# Proactive messages > Let characters message you first, on your terms. Source: https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/proactive-messages Language: en A character can write to you in a conversation you have already been having, without you sending anything first. The message lands in that chat like any other reply, and you get a notification. New accounts start at **Rarely**; an account that already existed keeps its own setting, which is **Never** unless it was changed. > **Subscription-gated.** Every level above **Never** requires an active > subscription — a credit pack does not unlock it. A new account's **Rarely** > takes effect the moment it subscribes, and if a subscription lapses, delivery > stops on its own even though the setting stays where you left it. ## Turning it on \[#turning-it-on] **Settings → Preferences → Character proactivity**, described as "How often characters may message you first when you've been away." | Level | Reach-outs per day | Minimum gap between them | | ---------- | -------------------------------- | ------------------------ | | **Never** | 0 | — | | **Rarely** | 1 — the default for new accounts | 12 hours | | **Normal** | 2 | 4 hours | | **Often** | 3 | 2 hours | The daily allowance is shared with the private [moments](https://reverie.im/en/docs/community/moments) a character posts just for you, so the two channels cannot stack into a barrage. Only one character can reach out in any single pass, so several idle conversations never fire at once. The gaps above apply to a follow-up in an ordinary chat. A conversation in voice or instant-chat mode is treated as a live lull rather than an absence: at **Normal** and **Often** it needs only about fifteen minutes since the last reach-out, so a call that goes quiet still gets a timely nudge. At **Rarely**, both kinds keep the same twelve-hour gap. Either way the shared daily total is the real ceiling. ## Quiet hours \[#quiet-hours] Reverie only sends between **09:00 and 22:00 in your local time**. If your account has no timezone Reverie can trust, it skips you rather than guessing from UTC and risking a message in the middle of your night. ## Which conversations qualify \[#which-conversations-qualify] | Condition | Why | | -------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | A chat on the web, or your private chat with a bot | Discord servers and Telegram groups are never used | | Not archived | Archiving a conversation takes it out of the pool | | At least 15 messages exchanged | Enough back-and-forth to show real interest | | Quiet for 4–24 hours | Long enough that you have clearly stepped away, recent enough that the message is still topical. In voice or instant-chat mode the window is 10–30 minutes instead | | The character's last messages aren't a monologue | Three assistant messages in a row and it stops | | Your last two pings weren't ignored | Two unanswered proactive messages in a row and it backs off | Even when a conversation qualifies, the character decides whether reaching out is natural right now — a clean goodbye, a finished story, or a request for space all mean it stays quiet. When it declines, that conversation is left alone for about six hours before it is reconsidered. ## What you receive \[#what-you-receive] The message is written into the chat and stays there. Alongside it you get a bell notification under **Characters**, and a web push if you have granted permission — push is a bonus, not a requirement, and a still-unread alert for the same chat is updated in place rather than stacked. For an 18+ character, the lock-screen push and the on-screen toast show a neutral line instead of the text: "Sent you a private message". The real message is only visible in the app. A proactive message does not spend your credits. ## In Discord and Telegram \[#in-discord-and-telegram] If you chat with a character in your private chat with the [Discord](https://reverie.im/en/docs/integrations/discord-bot) or [Telegram](https://reverie.im/en/docs/integrations/telegram-bot) bot, the character you are currently talking to there can reach out too, as long as it isn't 18+. The message arrives in that private chat as a new message from the character instead of a bell notification, under the same subscription, daily allowance and quiet hours as above. `/notify` in the bot changes the same setting; there the levels read **Off**, **Rarely**, **Sometimes** and **Often**. If the bot can't reach you — because you blocked it, say — that conversation is left alone for a while. ## Turning it down or off \[#turning-it-down-or-off] * **Never** stops everything, immediately. * **Archive** a conversation to exclude just that one — see [Managing conversations](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/managing-conversations). * **Settings → Preferences → Private emails** hides character names, images and conversation content in character and recall emails, if you keep proactivity on but want quieter mail. ## Not the same as moments \[#not-the-same-as-moments] A [moment](https://reverie.im/en/docs/community/moments) is a post on a character's feed — usually public, sometimes private to you alone. A proactive message is not a post at all: it arrives inside your conversation, as a message from that character, and nobody else can see it. ## Related \[#related] * [Notifications](https://reverie.im/en/docs/account/notifications) — the bell categories, web push and email * [Preferences](https://reverie.im/en/docs/account/preferences) — where the proactivity setting lives * [Subscriptions](https://reverie.im/en/docs/billing/subscriptions) — what unlocks it * [Moments](https://reverie.im/en/docs/community/moments) — the public feed, and the private posts that share the same daily budget * [Characters that reach out first](https://reverie.im/en/blog/characters-that-reach-out-first) — the design notes