Tetracom — Compose Options Help

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Tetracom v0.6.1 added a new way to send a message: instead of a freeform voice or text blurt, you can send a question with options. The recipient sees the question and a row of buttons; they tap one to answer, and the answer comes back to you as a normal message in your History tab.

Entry point changed in v0.6.3. The Text button on the Talk tab (next to the PTT microphone) is now the way to open the Compose Options screen. Earlier builds (v0.6.1 and v0.6.2) had an Options entry in the Send menu on the Contacts tab; that entry was removed in v0.6.3 in favor of the Talk-tab button. The screen itself is unchanged — same fields, same flow.

Use it when:

You want a quick yes/no without making the other person type a reply.
You need someone to pick from a short list ("Pizza, Burgers, or Tacos?").
You’re running a bot or script from a desktop and want a human to approve a decision (see the desktop client for the options-ask CLI subcommand).

Sending a question

On the Contacts tab, pick the contact you want to ask (you only need to do this once if they’re already your active recipient).
Switch to the Talk tab.
Tap the Text button (Edit-pencil icon, right above the PTT microphone). This is the v0.6.3 entry point; in v0.6.1 and v0.6.2 the entry point was an Options button on the Contacts tab.
The Compose Options screen opens. Type your question in the text area, or tap the microphone icon to dictate it.
Add your options as rows: type each option, then tap Add option to add another row. You can have anywhere from 2 to 32 options. Each option row has its own delete control if you change your mind; the minimum is 2.
(Optional) Tick Urgent to make the recipient see the question as a foreground pop-up dialog (titled “Urgent prompt”) that interrupts whatever they are doing, instead of only appearing as a card in their list.
(Optional) The Notify me when answer changes checkbox is on by default. Leave it on if you want a pop-up every time the recipient changes their answer later; turn it off to be told only about their first answer.
Tap Send.

If you tap Text before picking a recipient, Tetracom shows a brief toast (“Pick exactly one recipient to send text to.”) and stays on the Talk tab. Switch to Contacts, tap a contact, then come back to Talk and tap Text again.

The whole prompt — the question text and all the option labels — is end-to-end encrypted with the same cryptography as a voice or text blurt. The Tetracom server cannot read it.

Answering a question

When someone sends you a question:

Your phone vibrates and shows a notification: “Alice asks: Pizza, burgers, or tacos?”
Tap the notification (or open the app and look at the Talk tab). A bottom sheet pops up with the full question and the option buttons.
Tap one of the buttons. Tetracom sends your answer back to the asker immediately.
The prompt closes. A record of the question and your answer appears in your History tab.

Inline answer (Talk tab)

You don’t have to open the bottom sheet if the prompt is already showing in your History tab — the buttons are right there on the card. Tap any one of them and the answer goes back without leaving the History tab. v0.6.2 added this inline rendering; v0.6.1 supported only the bottom-sheet flow.

How you know your answer was recorded

After you tap an option, the inline card in your History updates to show your pick: the chosen option gets a check mark, and the card shows the line “You picked: <option>”. That is your confirmation that the tap registered — there is no separate snackbar.

What the asker sees when you reply (v0.6.3+)

If you’re the one who sent the question, here’s what to expect when the answer comes back:

A response popup auto-appears. Title: “Response from <handle>” (or “<handle> changed their answer” when they changed a prior answer). The body shows “Your question:” with the question in italics, then “Picked:” (or “New pick:” on a change) with the chosen option in bold, plus a “Changed from: <old>” line when it was a change. A single button labeled OK dismisses it.
A history entry is added. Even after you dismiss the popup, an entry stays in your History tab. Tap it to re-open the same popup.
Survives the app closing. The list of questions you’ve sent is saved on your phone (up to 500 most recent, per identity), so the popup can re-render the original question even if it’s days later.

The popup only appears when Tetracom can match the response to a question this device sent. If you sent a question, then wiped your phone or reinstalled Tetracom, and the answer arrives at the fresh install, you’ll see the selected option in the popup but the original question will be blank. The history entry will still record the answer correctly.

Replies go back to whoever asked. When you answer someone’s question, your answer always goes back to the person who asked it — not to whoever you currently have selected as your send-to contact on the Contacts tab. Answering a question does not change who you are set up to talk to. So you can be in the middle of talking to Bob, answer a question that Alice sent you, and your answer correctly goes to Alice while your Talk tab stays pointed at Bob. (This was made reliable in v0.6.11.)

Several questions at once

If more than one question is waiting for you, they do not clobber each other — they queue. Answer the one in front and the next one appears. Non-urgent ones each sit as their own card in your History/Talk list; urgent ones pop up one after another.

Changing your answer

After you have answered, you can change your mind: tap the answered question again (its card in History, or re-open it) and pick a different option. Tetracom sends the new answer. The card then shows “You picked: <new option> (changed)” and its status pill reads “Changed”. When you open an already-answered question the dialog title is “Change your answer”.

Answered questions collapse in History

Once a question is answered it shrinks to a single line in your History — it shows “From <handle>”, a short italic excerpt of the question, an arrow and your pick (for example: From alice -> Yes), plus a small status pill (“Answered” or “Changed”). Tap the line to expand it back to the full card, where you can change your answer or collapse it again with a Collapse button. Pending (unanswered) questions always stay expanded so you can answer them in place.

Cancelling a question you sent (v0.6.8+)

If you sent a question and want to take it back before it is answered, open it in your History and tap Cancel. The question is withdrawn. On the recipient’s side the card changes to “Cancelled by sender at <time>” and they can no longer answer it; its pill reads “Cancelled”.

If the recipient already answered, the cancel is ignored — you will have their answer.

Things that don’t work yet

Free-text answer. Buttons only, for now. If you need to send back a custom message, switch to a regular text blurt.
Multiple selection. Pick one option, not several.
Editing a sent prompt. You can’t un-send. If you sent the wrong question, send a clarifying text blurt.
Group asks. The recipient picker is single-recipient. To ask the same question of several people, send the prompt to each one separately.

For developers and bots

The same wire format is exposed in the Tetracom Desktop Client (Python) as the options-prompt and options-response message types. From a script:

$ python -m tetracom options-ask \
      --to dave_phone \
      --text "Deploy v0.6.2 now?" \
      --option "Yes" --option "No" --option "Wait" \
      --urgent
Yes

Blocks the script until the user taps, then prints the chosen option to stdout.

The Python tetracom mcp-server exposes options_ask as a Model Context Protocol tool so AI agents (e.g., Claude Code) can ask the operator for a button-tap decision from inside an agent session.