Messaging, designed for investors

Conversations about investing are already occurring between investors, often within traditional text or chat apps. This means being one step removed from getting more information or taking action.

We want to make it easier for people to have productive discussions about investing, and so today, we’ve announced Messages.

Messaging that’s made for investors

Messages makes it possible to have conversations about investing in the context of where you actually invest. This means being able to pull in more information, reference other investors, and take action in your portfolio — all in the same place.

Embeddable charts

No more sharing screenshots of charts from websites or apps to provide context to your conversations. With Messages, you can embed dynamic charts to quickly anchor your discussion about investing in real-time data.

Just tag the stock by typing the ticker symbol (e.g. $SNAP) and customize the timeframe you want to show in the view. The chart will automatically populate for you in the thread.

Create groups

Select the investors you want to include in the group and assign a name to define its purpose: for example, “Tesla Enthusiasts,” “Streaming Media,” or “UNC Investing.” Groups can hold up to 100 people at a time.

Each group you create is unique, meaning you can have multiple threads with the same people and your conversations organized by topic. This makes it easy to keep conversations organized. You can add new group members (or remove members) at any time.

Expand your group with invite links

Each group has a custom invite URL, making it easy for you to bring new people into the mix. If someone who does not yet use Public clicks the link, they will be automatically placed into the group upon sign-up.

Invite links can be sent directly to friends or posted to social media and within existing communities. This makes it possible for large groups of investors to quickly convene in a pre-existing thread.

Earn free stock when people join your group

Our referral program also applies to invites to your group. When someone joins Public through your group invite link, you’ll earn free stock once they sign up and their account is approved.

Reference other investors

You can also @-mention other investors on Public to share their portfolios or investment activity with the group. This makes it easy to reference ideas from a broad community of investors to spark a debate or a new way of thinking.

Take action

Messages lives within the Public app where you already manage your portfolio, meaning that you can review your positions and take action without toggling between apps.

Build your brain trust

There are two ways to use Messages in Public: one-to-one direct messages and groups. Groups are especially powerful, as they make it possible to create targeted threads for specific stocks, industries, trends, causes, and existing networks.

Getting started

Open Messages by tapping the menu icon in the app. Tap “Start a conversation” to launch your first chat. Search names of people you follow to add to the list of recipients.

You can mute notifications for specific groups and manage your overall notification preferences in Account Settings.

We believe that having meaningful conversations about investing is a powerful way to strengthen financial literacy and explore new investment opportunities. That’s why we’ll continue to build tools that support the exchange of ideas — whether that’s via the Social Feed, Messages, or something else.

Public is built for you. So please give us any questions, comments, or feedback at hello@public.com.

Examples are for illustrative purposes only. Past performance does not guarantee future results. This is not investment advice. See Public.com/disclosures.

All conversations that take place within direct messages and message groups are subject to our community guidelines and Terms of Service.