Messages

Messages is one inbox for two kinds of message, each labelled who it is from. "From your Master" is an announcement the ship’s Master wrote to the crew — a safety meeting, a change of plan, a notice everyone must sign. "From SeaReady" is news from the people who run the app, sometimes carrying a gift of extra AI questions. Nobody else writes here, and crew cannot message each other.

Everything in the inbox reads offline from the copy saved on the phone. New messages arrive whenever the phone has a connection — the ship’s Wi-Fi when it has internet, or in port. The inbox icon at the top of every screen shows how many messages are unread.

Everyone, on every plan including Free — reading needs no AI. Writing to the crew is for the Master only: on a ship licence to everyone aboard, in a personal-plan crew group only to the members who switched on "Messages from the Master".

1. Open "Messages" from the Ship & crew menu, or tap the inbox icon at the top of the screen.
2. Tap a message to open it. Opening it marks it as read, and the Master is told you read it.
3. If the message carries "Please sign", read it and tap "I have read and understood". This works offline — the signature is sent when the phone reconnects.
4. Tap "Check now" to look for new messages straight away.
5. Switch on "Phone notifications" to be told the moment a message arrives, even with the app closed. On iPhone add SeaReady to the Home Screen first; on Android use Chrome.
6. Master: in the "You are the Master of …" panel tap "Write to the crew". Give a "Title" and a "Message", keep "Everyone" ticked or untick it and pick people, switch on "Ask everyone to sign" if you need signatures, optionally set "Remove from inboxes on", then tap "Send".
7. Master: tap "Sent & receipts" to see each announcement with how many people it reached, how many have it delivered, read and signed, and a table with the time for each person.

• A new Master announcement, an important SeaReady message or anything asking for a signature pops up when the app opens — one at a time, never on the Messages page itself. "OK" or "Open messages" closes it; a signature pop-up has "I have read and understood" right there.
• Use "Ask everyone to sign" for safety notices and standing orders: you get a dated record of who signed, and a red "not signed" against anyone who has not.
• No connection when you tap "Send"? The announcement waits on your phone as "Waiting to send" and goes out as soon as the phone is back online. "Discard" removes it. In the receipts table, "not yet (phone offline?)" means that person’s phone has not synced since you sent it.

• Phone notifications work only once SeaReady has switched them on at its end; until then the card says "Not switched on yet for SeaReady". Messages still arrive every time the app checks: every 2 minutes while it is open, each time you return to it and when the phone comes back online.
• A title is up to 120 characters and a message up to 4,000. A ship can send at most 30 announcements a day, and a message can stay in inboxes for at most 400 days. The phone keeps the newest 300; a withdrawn or expired message disappears at the next check.
• The Master sees receipts only for announcements they sent, never anyone else’s inbox. The office does not see messages at all.
• Crew group on personal plans: each member decides. Switch "Messages from the Master of …" on in Messages to receive them; nothing else is shared by that switch.