BOND Instant Messenger

BOND is our on-site text, voice, and video instant messaging system available to Premium members. Premium profiles display a floating BOND icon that allows you to start a conversation instantly.

Click the floating icon on a Premium member's profile to open BOND Messenger and begin sending text, emojis, or audio messages, or to make voice or video calls. All messaging stays within THE CAGE for your safety.

Want to learn more about voice and video calls? Check out our dedicated Voice & Video Calls Help Section for tips, troubleshooting, and best practices.

BOND is a Premium-only feature. You will not see the BOND icon on Basic member profiles. Basic members cannot send or receive BOND messages and cannot start BOND conversations.

Premium members can be identified by the star icon next to their username.

If you are a Premium member, the alert may indicate a new BOND message rather than a standard inbox message.

Click the BOND bubble in the lower-right corner of your screen to open BOND Messenger and view your unread conversations. When new messages are awaiting, the BOND button ring color changes to purple.

Yes. Click the down arrow next to any BOND message to see available options:

• Edit a message you already sent (available up to 5 minutes after sending)
• Delete for you only
• Delete for all parties

Please confirm your choice carefully. Deleted messages cannot be recovered.

Yes. Click the reply option on any message to quote it in your response. A quote of the original message linking to it will appear above your reply for full context.

Yes. Use the search option inside a conversation to quickly find previous messages, including text, links, or quoted replies.

If a message contains only one to three emojis and no text, BOND displays them as large emojis. This makes reactions more visible in the conversation.

A greyed-out or dimmed conversation indicates the other user cannot currently access BOND.

This may happen if the user:

• Deactivated or deleted their account
• Downgraded from Premium to Basic
• Is otherwise unavailable for messaging

Inactive conversations remain visible but cannot be used until the peer is active again.

Hush lets you hide conversations without deleting them. Open the conversation options panel to hush or unhush a conversation. Hushed conversations are removed from your main inbox but remain saved and can be read at any time. BOND will stay silent and won't alert you when new messages arrive in hushed conversations.

Do Not Disturb temporarily pauses all BOND notifications. When enabled, you won't be notified when new messages arrive — no sound alerts, no push notifications, no color ring around the floating icon, and the icon itself will be dimmed. You can still open BOND and read messages at your own leisure. Notifications resume as soon as you turn it off.

Open BOND settings by tapping the gear icon at the top-right of the messenger window. From there you can adjust:

• Notification Sounds — Toggle sound alerts on or off for all incoming messages.
• Push Notifications — Enable push notifications on supported devices when BOND is installed as an app.
• Do Not Disturb — Temporarily pause all notifications. You won't receive sound alerts, push notifications, or see the color ring around the floating icon, and the icon itself will be dimmed. You can still open BOND and read messages at your own leisure. Notifications resume as soon as you turn it off.

If a user is unavailable, it may be because:

• Either you or the other user no longer has an active Premium membership
• Their account is inactive or deleted
• Messaging is restricted

BOND displays contextual messages explaining unavailable conversations when possible.