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Messages
Messages holds three lists: Channels, Direct messages and Rooms. Unread counts show on each conversation, on the list and on the home screen.
Note
Wio Tracker L2: one screen with all three as sections; tap a section title to fold it. New in the header starts a conversation with any contact.
Reading
Open a conversation to see its history as chat bubbles: yours on the right, received ones on the left, newest at the bottom. Each bubble shows its age and a small hop count: on a received message, how many repeaters it came through; on your own, how many repeaters were heard passing it on. In channels and rooms it also names the sender.
A conversation with unread messages opens on the first of them, under a New line, so you read down to the newest. With nothing unread it opens at the newest.
Enter on a message opens it full screen; Left / Right there pages to the older and newer one.
Hold Enter on a message for its options:
- Reply: starts a message addressed to the sender (
@[name]). - Navigate, Save waypoint, Set as target: when the message contains a location (see Navigation).
- Path on a received message: the repeaters it came through. Relayed by on your own channel post: the repeaters heard repeating it.
- Show route: when the message has a route written in it, such as a
bot's
!pathreply (3f:a1:c8, see Remote bot). It draws the route on a small map: you, each repeater numbered in order, and the sender, with how many of the hops could be placed (a repeater needs a position). In a direct message the route starts from you, because it's the way your message went; on a channel it's someone else's, so it doesn't. Back closes it.
Note
Wio Tracker L2: hold a bubble. The card shows when it was sent, the hop count, the path as a diagram, and Reply / Set target, plus Route when the message has a route in it: the nodes map opens with the route drawn and its hops numbered, and the names along the bottom; Done goes back to the conversation.
How much is kept
The device keeps the newest 48 channel messages and 32 direct messages, all
conversations together. When a busy conversation pushes out messages you
haven't read, its unread count gets a + (for example 48+).
Note
Wio Tracker L2: 256 channel and 128 direct messages in memory, and with an SD card every conversation is also saved to the card (100 to 2000 messages each, Settings › Storage). The history survives a reboot and scrolls back through everything on the card.
Note
Wio Tracker L1: with Keep messages on (Settings › Messages, off by default) messages are also saved on the flash, 500, 1000 or 2500 in total: two thirds for channels, one third for direct messages and rooms. The newest come back after a power-off. Scrolling past the oldest message of a conversation goes on to the saved ones, twelve at a time; Back returns to the newest.
Messages are saved within a minute of arriving, or sooner in a burst. The power switch cuts the power at once, so it can lose that last minute; hibernating and the low-battery shutdown save first.
Writing
Open a conversation and choose + Send (or Enter at the bottom of the history). Pick a quick message or Custom message for the keyboard.
- Quick messages: ten of your own, edited in Settings › Messages.
- If a message can't be sent, you stay where you were: the keyboard keeps the text (its label reads Not sent), so you can send it again.
- Placeholders fill in live data when the message is sent:
{loc}(your GPS position),{time},{batt}, and the readings of any sensor the device has:{temp},{hum},{pres},{alt},{lux},{dist},{co2}. - How much is left: a message holds 160 bytes, less what the send adds (a channel post carries your name and ": "). Within the last 40 the keyboard shows the bytes left, counting placeholders as they will be filled in. An accented or Cyrillic letter takes two bytes. The keyboard stops taking letters at the limit.
Note
Wio Tracker L2: the compose bar sits under the conversation; its + opens quick messages and placeholders. Quick messages are edited in Settings › Messages & contacts.
The keyboard
The on-screen keyboard is a letter grid (or a phone-style T9 keypad, Settings › Keyboard › Layout).
Moving the cursor
While you type, a line under the text marks where the next letter goes. To
fix something earlier in the message, press Up from the top row of keys.
The cursor turns into a block on the letter it stands before, the keys stay
on screen without a selection, and the bottom row shows what the arrows do
now (<> char ^v word):
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| Left / Right | Moves one letter |
| Up | Back to the start of the word (the one before, if already there) |
| Down | On to the end of the word (the next one, if already there) |
| Hold Enter | Deletes the letter before the cursor |
| Enter, Back | Back to the keys; typing carries on at the cursor |
Up at the very start of the text goes to the bottom row of keys, and Down at the very end goes back to the top row. So if you pressed Up by mistake, one Down returns you where you were. The text never shifts around the cursor: what you see is what will be sent.
Accented letters don't need a language setting: hold Enter on the base
letter and pick from its variants, for example a → á à â ä å ą…, z →
ź ż ž. This covers Polish, Czech, German, French, Spanish, Nordic and the
other European languages written in Latin.
Settings › Keyboard picks two scripts, Main and Additional, from Latin, Cyrillic and Greek; the keyboard's #@/abc key cycles between them and symbols. Cyrillic includes the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Serbian letters (under the key they sit on). Received messages in any of these scripts display correctly whatever the keyboard is set to.
Note
Wio Tracker L2: a phone-style keyboard. Hold a key for its accents; the globe key switches between the two alphabets. 1# opens digits and symbols; #+= there opens a second page with brackets
[ ] { } < >,\ | ~ ^ ` $and a few more (£ ¥ § ° ± × ÷ • … « » –).
Channels
Hold Enter on a channel for its options:
| Option | Does |
|---|---|
| Mark all read | Clears its unread count |
| Notif, Melody | Its own notification and sound, instead of the global ones |
| Fav | Marks it as a favourite (shared with the app) |
| Scope | The region its messages are tagged with: Default follows the list's default, * sends none; the list is in Settings › Radio › Scope |
| Pin to dial | Puts it on the Favourites page |
| Edit, Delete | Renames it or changes its secret; removes it |
The order of the list is in Settings › Contacts › Channel order: as the channels were added (Slots), the one with the newest message first (Newest), or by name. Favourites stay on top while Favourites first is on.
+ Add channel at the end of the list adds:
- Public: the default public channel, if you deleted it.
- Hashtag: a topic such as
#hiking. Anyone who types the same topic joins the same channel. - Private: a name and a secret, typed as a passphrase or as the 32-digit hex key (the format of channel QR codes).
Note
Wio Tracker L2: hold a channel, or tap ⚙ in an open channel, for its options.
Direct messages
Hold Enter on a contact: Mark as read, Notif, Melody, Fav, Pin to dial. Fav is the star shared with the app and sorts favourites to the top; Pin to dial only puts the contact on the Favourites page.
Rooms
Opening a room logs in first. You type the password once (empty if the room has none); it's saved on the device, including passwords set from the app, so the next time it logs in without asking. A wrong password is forgotten and you're asked again. Hold Enter on a room offers Login… and Logout.