Settings

Customize your Freedom Messenger experience — theme, font sizes, language, notifications, and more.

Your Profile

Open profile editing from the labeled profile button in the sidebar: click your avatar/name row with the pencil icon, or focus it with the keyboard and press Enter or Space. The profile dialog is separate from general Settings.

Settings and profile dialogs keep focus inside the open dialog. Press Escape, click the backdrop, or use the close button to close only the top dialog and return focus to the control that opened it.

Display Name

Your display name is what other users see in chats, user lists, and mentions. You can change it at any time in your profile settings.

Avatar

Upload a profile photo from the profile dialog using the visible "Change avatar" button or the avatar button. The image is automatically resized. If you don't upload one, your initials are shown instead.

Email and Phone

You can optionally add an email address and phone number to your profile. These are not required — you can use Freedom Messenger completely anonymously with just a username and passphrase. If you add them, other users on the same server can see them on your profile.

Privacy note: Email and phone are optional and visible to other server members. Freedom Messenger does not require any personal information to create an account — your username and passphrase are enough.

Opening and Closing Settings

General Settings opens from the gear button in the sidebar and contains Appearance, Notifications, and Apps tabs. Profile editing opens from the profile button described above. Both open as modal dialogs. While a dialog is open, the chat behind it is not interactive. Press Escape or use the close button to close the top dialog and return focus to the control that opened it.

Appearance

Theme

Choose between Dark and Light mode. New users default to the light theme until they choose and save another preference.

Message Font Size

Adjust the size of message text. Options:

  • Small — fits more messages on screen
  • Normal — default balanced size
  • Large — easier to read

UI Font Size

Adjust the size of interface elements (sidebar, headers, buttons). Same options: Small, Normal, Large.

Language

Freedom Messenger supports English and Russian. On first run, the app uses your saved language if you have one; otherwise it detects English or Russian from your browser language and falls back to Russian for unsupported languages. Changing the language updates all interface text immediately and saves the choice for future visits.

The language switch is available on the login screen before authentication and in the sidebar after you log in.

Notifications

Global Notification Controls

Use the Notifications tab to turn all notifications on or off, or control messages, tasks, and calls separately. Sound and vibration are separate options: turning sound off makes notifications silent, but does not stop delivery.

Notification Previews

Preview privacy defaults to Private, which shows only a generic Freedom Messenger notification. You can switch to Sender to show who sent it, or Full to show the message or task text. Individual chats can override this in their chat notification menu.

Quiet Hours

Quiet hours suppress normal message and task notifications during the selected time window. The time window uses your reported device timezone. Mentions and incoming calls still use their urgent rules so important events can reach you.

Device Manager

Every browser, installed PWA, desktop app, and Android app registers as a separate notification device. The device list shows permission state, platform, last seen time, and whether that device is enabled. Disabling a device stops every notification channel for that device, including push and live app notifications. Removing a device also deletes its push subscription.

Push Permission

Browsers and PWAs require operating system or browser permission before push notifications can appear. If permission is still set to the browser's default prompt state, Freedom Messenger treats it as not granted until you explicitly allow it.

Microphone

Grant or revoke microphone permission. This is required for voice calls and voice messages. If your browser blocks microphone access, you may need to update the permission in your browser's site settings.

Autostart (Desktop Only)

When using the desktop app, you can enable autostart to launch Freedom Messenger when your computer boots up. The app will start minimized in the system tray.