We need to talk (yet again)
There are some important (and fun) new wrinkles to share about the Substack Chat feature
Hello, friends.
The engineering team at Substack has made some very notable changes to the way Substack Chat works and I wanted to share them immediately. Two I’d like to highlight:
🏀 Substack Chat is now accessible from a desktop computer as opposed to merely the Substack app, which thrills me. More background on that in the enclosed link. I’ve already started a new March Madness-inspired thread using the web functionality; click the orange button to join us.
From Substack’s own announcement:
As of now, you can start and participate in a chat on desktop via substack.com/chat. Anyone can use Chat from the web without needing to download the Substack app (although you definitely should!).
🏀 It’s true: Subscribers are also now able to start chats themselves. For our community, I’ve decided to make this an extra benefit for Paid subscribers. Instead of waiting for me now, Paid subscribers can raise a topic and interact with other subscribers as well as moi. Loyal reader Koby Boyd has been known to throw a comment into an old chat to try to spark new conversation or ask me a question when something comes up in the middle of the night. Now that’s even easier. Pretty cool.
Read this for all the ins and outs.
We regularly have a good back-and-forth going already in the comment sections on numerous stories, but these updates to the Substack Chat functionality give us yet another arena to converse and connect in. This is a conversation space which originated in the Substack app set up exclusively for subscribers to The Stein Line … akin to a group chat or live hangout (or even our own little hideaway from NBA Twitter if you want to look at it that way).
To stay abreast of new chats, you’ll need to download the Substack app, now available for both iOS and Android. Chats are generally announced via the app rather than email, so turn on push notifications to ensure you don’t miss the conversation as it happens.
Key Reminders
Download the app by clicking this link or the button below. Substack Chat is now available on both iOS and Android.
Open the app and tap the Chat icon. It looks like two bubbles in the bottom bar, and you’ll see a row for my chat inside.
That’s it! Jump into my thread to say hey … and check out Substack’s FAQ if you have any issues.
I’m very excited about the new opportunities to chat.
Definitely.