Getting started with Sri Lankan Chat
Most people send their first message within two minutes of opening the site. This guide is for everyone else — first-time visitors who want a clear walk-through, and regulars who want to understand the features they have not tried yet.
Step 1 — join as a guest
Open the home page
Go to srilankanchat.com in any modern browser on a phone, tablet, or computer. There is nothing to install.
Pick a nickname
The guest login form asks for a nickname and an avatar. Pick something you would not mind a stranger seeing. You can change it later.
Read the room before you talk
Watch the conversation for a minute before sending your first message. Every room has its own pace and language preference.
Guest accounts are great for trying the platform out, but they have limits. Guests cannot create personal circles, cannot use email notifications, and lose their nickname when their session expires. Most regulars register a free account within a few visits.
Step 2 — register a free account
Registration takes about a minute. You will need a working email address.
- Click the register link from the login screen.
- Enter a nickname, an email, and a password. The password should be unique — do not reuse the password from your email or banking.
- Open the verification link sent to your email. Verification unlocks personal circles and notification settings.
- If the verification email does not arrive within a few minutes, check the spam folder. The site can also resend it from the profile screen.
Registered accounts persist between sessions, get more avatar choices, can join member-only rooms, and can create one personal circle.
Step 3 — learn the interface
The chat screen is divided into three areas:
People list (left)
Everyone currently in the room. Tap a name to open a private chat or to see their profile, warn them, or block them.
Public feed (centre)
Messages appear here as they are sent. Click an image thumbnail to open a larger version in a modal.
Composer (bottom)
Type your message, choose an emoji, attach a photo if the room allows it, and press send.
On phones the people list collapses behind a button so you have more room to read. The "switch circle" button at the top opens a modal with all the rooms you can currently join.
Step 4 — understand the rooms
Public rooms have small icons next to them in the room switcher. Each icon means something:
- 👥 all — anyone, including guests, can join.
- 🧑 registered — only registered accounts can join.
- 👤 guest — only guests can join. These are usually rooms set up for new visitors.
- ⭐ members — members-only rooms run by an owner who controls who is in.
- 🔒 password — the room asks for a password before letting you in.
Pick the room that matches the conversation you want to have. Some rooms are quiet during the day in Sri Lanka and busy in the evening, so check back if a room looks empty.
Step 5 — create a personal circle
Verified users can create one personal circle, which is a private room owned by them. To create one:
- Open the profile modal from the chat header.
- Switch to the "My Circle" tab.
- Choose a room name, a description, and optionally a password.
- Decide whether public uploads, private uploads, or both should be allowed, and to which user types (open, registered, or verified only).
- Save. The circle now appears in your room switcher.
To invite someone, open the circle settings, generate or refresh the invite link, and share it with the person you want to add. Only registered users can accept the link, and if the room has a password they will still need to enter it before they can join.
Heads up. You can have only one personal circle per account. If you delete your circle, the chat history inside it is also deleted and members are moved out.
Step 6 — tune your profile and theme
The profile modal has three tabs — chat settings, my info, and my circle. Things worth visiting at least once:
- Font weight, font style, and font colour. Your chosen colour is what other people see in the room. Pick something readable on dark and light themes.
- Theme. Switch between dark, dark ice, light, and autumn themes. The site reloads when you change theme.
- Atmosphere. Optional weather animations — snow, rain, blossom — rendered behind the chat. Turn them off if you are on a slow device.
- Notifications. Choose whether the platform emails you when someone you know logs in.
- Avatar and personal info. Add a city, birthday, and a short "what is on my mind" line.
Common first-time problems
Most issues come down to one of three things.
I cannot log in
- Check that you registered with that email address. The forgot password link can resend a reset email.
- If a verification step is failing, try the resend verification email button on the profile screen.
- If the login form keeps reloading without an error, clear cookies for the site and try again.
My messages are not sending
- Check your internet connection. The chat uses a live socket connection that needs working internet.
- Tap the refresh button in the chat header to re-establish the connection.
- If you have just been warned or muted by a moderator, the message will not go through. The chat will tell you if that is the case.
Sinhala text shows as boxes or symbols
- Modern phones and computers handle Sinhala unicode automatically. If yours does not, install the Sinhala language pack from your device settings.
- If you copied text from an old website, paste it into our Sinhala typing guide using the unicode converter linked there. Legacy fonts must be converted before they will render.