Private messages

Private messages are one-to-one conversations between players. They're separate from the event chat, which everyone on the event can read — a private message goes to one person and stays between the two of you.

You don't need an account. The personal schedule link in your invite email carries everything you need.

Where to find your messages

The speech-bubble Messages button sits in the header of two pages:

• Your schedule page — the link from your invite email.
• Your All Events dashboard — if you sign in with a PickleFriend account.

A small badge on the button counts unread messages (it stops counting up at 9+). Tapping the button slides open a drawer listing your conversations, newest first, with a preview of the last message in each. Tap one to open it; the back arrow returns to the list, and Esc or the ✕ closes the drawer.

Opening a conversation marks its messages as read, and an open conversation refreshes itself while you're looking at it, so a reply appears without you reloading the page.

Starting a conversation

There's no directory to search. You start a conversation from wherever the person already appears:

• The event's player list — tap their name and a small card appears with a 💬 Message button. The card fades after a couple of seconds, so tap the button while it's up (on a computer, hovering keeps it open).
• The event chat — tap the 💬 beside someone's message.
• Help Needed — tap the 💬 beside a volunteer's reply, handy for sorting out who's bringing the nets. See Booking jobs.

Any of those opens the drawer straight onto that conversation. Type your message and tap Send (or press Enter). Messages are plain text, up to 1000 characters each — longer text is refused rather than quietly trimmed, so split a long note into two.

If the other player has push notifications switched on, they'll get one titled "[Your name] messaged you" with the opening of your message, and tapping it takes them straight to the conversation. There's no email version of a private message — it's an in-app conversation only.

Who you can message

You can message someone you currently share an event with. That means one of you is invited to an event the other is also invited to — or, on events that let players partner with anyone in the group, one of you is offerable on it through the partner pool without being invited yet.

That's the whole rule, and it's checked when you send, not just when the button is drawn. If you don't share an event with someone, the message box at the bottom of the conversation is replaced by a short note:

You can only message players you currently share an event with.

Sharing an event is a moving target — it comes and goes as events are created, filled, and finished. Losing it doesn't delete anything: the conversation and everything in it stays readable, and you can pick it back up the next time you're both on the same event.

You can't message yourself, and you won't see a 💬 Message button on your own row in the player list.

If your group has messaging switched off

Private messaging is on by default for every group. It can be switched off at the group level — and if the group belongs to a larger organization, that organization's setting applies too.

While it's off, the message box is replaced by the same note explaining you can't reply. Nothing is deleted: past conversations stay readable, and they work again if messaging is switched back on.

One inbox, or one per group

Which conversations you see depends on how you arrived:

• Using a schedule link (no account) — you're that one player record, so the drawer shows the conversations belonging to it. A different group means a different link and a separate list.
• Signed in to a PickleFriend account — every player record matching your email address is pooled into a single inbox. One list covers every group you play in, and you don't have to remember which link a conversation started on.

That pooling is the practical reason to claim your player record if an organizer created one for you: without it, each group's messages live behind their own link.

When you reply, the system works out which of your player records to send as — the one already in the conversation, or one that shares an event with the person you're writing to. You never pick; the other player just sees the name they know you by in that group.

Blocking someone

Every conversation has a Block button in its header. Tap it, confirm the prompt, and nothing further from that person reaches you: no new messages in the thread, no unread count, no notification. While the block is on, the message box is replaced by a note —

You've blocked this player. Unblock to message them.

— so blocking closes the conversation in both directions for you, not just theirs.

A few things worth knowing:

• How far it reaches depends on how you signed in. Blocking while signed in to a PickleFriend account applies to every player record matching your email at once, so the person can't reach you through a different group's roster. Blocking from a schedule link applies to the player record that link belongs to — the same record whose inbox you're reading.
• Your history stays. Messages you'd already received before the block remain in the thread. Blocking stops what comes next; it doesn't erase what came before.
• Unblocking is the same button. It flips to Unblock while a block is in place, and reopens the conversation from that point on.
• It's messages only. Blocking is player-to-player and has no effect on event invitations, reminders, announcements, or the event chat. To change what lands in your inbox, see Managing your emails.

Blocking is silent housekeeping on your side — there's no announcement, and your organizer isn't notified.

What's next

• The page most of this lives on: Your schedule page.
• The group conversation on an event, as opposed to a private one: Announcements and chat.
• Pooling every group into one inbox: Claiming your player record.