You will need to know your server's domain name to login or sign up. For example: lisa.i-self.host

Click on "Advanced" on the login or sign up page, and then type in your server's domain name.

At top-left of the app is a menu button with three horizontal lines on it (the "hamburger" menu). Click on it to open and close the sidebar navigation menu. The following features are found in the sidebar:

- Sources - Add and remove three kinds of info sources. 1) Individual info sources that appear in the News tab 2) Collections (topics) that appear in the News tab and 3) group chats on other servers which appear in the Spaces tab.
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- Muted Words - Add and remove keywords that you want to mute/hide. When your muted words match a word in a news item, that item will be hidden from view in your News tab.
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- Stacks - Curate a  collections of news sources on a topic. Collect "Soccer" or "Finance" info sources, for example. You can share your Stack with friends by sending a link to the Stack via text message and it will show a preview image for the Stack with its title and your "username.i-self.host" domain name. (To follow a Stack/feed-collection, go to Sources and paste a Stack link)

Inside the sidebar navigation menu at the top is a "..." link. The following features are found in the "..." menu:

- Contacts - Edit the name, phone number or email address of contacts which have been uploaded from your phone to your server. Only your own contact and the contacts that you add to one of your group chats will appear here.

- Family Controls - For app users who are under 17 years old, they can pair their app with their parent's app and send requests for parent approval to follow each news source.

- Delete Account - Delete your account and associated data from your server.

At the bottom of the mobile app there are two tabs: News & Spaces. In the News tab you will find the latest news items from your individual news sources (Feeds) and collections of sources ("Stacks"/Topics). In the spaces tab you will find your direct message group chats.

Open your "Sources" to search for and add new info sources.

In the "Search for feeds..." you can type in a web site domain name such as "nytimes.com" to see the feeds available on that site. Alternatively, you can type in a web site domain name followed by a space and a profile name like this "youtube.com pewdiepie" or "reddit.com funny".

To follow Apple News or other news feeds, you can copy and past a web page link or feed link. Here is a link to Apple News that you can copy and paste into the "Search for feeds..." input:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/

You can follow a "Stack" (collection of info sources) by going to your "Sources".

You will need the link to a Stack on someone's server.

Here is a link to a Stack named "PSU" which includes Portland-related links that you can use for testing:

https://bri.i-self.host/stack/PSU

Paste this Stack link into your "Sources" to follow multiple info sources.

To see which info sources a Stack uses, open the Stack link in your Web browser.

After adding new info sources to your "Sources", you can then access the newly generated feed.

Click on the "News" tab. Pull down to refresh and wait for the server to access each feed. All of the info sources will be combined together and sorted by time with the newest items on top.

Each item in your News tab has a "Share" link (icon with arrow pointing up). Click on it to open the share sheet.

You can then click "Copy" to copy the article link to your clipboard. To share inside Social Web you can go to your "Spaces" tab at the bottom and "Paste" the article link into a new group chat message and click "Send".

Or, click on another method for sharing the link such as sending it to a text message/iMessage group chat or as an email message.

Open your "Stacks" to create a topical collection such as Portland State, Hiking or Science.

Click the "+" button to create a new Stack.

Then, type a name for the new Stack.

Finally, click on the "Edit" button next to the Stack that you created.

In the "Search for feeds..." you can type in a web site domain name such as "thesquiz.com.au" to see the feeds available on that site. Alternatively, you can type in a web site domain name followed by a space and a profile name like this "youtube.com thetrinketmage" or "reddit.com genz".

When you find info sources this way, you can then click "Add to Stack" to save that info source in your Stack.

To view all of the news items in a Stack, open the "Stacks" window and then click the Stack name. You may need to wait a while as your server accesses each news feed one at a time and then returns the results. You will see the Stack name at the top of the app.

Open your "Stacks" and click on "Edit" to open up a Stack.

Find the "Share" link (icon with arrow pointing up). Click on it to open the share sheet.

You can click "Copy" to copy the Stack link to your clipboard. To share inside Social Web you can go to your "Spaces" tab at the bottom and "Paste" the Stack link into a new group chat message and click "Send".

Or, click on another method for sharing the Stack such as sending it to a text message/iMessage group chat or as an email message.

Your friend can follow the Stack/feed-collection by pasting the Stack link into their "Sources".

You may receive a text message or an email from a friend if they add you to a chat on their server. It will say that a friend "shared a post" with you.

These messages contain your own unique access link for accessing your friend's server securely.

When you click, you will see a "Continue" button.

After you click Continue, you will be logged in automatically and then the Social Web app will pop open and you will be following a new info source in your Sources. It will say "Messages - example.i-self.host".

Open the "Spaces" tab and pull down to refresh. Wait and you will see the new group chat in the list of group chats.

Click on the "Spaces" tab.

Then, click on the "Compose" link at the top right corner of the app. It has a pen and paper icon.

In the compose window there is a small icon with a plus inside a circle, click on the plus-circle button to access your Contacts and add them to a new group chat.

After you load your list of contacts, you may need to click on a contact more than one time to add it (this is a bug that needs fixed). A check-mark will appear next to that contact, which tells you that the person has been added to your group chat.

The contacts that you add to a chat (only those contacts) will be uploaded to your own server and they are encrypted at rest on the server (they are secure).

Type a message in the "Type your message..." box and click the "Send" button.

Your friends will receive a Text Message and/or Email Message which includes a one-time login link. When they click the link they will be automatically logged in to your group chat server. If they don't have the Social Web mobile app on their phone, they will be redirected to a mobile web app.

It can take a loooooong time to send a message, sometimes it will take a minute or two or more. That is because each user has a cheap lightweight web server which is not powerful. Also, each web server needs to connect to the group chat host server while you are waiting for it to send. If a group chat has been dormant more than 12 hours then you will need to wait even longer while the system sends text messages and email messages to each person.

You can create a group chat "with yourself" by creating a new group chat using your own Contact from your Contacts list. And then when you type a message beginning with "@ai " the AI will respond to your prompts.

If you have a group chat with friends and the AI package has been installed on the server, then you can send prompts to the "@ai " and your friends will be able to see your prompt and also see the response from the AI.

Here is an example "@ai what are three funny names for a pirate who loves cantaloupes?".

(if you don't get a response, you may need to install the AI software package on your server - it is easy, please email us at hello@socialweb.cloud and we will help you do it)