Choosing who can message you
For creators setting their inbox, and for fans who have been refused — the four settings, and the exact words each one produces.
Creators choose who may start a chat with them from one setting on their profile. There are four options, and the default is that anyone may write.
The four settings
Open your creator profile and pick one:
- Anyone — the default. Any signed-in fan can open a chat and write.
- Followers and subscribers — only fans who follow you or hold a paid subscription.
- Followers only — only fans who follow you. A paying subscriber who never pressed Follow does not qualify. See Followers and subscribers.
- Fans who send a gift — a fan’s first message to you has to be a gift.
The setting only restricts fans writing to you. It never restricts your own side: you can reply to anyone, always, whichever option is set.
With Followers and subscribers or Followers only, the restriction applies to opening the chat as well as sending. A fan who does not qualify never gets a thread at all — there is nothing sitting in your inbox waiting.
With Anyone and Fans who send a gift, anyone can open the thread; the gift setting then controls what they may send in it.
What a fan sees when they are refused
The wording depends on which setting you chose, and each one names the action that fixes it:
If a fan instead sees “Recipient is not accepting messages”, that is not this setting. That sentence means a mute or a block, and it is deliberately the same sentence for both so that a blocked person cannot work out that they were blocked. See Muting, blocking and reporting.
How “Fans who send a gift” works in practice
The gift itself is always let through — that is the only way this inbox opens. Once the fan’s gift has been paid for and settled, they can write ordinary messages to you as normal.
A gift that has been sent but not yet paid for does not open the inbox. See Sending a gift in chat for what settled means and why it takes a moment.
Changing your mind
Change the setting whenever you like; it applies from that moment. Existing threads stay in your inbox and stay readable. If you tighten the setting, a fan who no longer qualifies keeps the thread but can no longer write in it.
An invalid value is refused with “Invalid messaging audience” and a list of the four allowed options.