Getting started
Three steps to your first message: profile, contact, conversation.
1. Create a profile
On first launch, pick a name and an avatar. That is when your profile keys are created on the device. Contacts see your name, while your Shum ID sets you apart from everyone else.
Personal profile, keys on device
Shum ID: 6f8c…2a912. Add a contact
Show your QR code, send a link or find someone nearby. The conversation starts once they accept the invitation.
3. Send a message
Nearby, messages travel over Bluetooth; at a distance, through Nostr relays. The status in the chat shows which path is available right now.
Bluetooth and relays
Shum has two ways to deliver a message, and you never have to pick one by hand.
Bluetooth works when the other person is nearby, usually within a few dozen metres. The message goes directly, no internet needed, and other devices running Shum close by can pass it along.
Nostr relays work over the internet at any distance. They are open servers that store and forward encrypted envelopes but cannot read them.
Shum picks whichever path is available, and the status in the chat shows which one is working right now.
Shum in the terminal
Besides the apps, Shum has a CLI: a version for the terminal, the command line. On a Mac that is the Terminal app.
First install the CLI as described in Downloads, CLI section. Then open the terminal and run these commands in order:
shum initcreates a profile: name and avatar,shumopens the full-screen interface with your chats,shum chatslists your chats right in the command line.
# install (macOS) brew install hitechteam/shum/shum # create a profile shum init # open your chats shum