How does chat discoverability work on Fedi?

To maintain user privacy, discovery on Fedi works a bit differently than on most other messaging apps.

In order to find someone via username for the purpose of initiating a direct chat, the display name entered must be an exact match. Adding an extra space or omitting an emoji, for example, will not return the intended result.

Additionally, you must also already share a chat group (public or private) with the user you are searching for. Otherwise, they will be undiscoverable via their display name.

Note that the default announcements channels associated with most communities are view-only rooms and therefore do not constitute sharing a group with the other users who can view those channels.

This is to say that simply being part of the same federation does not make you discoverable to all other members of the federation.

You can initiate a direct chat with a user whom you do not already share a chat group with by simply scanning or pasting their entire Fedi member code.