Messaging

Your inbox is open on every plan. Following a conversation is free: who replied, when, how long the answer was, and the unread badge, including the conversation an application to your job starts. Reading what a freelancer wrote, replying, and starting a conversation are part of Premium, and each says so where you meet it rather than by hiding the section. That holds for an account that has never subscribed and for one whose plan has ended: nothing is deleted either way.

One conversation per person

You and a given freelancer have exactly one conversation, for ever, whatever brought you together. Applying to a second job of yours moves that conversation's context rather than starting a new one.

The alternative was a list where two rows read "Maria" and nothing on screen could tell you which was which.

Starting one

"Message" on a profile, on a card, or from an applicant. There is nothing to set up: the thread is found or created and you are in it. This is one of the two halves that need Premium.

What a free account sees

The whole list, every conversation in it, and every message in its place: who sent it, when, whether it has been read, and roughly how long it was. What an applicant called their application, too. What is closed is the words: a freelancer's messages, what they wrote in their application, and their answers to your screening questions.