You can let people reach you at a phone number or an email address. To do that you must first prove the value is yours, because a number nobody proved could be used to collect requests meant for whoever really holds it.
Add the value to your card, then tap Verify. A six-digit code is sent to it:
The code expires in ten minutes. It can be received on any device that has that number — it does not have to be the phone running Channel — and typed in here.
A tick means this phone proved control of the value, by the route shown (Verified by text, by call, by email). A call and a text are different proofs; the app records which, and never pretends one is the other.
A value you have not verified is inert: it is not published, and nobody can reach you at it. This is deliberate.
Our server keeps no list of who is verified, and no list of numbers. A request left at a number is addressed to a slot derived from the number itself; only a phone that has proved the number can collect from that slot. The number is used to compute the address and is never stored beside your identity.
Two profiles on the same phone may not both present the same number or address. The app refuses the second tick, because two identities answering at one address would reveal that they share a phone.
A profile nobody can find can still message anyone it has paired with, but nobody can start a conversation with it. Give each profile you want to be reachable at least one value of its own with Find me by on. If you put every number and address you have on one profile, there is nothing left for the others, which is why a handle is coming as a third way.
A tick says this phone proved the value is yours. Find me by says people may reach you at it. They are separate switches on purpose: a verified number can stay private, and it can still vouch for you elsewhere. A handle, when it arrives, will need a verified number behind it as proof that a real person holds it, and that number does not have to be advertised.
A handle is a name you choose, unique across Channel, that people can reach you at without knowing a number or an address. It is not built yet. When it is: one handle per profile, registered blind so the server never holds a readable list, backed by a verified number that stays private unless you also turn Find me by on for it.
English is the reference text; any translation is a convenience. Help is stored on this phone and never contacts anyone.