive the corresponding notification. You can use autocomplete by pressing Tab; no special prefix is required for mentions.

What kinds of mentions will notify me?

By default, you receive notifications when your display name or username is mentioned. You can add other names, nicknames, or keywords that should notify you in the Notifications section of settings.

How do I send a file?

Simply drag the file into UCMeet Chat and it will upload automatically. You can also click the paperclip icon in the message field and choose a file from your device.

Can I upload a file from a mobile device?

Yes. On mobile, tap the upward arrow on iOS or the “+” icon on Android in the chat and choose a file.

How do I invite a contact to use UCMeet?

You can invite someone to a room using the “Invite to this room” button in the member list on the right. Enter their UCMatrix ID, if they have one, or send an invitation by email. Users without a UCMatrix ID can preview the room if the room rules allow it.

Can I see whether a message has been read?

Yes. UCMeet Chat shows who has read a message by displaying the user’s avatar to the right of the message. Hover over that avatar, or tap it on mobile, to see user information and the read time.

How can I find a file or message?

To search in a room on desktop, click the magnifying-glass icon at the top of the screen. Enter a keyword or file name, then choose whether to search within the current room or across all conversations. For encrypted rooms, search works only on desktop, not in the UCMeet Chat web or mobile apps, and you must enable Message Search in the UCMeet security and privacy settings.

Settings

How do I change my account settings?

Click the drop-down menu under your name in the top-left corner of the web or desktop app and choose the relevant item. There you can change your account settings and general UCMeet Chat settings.

How do I change notification settings?

UCMeet Chat lets you configure notifications on two levels: for the entire app and for individual rooms. You can set the default way you are notified about certain events in the Notifications section of settings, available from the drop-down menu under your name in the top-left corner of the web or desktop app.

You can configure keywords, default notification options for group and one-to-one chats, invitations, and calls. Notification options include:

— Off: you will not receive notifications for the selected event.— On: when the selected event occurs, you will receive a visual notification without sound.— Noisy: when the selected event occurs, you will receive visual highlighting such as a red badge and/or highlighted text, plus sound and/or vibration depending on the device.

For more precise control, you can set room-specific notification options from the context menu that appears when you hover over the room name in the list. This is useful when you want to mute a room temporarily or make sure you do not miss anything in a particular discussion. Available room options include:

— Mute notifications: you will not receive notifications, even if your name or keyword is mentioned.— Mentions only: you will receive notifications only for events that should be “noisy”, such as mentions of your name or keywords.— All messages: you will receive a silent notification for every message in the room; your “noisy” events, such as mentions, will still be noisy with a red badge and sound.— All messages noisy: every message will play a sound in addition to the visual notification. Your noisy events will still be shown with a red badge.

How do I set up email notifications?

You can configure UCMeet Chat to send you email when you miss activity such as new messages or invitations. To do this, open Notifications in settings and enable the “Enable email notifications” switch.

How do I change my display name?

You can change your display name in the General section of settings, available from the drop-down menu under your name in the top-left corner of the web or desktop app.

How do I reset my password?

The UCMeet team cannot reset passwords or reactivate ucmeet.org accounts.

If you forgot your password, go to web.ucmeet.org or your home server and click the “Set a new password” link. You will need to enter the email address registered to your UCMeet account and choose a new password. You will then receive an email confirming the password reset request. Follow the link in the email to complete the process and restore access to your account.

If you did not add an email address to your UCMeet Chat account, contact your home-server administrator, who may be able to reset your password for you.

Why should I link an email address to my account? Can I do it later?

Ultimately, the server administrator decides whether you need to use an email address when creating a UCMatrix account and, if necessary, may restrict registration to specific email addresses or domains.

Whenever possible, we strongly recommend adding an email address so you can recover your account if you lose your password. It also helps other people find you and is easier to remember than another identifier. If you did not add an email address during registration, do not worry: you can add as many email addresses as you want later in the General section of settings.

If you forgot your password and did not register an email address for your account, your home-server administrator may be able to reset the password for you. Otherwise, unfortunately, there is no other way to access the account. 🙁

Rooms

How do I change settings for a particular chat or room?

You can change settings for any one-to-one chat or group chat by clicking the gear icon next to the room name.

Can I restrict access to a room to a specific group of people?

You can restrict access to a room to invited users only by choosing “Private (invite only)” in the room’s Security & Privacy settings. People who know the room link will not be able to access it unless they have been explicitly invited by email or ID.

If you add the room to a space, you can also choose “Space members” to allow access only to members of that space.

Can I restrict access to a room to people who know it exists?

You can restrict access to a room to people with whom you shared the room link by choosing “Anyone who knows the room link” in the room settings. Choosing this option does not make the room public to the wider community.

Can I make a room public?

To add your room to the server directory, select “Publish this room to the public in the example.com room directory?”. After you select this option, anyone searching for rooms on the server will be able to find it. However, they will only be able to join if you have not restricted access to invited users only.

Can anyone join my room if I add it to the directory?

If your room is listed in the directory, people will know that it exists, but they can join only if you allow access to anyone who knows the link.

Can new members see the room history?

Yes. If the room’s privacy and security settings set message-history visibility to “Members (full history)”, new members will be able to read messages sent before they were invited.

In end-to-end encrypted rooms, this feature is currently under development and will be available soon. When Ivan invites Katya to such an encrypted room, Katya sees a note on past-message pages indicating that Ivan shared them with her.

Because Katya was not in the room when previous messages were sent, Ivan provides her with the decryption keys for those messages. Most users will not need to think about this in normal situations and the messages can still be trusted, but from a security perspective it is important to be transparent about the origin of decryption keys and trust anchors. If Ivan acted maliciously and could find a malicious server administrator to cooperate with, they could manipulate those past messages together.

By contrast, if history visibility is set to “Members since invitation”, new members will not see messages sent before they were invited.

Note: changing room-history visibility does not affect messages that have already been sent. What matters is the setting that was active when a message was sent. For example, if history visibility was “Members since invitation” at the time a message was sent, that message will always be visible only to members who were invited or already members at that time. So if you switch from “Members since invitation” to “Members (full history)” on Tuesday at 10:00, future members will not be able to read messages sent before Tuesday at 10:00.

Note: in end-to-end encrypted rooms, history is available only if the new member is explicitly invited to the room. If the room allows users to join without an invitation and the new member joins that way, they will not be able to view the history.

If I make a room accessible to everyone, will new members be able to read its history?

No. Changing room access, such as who can join the room, does not automatically affect history visibility, such as who can see the history. For example, if visibility is set to “Members since invitation” and the room becomes accessible to everyone, a user still needs to join the room to see the history and will see only messages sent after they joined.

Also note that even if you later change history visibility to “Members (full history)”, that will not affect past messages. Those messages will still be visible only to the members who were invited or already members when the message was sent.

Why would I make history visible to anyone?

Making message history visible to everyone lets people see what has been discussed in a room before joining it. If you browse the room directory and see a room that might interest you, you can look inside and see what is being discussed without joining. This helps users evaluate a room before they join. It is useful for publicly available rooms that host public discussions, so users know what they are getting into before joining.

Note: for security reasons, this option is available only when the room is accessible to everyone and does not use end-to-end encryption.

What is a room address?

By default, a room has an unattractive identifier that is barely readable by humans. Assigning a room address gives the room a simple identifier, making it easier to share a link. Addresses are tied to the server where you are registered, for example matrix.ucmeet.org if your ID is @username:matrix.ucmeet.org. A room can have several addresses on the same home server and addresses on different home servers. It is just a convenient entry point, but it is required if you want to make the room available in ways other than inviting users.

What is the Favorites section?

In Favorites, you can pin and organize important rooms so they appear at the top of your room list in UCMeet.

What is a low-priority room?

The Low priority section lets you organize your room list by moving rooms you consider less important to the bottom of the list.

What is the historical section?

The History section lists all rooms you have left and lets you view the history of your time there. You will not see new activity in those rooms, only what happened before you left.

As a room administrator, can I control what members are allowed to do?

In Roles & Permissions in the room settings, you can set the privilege levels required to perform different actions in the room, such as sending messages, banning or removing members, editing messages, updating room settings, inviting new members, and more.

Privacy policy, abuse information, and reporting

Please note that UCMeet Chat is a client that lets you access any home server in the ucmeet.org network, just as a browser lets you access any website. Each home server has its own abuse-management and privacy practices, which are outside the control of UCMeet Chat.

How is my personal data used?

The UCMeet Chat privacy policy is available here. If you have additional questions, contact our data protection officer.

How do I report content in UCMeet Chat?

To report inappropriate content in UCMeet Chat, hover over the message, click “More options” (three dots), and choose “Report content”.

How do I file an abuse report?

To report an abuse-related issue, please contact info@uc.technology.

To report an abuse-related issue on the ucmeet.org home server, please contact director@uc.technology.

To report an issue outside the ucmeet.org home server, please contact the administrators of that home server.

End-to-end encryption

What is encryption?

Encryption means scrambling a message so that only someone who knows the secret key can decrypt it. We use encryption to protect the privacy of your messages and files.

What is end-to-end encryption?

End-to-end encryption means that your messages and files are encrypted before they leave your device and remain encrypted until they reach the devices of the other participants. End-to-end encrypted messages can be read only by the participants in the conversation.

Who can read my messages?

With end-to-end encryption, only the participants in the conversation can read your messages — and nobody else. This means your messages cannot be read by UCMeet staff or any other third party. It also means that if you lose your keys, you will not be able to read your messages.

Are all my messages encrypted?

No. Messages are encrypted only in rooms where encryption is enabled. You can enable encryption in Room settings.

What is key storage?

Key storage is needed:

• To decrypt chat history on new devices when you add them to your account.
• For backup, so you can preserve your digital identity and chat history even if you remove all your devices or lose access to them.

Key storage is enabled by default. To work properly, your device or devices store a copy of message keys on your service provider’s server.

Is it safe to store keys?

Before your digital identity data and message keys leave your device, they are always encrypted. Nobody except you, not even your service provider, can access them or use them to read your messages, send messages on your behalf, or add devices to your account.

What is a recovery key?

A recovery key is a unique 48-character key, for example: EsTZ 4us6 nh29 89jk U1uH Zbae 4PuS QQC1 86pt em8o R8nb bdwQ. It is generated so you can restore your chat backup and preserve your digital identity if you lose access to all your devices.

It can also be used to verify new devices that you add to your account.

If you are not signed in anywhere in UCMeet or have lost all your devices, the recovery key is the only way to preserve your digital identity and restore your chat history.

Where should I store my recovery key?

In a safe place. Typical options include a password manager, a hardware-encrypted USB drive, or a sheet of paper stored in a secure physical location, such as a safe or locked drawer.

What happens if I lose my recovery key and sign out or lose access to all my UCMeet devices?

You will need to reset your digital identity. Your previous messages will no longer be decryptable, and other users will see that you reset your digital identity. If you explicitly verified any contacts, you will need to verify them again.

How do I get a recovery key?

Go to User settings → Encryption and click “Get recovery key”.

What is the difference between key storage and a recovery key?

Key storage is the main technical method for sharing keys between your devices. A recovery key lets you access those keys even if you lose access to all your devices, ensuring that you can preserve access to your digital identity and chat history in such cases.

We give users full control over which keys, if any, leave their device. The table below summarizes different scenarios from a usability and privacy perspective. Note that no key ever leaves your device unencrypted.

What does “key storage out of sync” mean?

UCMeet web and mobile apps monitor the state of your digital identity by checking whether all keys that define the digital identity are present on the device. This helps detect potential problems early and ensure correct encryption and decryption of messages.

If one or more keys are missing, you receive a “key storage out of sync” notification and are asked to enter your recovery key to retrieve the missing identity keys from key storage. In some cases, key storage may also be missing all digital-identity keys; in that case, you will need to reset your digital identity.

This is uncommon and should happen rarely. A typical reason is previous use of an outdated or faulty UCMeet Chat client, which is detected during the health check.

What is a device?

Simply put, a device is the laptop, phone, tablet, or desktop computer from which you sign in to or create your account.

Users who sign in multiple times, for example from different browsers or different mobile or desktop apps, should note that each sign-in requires separate verification, even if it happens on the same physical device. Each authorized session appears as an independent “device” in your account.

What is digital identity?

In end-to-end encrypted messaging systems, digital identity is the foundation for ensuring that when Tatiana sends a message to Sergey:— only Sergey can decrypt the message;— Sergey can cryptographically confirm that the message was sent by Tatiana.

In practice, a user’s digital identity is established as a pair of cryptographic keys generated locally on the user’s laptop or phone when they first sign in to their account. However, an ordinary user usually does not see their digital identity anywhere on the screen and does not need to manage it directly.

What are identity pinning and user verification?

If Sergey wants to make sure he is still communicating with Tatiana, he needs to remember Tatiana’s digital identity. Similarly, Tatiana needs to remember Sergey’s digital identity.

UCMeet provides two layers of protection for remembering a contact’s identity:— Identity pinning: Tatiana’s identity is saved automatically when Sergey first starts a conversation with her.— User identity verification: Tatiana and Sergey explicitly confirm that they both have the correct identity information for each other. This is done by comparing a set of emoji or scanning a QR code shared through another channel, such as a video call or an in-person meeting.

Identity pinning is more convenient because it works automatically from the user’s point of view and is sufficient for most use cases. Sergey and Tatiana receive a notification when the other person’s identity is reset, but communication is not blocked.

For higher-risk situations, user identity verification provides additional protection against sophisticated man-in-the-middle attacks, where an attacker actively interferes with Tatiana and Sergey’s communication from the beginning of their conversation, replacing their identities with the attacker’s identities and preventing them from ever learning each other’s real identities. User identity verification prevents such advanced attacks.

Why do I see a digital-identity reset notification for one of my contacts?

UCMeet notifies you whenever a contact’s digital identity has been reset, so you can check the privacy of your conversation and protect against possible man-in-the-middle attacks.

The most common reason is that the contact reset their digital identity themselves, often because they lost all devices without a recovery key. However, a digital-identity reset may also indicate an attempted interception.

What should I do if I receive a digital-identity reset notification?

We recommend checking with the contact whether they reset their digital identity intentionally. You can do this in person or through an alternative channel such as email or another messaging app.

If the reset concerns a previously verified contact, we strongly recommend verifying them again as soon as possible. Note that in this case communication with that contact will also be blocked. If you cannot re-verify immediately, you can withdraw verification to continue communicating with that person.

If you had not previously verified the contact’s identity, the new data will be accepted and saved automatically, so no additional action is required from you. We will notify you if the contact’s identity changes again in the future.

What does device verification mean in UCMeet?

Device verification is required when Tatiana or Sergey adds another device — they sign in somewhere else, such as from another laptop or phone, or even from another browser on the same laptop.

After signing in on the new device, Tatiana uses her digital identity and the underlying cryptographic keys to show Sergey that the new device really belongs to her and was not added by someone else who has access to her account. She can do this either by entering her recovery key, which immediately gives the new device access to her digital identity, or by performing an interactive verification from an already verified device.

Can I search encrypted rooms?

Search in encrypted rooms is available only in UCMeet for macOS, Windows, and Linux, provided it is enabled in Security & Privacy settings in UCMeet Chat.

Report bugs and request new features

How do I send a bug report?

On mobile devices: open Settings in your profile and tap “Report a problem”.On desktop and web: open Settings in your profile, click Feedback, then click “Start new” in the Report a bug section.

How do I request a new feature?

Before creating a new feature request, please make sure there is no similar request already. Please send new UCMeet Chat feature requests as tasks to support@uc.technology.

Threads

Why does my home server need thread support?

To reliably update the list of threads in a room and their content, your home server must support threads through MSC3440. If your home server uses Synapse, this feature is available in version 1.55 and later. You can ask your home-server administrator to update it to support threads.

If your home server does not support threads, you can still read threads and contribute to them, but the feature may be unreliable: you may not see all threads in the room, and some messages may be missing, especially older ones. For this reason, we strongly recommend updating your home server.

How does the unread-message badge in the room list work with threads?

The unread-message badge in the room list works the same way as before threads were introduced. It shows the number of messages between your last read receipt and the latest event in that room.

Sometimes, while reading rooms, you may notice that the unread-message badge in the room list decreases by a larger number than the number of visible messages in the room timeline. This happens because new messages hidden in threads are no longer shown on the main timeline. The room-list badge no longer shows them, but an unread dot will still appear in the thread list until you open the thread.

This limitation will be addressed in future home-server improvements that will help clients track thread-read activity more accurately.

If you selected another notification option, such as “Mentions and keywords” or “None”, UCMeet will respect that setting just as it did before threads were introduced.

How can I avoid missing messages posted in threads?

If at least one thread has unread messages, you will see a notification dot on the thread icon in the room header. Click it to open the thread list, sorted by the date of the latest reply. You will see a dot to the right of the thread icon indicating that the thread contains events you have not read yet.

Why does the thread list show only a dot instead of the number of unread messages?

This feature is not supported in the beta version. For now, UCMeet always shows a dot rather than an unread-message count, regardless of the room notification settings.

Will the unread-message badge in the room list increase if someone posts in a thread I did not participate in?

Yes, but we are currently exploring ways to provide more detailed notification settings in the context of threads.

Why is a thread shown as unread even though I already read it on another device?

In the beta version, clients cannot always reliably synchronize read state with each other. A thread that you already read on mobile may still show a notification in UCMeet Web, or vice versa.

Are push notifications and email notifications supported?

Yes. Following links from push notifications or email notifications will display the event in UCMeet in the correct context.