Managing Your Contacts in Flash

This guide provides a complete overview of Flash’s Contacts feature, explaining how to find, add, and interact with your contacts for messaging and bitcoin payments.

Table of Contents

• Accessing Your Contacts
• Finding Contacts
• Adding New Contacts
• Interacting with Contacts
• Sending bitcoin to Contacts
• Contact Privacy & Security

Accessing Your Contacts

You can access your contacts through the Chat screen in Flash:

From the Chat Screen

• Open the Flash app and tap the Chat icon in the bottom navigation
• At the top of the Chat screen, you’ll see a “Contacts” tab that provides access to your contact list

Finding Contacts

The Contacts interface makes it easy to locate the people you want to connect with:

1. Browse Your Contact List

   • Your contacts are automatically sorted with most frequent interactions at the top
   • Scroll through your list to find people you regularly transact with

2. Use the Search Bar

   • At the top of the Contacts view, you’ll find a search bar
   • Tap it and enter a name to quickly find specific contacts
   • This is especially useful when you have many contacts in your list

Adding New Contacts

Flash offers multiple ways to add new contacts to your network:

1. Add Manually

   • Press the search bar at the top of the Contacts screen
   • Enter their Flash username or Lightning address
   • Press the add icon to add them to your contacts

2. Automatic Addition

   • Flash automatically adds people to your contacts when you send or receive a payment
   • This creates a self-maintaining system focused on actual financial relationships
   • No manual contact management required

Interacting with Contacts

Once you’ve added contacts, you can interact with them in several ways:

Viewing Contact Details

• Tap on any contact to open their profile
• Here you’ll see their profile information, transaction history, and available actions
• Contact details include their username and payment address

Starting a Chat

• From a contact’s profile, tap the “Message” button to open or create a chat thread
• You can also send messages directly from the chat tab by selecting the contact
• Messages are end-to-end encrypted when both users are on the NOSTR protocol

Viewing Transaction History

• Each contact’s profile displays your complete payment history
• This helps you track your financial interactions over time
• The history includes payment amounts, dates, and any attached notes

Sending bitcoin to Contacts

Flash makes it simple to send bitcoin to your contacts:

Send from Contact Profile

• Open a contact’s profile and tap the lightning icon in the top right corner
• Enter the amount, add an optional note, and confirm the payment
• The transaction is processed instantly via the Lightning Network

Send from Chat

• During a chat conversation, tap the Lightning icon to initiate a payment
• This allows you to seamlessly mix communication and payments in a single thread
• The recipient receives a notification of your payment in the chat

Quick Payments with Saved Amounts

• For frequent contacts, Flash may display quick payment buttons
• These common amounts are based on your payment history
• Tap a quick payment button to send that amount with just one action

Contact Privacy and Security

Your Flash contacts are designed with privacy and security as priorities:

• Local Storage: Your contact list is stored on decentralized NOSTR servers, not on Flash’s servers

• Private Relationships: Your transaction history remains private between you and each contact

• NOSTR Integration: Contacts who also use NOSTR provide end-to-end encrypted messaging

• Manual Control: You can remove any contact at any time by swiping left on their entry and tapping the delete icon

The Contacts feature in Flash creates a seamless bridge between your social connections and financial transactions, making bitcoin payments as simple as sending a message.