Contacts
A contact is another Peers user whose public identity (user ID, signing key, and encryption key) you have saved. Connecting does not share an account secret or sign either person in on another device.
Contacts are made through invites. Both people do not need to be online at the same time.
People you can connect with live under Identity → People. The underlying records are still contacts.
Invite someone
- Open Identity and choose Add person from the persistent action bar.
- Show the QR code, or use Copy link or Share… to send the link through any messaging app.
- When they accept, they appear in your people list and you appear in theirs.
If they are not reachable when they accept, their reply is queued and delivered when a route becomes available (a direct connection, a shared device, or the Peers mailbox). Outbound and inbound invites are listed in Identity → Activity, not on the people list. Pending is split into work that needs your decision and work that is waiting on someone else. History shows accepted, declined, expired, and revoked rows.
A one-off contact invite expires after seven days by default and can be used once. Anyone who has the link before it is used can accept it, so send it only to the person you mean.
People is a relationship directory, not an address book of raw identifiers. Rows show whether someone is a contact or known through shared groups. User IDs stay hidden unless duplicate display names need a short discriminator. Peers does not create unsigned placeholder contacts from an ID; use a signed invite.
Your profile QR
Identity → People → Share my profile shows a long-lived invite that you can print, add to a business card, or keep on your phone. Anyone who scans it can send you a contact request. Nothing happens until you confirm the request in Identity → Activity.
Regenerate replaces the profile QR and revokes every invite link you have issued so far. Use it if a code has leaked.
Accept an invite
From any Identity section choose Use invite, then paste the link or code, or use Scan QR on a device with a camera. Peers verifies the inviter's signature and expiry and shows who is inviting you before you accept. Pick a trust level for the new contact at the same time; you can change it later from the person's details.
Links opened on a device where Peers is installed go straight to this screen. See Invites for what happens when a link is opened elsewhere.
Inviting a contact to a group
Once someone is a contact, they can be invited into any of your groups directly with no new link: see Groups.
Trust
Saving a contact does not grant them anything beyond the ability to address you on the Peers network. Trust remains an explicit local choice that you set on the contact.
To sign in a new installation to your own account, use Add another device instead.