Quick Start Guide

illumy is about to rock your world. We’ve brought together the most common ways you communicate—such as email, chat, voice, and video—into a single conversation thread. The interface is intuitive and easy to use (though we’re always for looking for ways to make it better).

It really is as awesome as it sounds.

sign up

illumy has a very simple signup process. Visit https://illumy.com using a supported web browser and click the “Sign Up Free” link. Once you’re signed up, setup is a snap!

Next, choose your username. (Tip: Early adopters get the coolest illumy email addresses first. So sign up fast, before yourname@illumy.com is taken!) Enter a secure password, and then enter it again in the confirmation field.

If prompted, click the checkbox next to “I am not a robot.” (Unless you are a robot. Then, don’t click that box 🙂 .) Next, click the Sign Up Free button.

Enter your first and last name and your mobile number, and click the Create Account button. illumy will send a six-digit verification code to your mobile device. Enter that code in the verification window, and click “Submit.”

Tip: Bookmark illumy in your browser!

download the mobile app

If you’re an Apple/iOS kind of person, head over to the App Store to download our app. If you’re an Android fan, you’ll find illumy on Google Play. Once you’ve installed it on your device, you can use the same credentials you used to log in to the web browser version.

Now, you can experience the power of Persistent Communications on your mobile device. Instead of switching between a bunch of messaging, email, calling, and social apps, you can do voice, video, chat, and email from just one (awesome, if we do say so) platform.

invite your friends

The best way to extract all the communication goodness from illumy is to invite your friends and family to join you. Sure, illumy works with existing email addresses (all 5 billion of them, worldwide). But the more of your favorite people you get to join illumy, the easier it is to create intuitive, ongoing conversations. Make a group thread for weekend plans. Share videos of your family reunion. Find that photo you sent to your bestie last week in seconds—without the endless scrolling.

To send invitations to your friends, click the envelope with the plus sign in the upper right corner. Enter an email address, customize the message if you’d like, and click “Send.” Once they sign up and accept your invitation to connect, their name appears in the left panel. It feels nice to connect with your tribe in illumy.

start a conversation

You came here to interact with people. So let’s get going! First, let’s make sure you’re in Messaging view. (You can also interact with people in Contacts view, but we’ll focus on Messaging view for now, since it’s the default when you log in.) Find the person’s name you want to message in the left panel. Click it, and begin typing a message in the conversation window. That’s it!

If they’re online, there will be a green dot next to their name (or if they’re special enough that you favorited them, a solid green star). Don’t worry if they’re offline. You can message them anyway, and they’ll get the message when they sign back in.

send an email or group message

If you want to send an email, it’s easy. Click the Compose Message button that appears just under your name and email address, at the top of the left panel. In the middle panel, enter the email address(es) in the To field and a subject in the field below (optional). Click in the message and start typing. It’s an email—you know what to do! 🙂

If your contact is an illumy member, their email address will come up when you start typing their name. If not, simply enter the non-illumy email address manually. We don’t have to tell you. It’s email—again you know what to do!

Starting a group thread is very similar to sending an email. Enter multiple recipients in the To field. Once you enter more than one recipient, the Subject line changes to “Group Name.” The name of the group will be the topic that shows up in the middle panel. Once created, the thread shows up like a group chat in illumy, but external email addresses can participate as well, by replying from their email application—one big happy family, whether they’re on illumy or not.

make a video or voice call

Look in the left panel to locate the person you want to call. If you see a green dot or solid green star next to their name—that lets you know they’re online. If they’re unavailable, you can still send them messages, but you won’t be able to call them.

If they are available, click their name. Then click the video icon or the phone icon in the upper right of the middle panel to start the call. A confirmation window will appear with your friend’s profile pic. Click the Call button in the lower right to make the voice or video call, or click the gray Cancel button on the left if you change your mind.

Okay! Now that you’ve got the basics down, let’s take a look around. And above all else, have fun!