Use Federation

As soon as your authority uses federation, you can immediately start cross-organizational collaboration.

Send a direct message to a federated contact

Section titled Send a direct message to a federated contact

You can recognize federated contacts by the symbol . You can also search for federated contacts in your BundesMessenger as usual to send a direct message.

Sending a new message to a new contact

Section titled Sending a new message to a new contact
  1. Open BundesMessenger on your smartphone (you may need to enter your PIN)
  2. Open the Messages menu at the bottom right
  3. Then tap New Direct Message
  4. Enter the name of the desired federated contact in the displayed search field and then select them from the contact directory shown below by tapping
  5. Now tap Go in the top right to start the chat
  6. You can now enter your message in the displayed input field
  7. Finally, tap Send

Your message(s) as well as all replies from this contact will now be displayed in the chat history. Use the Back button to return to the overview of all messages and rooms.

Enable federation in rooms

Section titled Enable federation in rooms

You can invite users from other federated organizations to your rooms in BundesMessenger. To do this, you must enable federation for the rooms – either when creating them or later. Only then can you add external members to the room.

  1. Switch to the All view and open the desired room
  2. Tap the room name at the top to display the Room details
  3. In the Room settings menu you will find the option Allow federation at the end of the overview
  4. Enable this switch to allow federation for this room

Invite members to federated rooms

Section titled Invite members to federated rooms
  1. In the room details view (see above), open the People section
  2. Tap Invite members to add more participants to your room
  3. Search for the desired federated contacts in the displayed dialog
  4. Tap the desired contact in the search results and then tap Invite in the top right of the dialog
  5. The new members will then be displayed in the room overview

To remove members, tap a name in the participant list and then select Remove in the displayed menu.

Disable federation in rooms

Section titled Disable federation in rooms

As an administrator, you can also deactivate federation in a room. The procedure is the same as described above for activation.

Restrictions and special cases with federation

Section titled Restrictions and special cases with federation

In principle, you have all the functions and options available with federation that you know from BundesMessenger. Currently, the following exceptions apply:

  • The maximum file size is 20MB.
  • It is not possible to share a location with a federated contact or in a federated room externally.
  • Federated contacts cannot be made administrators of a room.