Help

Creating a space

There is no sign-up and no account. From the home page you have two buttons, and the one you pick decides what the space is for:

• Share Text - a single document that everyone in the space edits together. Good for pasting a link, an address, a code snippet, or notes taken by several people.
• Start Chat - a group conversation with messages, files, and voice notes. Good for talking to people in the room with you or to a group you just met.

One tap creates the space immediately. You cannot choose the address: Hama assigns a short random one, such as hama.top/r/7Kp2mQa.

Right after you create it

Hama shows you three ways to hand the space to other people:

• the short link, with a copy button;
• a QR code, for someone sitting across the table;
• the share sheet, which passes the link to whatever apps your device already has installed.

You are the creator. Your browser keeps a creator key on this device only, which is what lets you delete the space instantly. Hama stores only a hash of that key, so it cannot be recovered if you clear your browser data.

Choosing who can get in

A space is always in exactly one of three modes. New spaces start as Private + Open.

• Public - anyone can open the link, the content is stored in plain text, and the space can be found through Hama search. Use it for things you would be happy to say out loud in public.
• Private + Open - Zero-Knowledge. The encryption key lives in the part of the link after the #, which browsers never send to any server. Anyone who has the full link can read the space.
• Private + Password - Zero-Knowledge. The key is derived in your browser from the password using Argon2id. The password never leaves your device, and everyone who joins has to type it.

Turning on a password automatically makes a space Private. There is no combination of public plus password.

Sharing the link

Send the link the way you would send any other link. Two details matter, depending on the mode:

• Private + Open: the whole link is required, including everything after the #. That fragment is the key. A link that has been cut short, wrapped by a messaging app, or retyped without the fragment will open the space but will not be able to decrypt anything.
• Private + Password: the link alone is not enough. Tell people the password through a different channel, not in the same message as the link.

If a link seems to lose its ending when you paste it somewhere, use the copy button in the space rather than selecting the address bar by hand, and prefer sending it as a plain link instead of inside a preview card.

Joining a space

Opening the link is all it takes. You will be asked for a nickname; if you skip it you get an automatic name such as Guest 1, Guest 2, and so on. For a password-protected space, the password prompt comes first, and the content only appears after your browser has derived the key.

In a chat space

• Send text messages, and reply to a specific message to keep threads readable.
• React to a message with an emoji.
• Edit or delete your own messages. You cannot edit or delete anyone else's.
• Attach files. Maximum file size is 49 MB. In a private space the file is encrypted in your browser before it is uploaded.
• Record a voice message of up to 10 minutes.

Everyone sees who is currently present. Up to 100 people can be in one space at the same time.

In a text space

• Everyone edits the same document, and changes sync live as they are typed.
• Two people editing the same line at the same time will not overwrite each other; both edits are merged.
• Use Copy all to take the whole document to your clipboard.

Your Conversations list

Hama keeps a list of the spaces you have opened so you can find them again. That list lives only in the browser on this device. It is not an account and it does not sync anywhere. If you clear site data, use a private window, or switch to another device or browser, the list is empty, and the only way back into a space is the link itself (and its password, if it has one).

Offline and weak connections

You can install Hama as an app on Android, iOS, and desktop; see the install page. What you write while offline is queued on your device and sent as soon as the connection returns. Messages waiting to be sent are marked as pending. If the live connection drops, Hama falls back to checking for new activity every few seconds, so the space keeps working, just with a small delay.

Nothing is delivered while you are offline. The queue is stored in this browser, so it survives closing the tab: reopen the space on the same device and the pending items are sent once it reconnects. If the space is deleted in the meantime, they have nowhere to go.

Deleting a space

As the creator, on the device that created the space, you can delete it instantly from the space settings. Everyone is removed and all content, including files and voice messages, is erased. This cannot be undone.

Otherwise the space is cleaned up on its own. Inactive spaces are permanently deleted every day at 00:00 UTC. A space that still has someone in it at that moment survives until the next day's run.

When the space is full

A space holds 100 people at once. Person number 101 is not let in and sees a message asking them to try again shortly. Nobody already inside is disconnected to make room, so the way in is for someone to leave, or for the group to split across a second space.

Troubleshooting

The link does not work

Check that you have the whole link. For a Private + Open space, the part after the # is the decryption key, and without it the content cannot be read. Ask the sender to copy the link again with the copy button.

The space is gone

It was most likely deleted, either by the creator or by the daily cleanup after it sat empty. Deleted spaces cannot be restored, and their content is gone from the server. A short address can be handed to a new, unrelated space later.

I forgot the password

Hama cannot recover a forgotten password. The key is derived on your device and the password is never sent to the server, so there is nothing to reset and no one to appeal to. The content stays encrypted permanently. Ask someone who still has the space open to copy the text out, and start a new space.

My file is rejected

Maximum file size is 49 MB. Compress the file, or split it. A space also has a limit on how many files and how much total storage it holds at once; delete an older file and try again.

I cannot record a voice message

Recording needs microphone permission for hama.top. If you dismissed the prompt, re-enable the microphone in your browser's site settings and reload the page. Recording also requires a secure connection, so it will not work over plain HTTP, and on some devices it stops when another app takes the microphone. Voice messages are limited to 10 minutes.

Something else

You can send a message to the admins from the support page. It is encrypted in your browser with the admin's public key. Support is one-way: there is no reply channel inside Hama, so include any contact details you want to be reached at.