nips/A4.md

NIP-A4

Public Messages

draft optional

This NIP defines kind 24 as a simple plaintext message to one or more Nostr users.

The .content contains the message. p tags identify one or more receivers.

{
  "pubkey": "<sender-pubkey>",
  "kind": 24,
  "tags": [
    ["p", "<receiver>", "<relay-url>"],
  ],
  "content": "<message-in-plain-text>",
}

Messages MUST be sent to the NIP-65 inbox relays of each receiver and the outbox relay of the sender.

Kind 24 is designed to be shown and replied to from notification screens. The goal is to allow clients to support this feature without having to worry about chat history. There are no message chains. The concept of a "thread", a "thread root", or a "chatroom" does not exist in this system, as messages can start and continue without any syntactic connection to each other. e tags must not be used.

This kind is not designed to be displayed on feeds, but anyone can see and reply to messages that may not be for them.

Advanced Support

NIP-40 expiration tags are recommended. Since there is no concept of a chatroom, it is unlikely that these messages will make sense as time goes on.

NIP-18 quote repost q tags MAY be used when citing events in the .content with NIP-21.

["q", "<event-id> or <event-address>", "<relay-url>", "<pubkey-if-a-regular-event>"]

NIP-25 reactions MUST add a k tag to 24.

NIP-57 zaps MUST include the k tag to 24

NIP-21 links that use NIP-19's nevent1 MUST include a kind of 24. Links that are not kind:24 are not expected to be rendered natively by the client.

NIP-92 imeta tags SHOULD be added for image and video links.

Warnings

There MUST be no expectation of privacy in this kind. It is just a public reply, but without a root note.

Avoid confusing this kind with Kind 14 rumors in NIP-17 DMs. This kind is signed and designed for public consumption.