You will likely have noticed and maybe even started exploring the improved chat function that was rolled out recently in the Peakd interface. It is a little clunky still and has a few bugs, but it is "Discord-ish", but attaches the chat functionality directly to communities on Hive.
This is very important.
You'll find it here in the peakd interface:
And then you can join in the fun, like this.
Now, that might not seem very impressive, but unless we have lost our keys, you know that without a shadow of a doubt, that is 
I left the cookie.
Why this chat is so important, because unlike discord, the accounts interacting are proven Hive accounts protected by the account keys. This means that those imposter scams from Discord are much harder to run, and there is at the very least, the cost or difficulty in creating a Hive account to get over. Also, because the chats are attached to communities, they are given the same powers, where there is essentially the ability to mute accounts.
And similarly to Discord, it is possible to set up simple community channels and rooms, like you can see in my Reflections community room.
And, if you want to view it in a full tab, you can either use this format and put the hive community number in:
https://chat.peakd.com/t/hive-126152/0
Or right-click on the room you want, and open it in a new tab.
So far, clunky or not - I like it a lot! Cleanup work and more features will likely be added over time and while not as robust and rich as Discord, has the benefit of being an "in-product" solution, so that more time is spent on Hive interfaces, rather than being sent off-site. Because it is attached directly to communities also, I think there will be more features possible to easy interaction and tasks. For example where communities are able to better support their user base.
And, another massive benefit of having in-product chat, is the potential for in-product learning, with support wikis and channels possible, so a new user is able to get help easily, without needing to search far and wide for it. This also gets them connected with more Hive people and, they don't have to guess too much about whether the person is legit or not, because they will be able to visit them directly from the chat and see their content and interactions.
That face is off-putting, isn't it?
Don't stare.
The reputation score doesn't mean much, but the account age means something. While Discord comes with a lot of uncertainty, Peakd chat leverages our accounts so we can have a little more trust that who we are dealing with, is actually who they say they are - at least to the level of their account transparency. This is important to me at least.
And, this chat also allows for people to break away for a private conversation, without leaving Hive, as it uses the memo keys to encrypt and decrypt a conversation.
He's playing hard to get.
But, in order to have these conversations (or use the feature at all), we need to be logged in through Keychain, because that is where it is pulling all the login information, and I am yet to figure out (without using the app browser) how to do this on mobile. I don't use mobile much anyway, but most people do, so it is hopefully easy to work out. There are also Themes and Preferences to play with a bit (more will come I hope) by clicking your profile picture.
I am sure there are going to be plenty of posts about the features and how to use them, as well the technical aspects like, where all this is stored and how, and how there is any easy plug-in that other interfaces can use to add it too - but I wanted to let people who might read this to start diving in and getting up to speed straight away.
This is a Hive developemnt that has been a long time coming and I really hope it is going to get a lot more development added, to make it feature rich, engaging and with a smooth UX that helps us better interact on and off chain.
As I said earlier in the chat:
This made me happy, and that isn't easy to do.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
