2023

Access Your Wattpad Inbox – Here’s How

The Wattpad inbox is an important place for readers and writers looking to network and make friends. Wattpad is a great platform for writers of all ages and all genres to come together and share their work in one central place. It is free to use and it can be a great way for an aspiring author to get eyes on their stories and make a name for themselves.

There are many features on Wattpad that are designed to make the user experience easy, fun, and seamless. One is the Wattpad Inbox. Here is how you can access and best utilize your Wattpad inbox.

Access Your Wattpad Inbox

Finding your Wattpad inbox is pretty easy once you are logged into your Wattpad account. You can go straight to your inbox from anywhere on the website – whether you are on a writers’ profile or reading a great story!

At the top of your screen you will see a header with the following items:

  • The Wattpad logo
  • “Discover” and “Create” menu items
  • The search bar
  • Your profile picture and/or username
Wattpad Inbox

To find your inbox, click on your username/profile picture, and a drop down box will appear. You will see several different options, simply click on the button that says “inbox.”

This will bring you straight to your inbox, where you can manage all your private messages! There are four different options for viewing messages :

  • All messages
  • Messages from your followers
  • Messages from people you follow
  • Only unread messages

You can switch back and forth between these options easily as you prioritize which ones you want to read.

Wattpad Inbox: Incoming

As you begin to use the website and its features, you will begin to draw attention to yourself and your profile. If you are a writer posting a lot of work – you may start gaining some fans who really enjoy reading your stories!

Try to reply to all fan messages that you get. This will make them feel important and valued – which will have them coming back to your profile more often.  You may also find yourself starting a dialogue with some of them that will lead to new friendships.

This is great too!

Maintaining contact with those who are fans of your work is a great way to get constant feedback. It will also be helpful in learning which of your pieces they like best and what they want to see from you going forward.

If you are there primarily to read and you are leaving a lot of comments, you may find some people become interested in getting to know you more over private message.

Whatever your goal is on Wattpad, responding to your incoming messages is an important part of creating a great network and making new friends.

Wattpad Inbox: Outgoing

Even if you are getting lots of messages from other users, sending some of your own can be useful as well! Sending a message is easy – simply go to the profile of the person you wish to contact. The very top of their page will have their profile photo, followed by a few statistics about them.

Underneath this you will see a menu with the following items:

  • About
  • Conversations
  • Following
  • An option to follow the author
  • A button with an envelope icon
  • A button with three dots (additional options)

To send the person a private message, click on the envelope icon. This will bring you to a new page, which will contain the conversation between you and this user. Simply type your message into the available space, and when you are done, click the “send” button at the bottom.

When the person responds to your message, it will appear in your main inbox with an option to reply. The conversation will continue from here!

Wattpad Inbox: Reporting

Unfortunately, not everyone you encounter on Wattpad will be lovely and kind. Since it is a free platform that is open and accessible to everyone, you will find there are some people who are disrespectful, rude, and sometimes downright insulting.

There are others, usually referred to as “trolls” who will sign up for websites like Wattpad with the sole intention of causing trouble and upsetting others.

As you start making a name for yourself on Wattpad, you will likely encounter one or both of these types of people. Some may choose to simply ignore the negative messages and comments that these users leave. This can sometimes work – they may stop when they don’t receive the attention they are after.

You may find, however, that some users become persistent in their inappropriate messages and comments if they are not given the attention that they want. You may also receive a message that is just so bad you don’t want to ignore it. If this is the case, there is an option to report the person who sent the message.

Once you open the message in question, you will see a button on the right-hand side that says “report,” start by clicking this. It will take you to a page where it asks you to briefly describe the issue you have with the message and/or user. You will see four options:

  • Spam account
  • Underage User
  • Inappropriate comments/user harassment
  • Content (copyright, ratings, inappropriate stories, etc)

Choose whichever option most accurately describes what you are dealing with, and it will ask you a few additional questions that will outline the problem in more detail. Continue answering the questions with the best information you can, and eventually, you will be brought to a screen where you can write a personalized note about your experience.

Once all relevant information has been filled out and included, it will be sent to Wattpad staff. They will take care of it in the best way they see fit. If enough people report a certain user, they will eventually be banned to prevent them from causing any more trouble.

Ignoring offensive or upsetting messages may seem easier, but it is actually important to report things if they are really bad. Wattpad wants their website to be a fun, safe, and enjoyable experience for all their users. If no one ever reports the ones who cause problems, they will never be brought to the attention of Wattpad staff, and the person will be able to continue harassing other users undetected.

Wattpad Inbox: Deleting

As your Wattpad inbox starts to fill up with all your conversations, you may find you eventually want to start deleting some to keep things clean and organized. Deleting messages is very easy. Simply go into the conversation you wish to delete, and look to the right. Directly underneath “report,” you will see a button that says “delete all messages.” Click the button, and that’s all! The messages will be deleted and removed from your inbox.

Unfortunately, there is only one option to delete all messages in a certain thread, so you can’t keep bits and pieces of conversations that you like. Because of this, make sure you put some thought into it before deciding to delete an entire conversation. You may become very good friends with some people, and the messages will preserve the memories of your newfound friendship. Conversations like these are worth keeping.

It is nice to keep your inbox organized and uncluttered, however. It is a good idea to delete a thread if:

  • The other person has stopped replying
  • You don’t want to keep talking to the person
  • The person sent a short message that you do not wish to reply to
  • The person said things that were mean or disrespectful

Keep the Conversations Going

Now you know everything there is to know about your Wattpad inbox – from receiving and reading your new messages, to sending one yourself, and navigating the little details. There are no excuses now – get in there and start making some friends!

Moreover, Wattpad is continuing to hire Android developers and hire iOS developers to improve their product. So good things are coming.

For readers, private messages are a great way to meet new people and discuss your favorite stories. You may find you keep in contact with your new friends for many years as you bond over a mutual love of reading.

For writers, staying in contact with your followers and fans is important. It lets you know what they like best and what type of work they respond to the most. It is a great way to network and utilize the power of word of mouth to bring more attention to the stories you want to tell the world!

 

 

 

Josh Fechter
Josh is the founder and CEO of Squibler.