01The anatomy
Every memo you send has three parts: the content, the time and the stamp. The content and the time never change after the send. The stamp does change — it is the only living part of the bubble, and it tells where the memo is.
Content · time · stamp
The content is what was said and it is not rewritten. The time is the time of the act — the instant you tapped send, not the time of delivery: if the memo spent the night trying to go out, the time is still the one when you wrote it.
The stamp is the only living part: above, it runs this memo's whole cycle — in your outbox, in transit, on her devices, and what she did. The sections that follow break down each step.
02The send — from your device to the distributing node network
Before reaching anywhere, the memo has to leave here. This stretch is entirely yours: nothing that happens in it concerns the other party, and none of it has been said yet.
In your outbox
The memo has not left your device yet. It sits there at your disposal for the undo window you chose — from 3 to 60 seconds, adjustable in the wallet's preferences. While the window runs, the send button becomes Cancel this send and the memo can be undone without leaving a trace — because nothing was said.
When it closes, the memo goes. After that it cannot be erased: what went out, went out.
Retrying · and the countdown to the next try
With no connection, the device retries on its own, in the background, for up to 24 hours — every 5 seconds at first, doubling until it settles at every 2 minutes. The number is the time left until the next try.
There is nothing to do: the subway, the plane, the lift — it keeps trying. Once the network is back, it goes out at once. If you want to give up, the Cancel this send in the bubble's menu hands the text back to you.
Did not go
The queue gave up. The bubble is still there, marked — the text you wrote is not lost to a network error; whoever wrote it wants to resend, not retype.
If the memo had been an answer on the tape, the frame goes back into the queue and the light blinks: the tape exists to say what is missing, and an unanswered request is still missing.
Why the time does not change with every try. Resending is not a new act — it is the same sentence, insisting. If the time were rewritten with every try, the record would start lying about when that was said.
03Transit — from the node network to her device
Once out of your device, the memo is held in the federation's distributing node network until some device on the other account downloads it. There are two different stamps on purpose: “reached the post office” and “reached the house” are not the same thing.
In transit
The memo has left your device and is in the distributing node network, waiting for the other party to download it. A single dash: it is no longer yours, but not hers yet.
Here the send is over — what is left no longer depends on you or on your connection.
Downloaded by N devices
It arrived. The number tells on how many of that account's devices the memo already sits — phone, computer, tablet. Really delivered, not “handed to the post office”.
This does not mean it was read: reading is another matter, and it is in the next section.
Recipient not found
The network holds the memo for 90 days waiting for someone to collect it. The window is generous on purpose: holidays, a broken phone, a change of device. Once it is past, no device on that account has shown up — the account is abandoned and the memo will not be read.
The window expires, but the bubble does not disappear. The text stays, only the stamp changes: proof that erases itself is not proof.
Why one dash does not turn into two on its own. If “delivered” only meant “reached the network”, the 90-day window would turn the stamp into a lie: you would hold delivery proof for a memo nobody received. The two states exist precisely so that the expiry can be said to your face.
04What the other party did
From here on the stamp no longer speaks of transport, but of decision. None of these states fire when the conversation is opened: leafing through your own archive is not an act towards whoever sent it. They are born when the memo is touched on the tape — the one instant in which the person was actually confronted with your request.
Skipped
The other party heard your memo on the tape and left it for later. It is not a refusal: your request is still in her queue, and it will come up again.
This stamp exists to kill the ambiguity of silence. Without it, “has not seen it yet” and “saw it and did not want to” look alike — and whoever is waiting reads both as a refusal.
Ignored
The other party closed this memo without answering. It was a decision, and it is recorded on her tape with a time — it is not inattention or forgetfulness.
It comes highlighted in yellow, like someone running a marker over it and closing the matter. Never in red: it is a legitimate choice of hers, not a failure of yours.
The answer
When the other party answers, the answer arrives quoting your memo — it is the quote that ties the “yes” to the question. Months later, nobody has to reconstruct what that “I can” referred to.
The answer beats every stamp before it: it is the strongest receipt there is.
Why opening the conversation announces nothing. A read receipt that fires on an accidental tap is noise: it forces a choice between reading and owing an answer. Here the state is born of a deliberate act on the tape, and that is why it means something.
on the X-Hub
Communication Pack
The memo in this topic does not come alone: Memo, Reminder, Tape and X-DOC share the same seat — and are born with every wallet.
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