Skip to content

Focus with friends

"Focus with friends" lets you see when a friend is focusing and join their block, so you both work at the same time and finish at the same moment. It's a lot like sitting at the same table in a library, from wherever you each are. It needs an account on both sides, and nothing is shared until you each choose to share.

Adding a friend

Make an account first (tap Sign In at the top of Settings and type your email, then the code Chataltul sends you, see Accounts and privacy). Then open Settings → Friends:

  1. Your friend code is a short code made of letters and digits. Press Copy and send it to your friend however you like.
  2. Your friend types it into Add a friend's code and presses Add (or you type theirs). You're now friends with each other, and Chataltul says "Friend added. You see each other once you both share."

You can have up to 20 friends, and Remove next to a name ends it for both of you.

Settings › Friends: Show my friends set to What I'm working on, Name they see, Ping me when a friend starts switched on, the friend code with Copy, the Add a friend's code row, and Your friends: Dana focusing on Thesis chapter 2, Sam on a break and Alex not in a block, each with Remove

Settings → Friends.

What you share

Show my friends has three choices:

  • Nothing, which is where everyone starts. Your friends don't see you, and you don't see them either.
  • That I'm focusing: they see that you're in a block, on a break or paused, and how many minutes are left.
  • What I'm working on: the same, plus the line you typed for the current block.

It works both ways on purpose: you only see your friends while you share too. Name they see is the name on your friends' screens (your account name unless you change it). Whatever you pick, your friends NEVER see your history, your parked thoughts or your check-ins, only the block you're in right now.

Seeing your friends

Once you share, your friends show on the Focus tab, under the Start button, under Friends, each with a round avatar, a colored dot and a line: "Focusing on Thesis chapter 2 · 38 min left", "Focusing · 20 min left" if they only share that they're focusing, "Paused", "On a break", "Not in a block", or "Isn't sharing". If you have friends but share nothing, the Focus tab says "Turn on Focus with Friends in Settings to see when your friends are focusing."

The Focus tab scrolled down to Friends: Dana focusing on Thesis chapter 2 with 36 min left and a Join button, Sam on a break, and Alex not in a block The same friends list in dark mode

Friends on the Focus tab.

Ping me when a friend starts sends you a notification when one of them starts, like "Dana started focusing" with "Thesis chapter 2. 50 min. Join them?" (the line they typed only shows if they share it). It's at most one ping per friend every 30 minutes, and never while you're focusing yourself, because that would be the opposite of the point. It needs reminders on for the device, like the check-ins.

Joining a friend

When a friend is focusing with more than a couple of minutes left, their name has a Join button. Press it, and under the Start button the Focus tab says "Napping with Dana. You'll finish together at 4:02 PM. If anyone leaves, every kitten wanders off." Add a title if you like (it doesn't have to be the same thing) and press Start. The length is set by their block, so there's no "How long" to pick, and Cancel goes back to a normal block.

While you work, Dana's kitten grows up in your ring next to yours, and the block says "Napping with Dana" under your intention. That's napping together, and it has one rule: if anyone in the group leaves Chataltul or stops, every kitten wanders off. If everybody stays, every kitten comes home with extra treats. The whole thing is in Cats. With Cat mode off, joining is just focusing together: "Joining Dana. You'll both finish at 4:02 PM." and then "Focusing with Dana".

In an ordinary block, if friends are focusing at the same time, it says so too ("Dana is focusing too").

Napping with Dana. You'll finish together at 4:02 PM. If anyone leaves, every kitten wanders off, with Cancel, above the start box with Read for class typed in, and no How long row A running block, Read for class, with Napping with Dana under it, Dana's kitten and Miso side by side in the ring

Joining a friend, and napping together.

If you want to try it with someone, the quickest way is to both make an account, set Show my friends to That I'm focusing, and swap codes.

Rankings

Forest has rankings, so Chataltul does too, and they're opt-in. Rankings is in the menu and behind the trophy on the Café tab. A round is one week, Monday to Sunday (UTC, so it's the same week for everybody), and what counts is the minutes of blocks whose kitten came home. The page says how long the round has left ("This round ends in 3 days 4 hours").

  • Friends ranks you with your friends who are in the rankings too, by the names you already see.
  • Worldwide is everyone who chose to be in it, under a nickname they picked. It shows the top 50, and where you are if you're further down.

Nobody's in either list until they say so: turn on Be in the rankings at the bottom of the page, and Worldwide too if you want, with a nickname. The worldwide list only ever shows the nickname, the minutes and the number of kittens, never your account name or what you worked on. Rankings need an account.

Rankings with Worldwide picked: This round ends in 6 days 19 hours, a list with gold, silver and bronze medals, nicknames, kittens home and hours, and Be in the rankings and Worldwide too switched on

The worldwide rankings.

You can also nap with someone who isn't your friend yet, with a room code: see Nap rooms.