Private Messaging

What it is
App.net has both private and public messaging capabilities, as broad categories.

Types of message
Public messages can be seen by everyone in the global stream and will appear in the personal streams of anyone who follows the sender.

Private messages are different, in that only the sender and the specified recipients can see the posts. Private messages can be between two ADN users or among a larger private group of users. All of the messaging clients have a way to send and receive private messages, often using the envelope icon to identify the private stream. The initial private post defines the people that can participate in each private message stream.

Post counts
It should be noted that private messages to not count towards user post counts, and that private message streams are also available via Patter, since Patter is built using these message streams.