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  • About Alternion
  • Getting Started
  • Adding Services
  • Privacy and Settings
  • News Feed
  • Profile
  • Messages
  • Contacts
  • Explore

About Alternion Expand Expand all

What is Alternion?

Alternion is your personal social communication center. It lets you view your friend updates from other networks, combine and manage all of your own social networking updates, combine and send all of your email and direct messages...

Alternion is your personal social communication center. It lets you view your friend updates from other networks, combine and manage all of your own social networking updates, combine and send all of your email and direct messages, create social address book, post to other services, and stay in touch with your contacts from other services.

How does it work?

After you sign up, you can connect Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and over 220 other social networks and services. Then we automatically import in real-time all text updates, full-size photos, and videos of your contacts from Facebook...

After you sign up, you can connect Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and over 220 other social networks and services. Then we automatically import in real-time all text updates, full-size photos, and videos of your contacts from Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. You can see your friend feeds on your home page, and full-size photos and videos of your friends in the sections Contacts Photos and Contacts Videos.

From other 220+ services (including most of the popular services and networks) we will automatically collect all of your personal updates into a summary news feed on your Alternion profile. Your entire social web will be at your fingerprints. Moreover, your updates and the updates of your contacts can be filtered by type and source.

You can connect any of your IMAP/POP email accounts, and collect all of your emails into Alternion's email interface. There you can view and manage all the messages, as well as send new ones, addressed from one of your existing accounts.

You can post text updates to Facebook and Twitter. Soon we will be adding the ability to post photos, videos, locations, blogs, and other types of content to more services.

You can follow other Alternion users and see their updates, photos, and videos from all of the services which they connected.

In the Contacts section you will see all of your contacts from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Alternion, including their information and latest updates.

In your Settings you can add your accounts on other networks, as well as manage who can see your updates, photos, and videos from your accounts, including your personal information on Alternion.

How is Alternion different from other social aggregators?

With Alternion you get much more than aggregation of your social accounts. You can: View, comment, and share your friend updates from other networks. View, comment, and share full-size photos and videos of ...

With Alternion you get much more than aggregation of your social accounts. You can:

  • View, comment, and share your friend updates from other networks.
  • View, comment, and share full-size photos and videos of your friends from other networks.
  • Combine your personal updates from all popular networks and manage your online identity.
  • Post your updates, photos, and videos to external services.
  • Collect and manage all of your email and direct messages.
  • Combine all of your contacts and their latest updates in your social address book.
  • Connect multiple accounts, upload content and share it to other services, find and follow other users, and much more.
  • Filter news feed, photos, and videos by contacts, i.e. see updates and content from your selected contact.
  • Filter news feed, photos, and videos by type and source, and customize what kind of activity updates you want to see.
  • Browse and search other users and their public photos and videos.

And we're just getting started! There are many more exciting features in the works, so stay tuned. Our goal is to create a social communication center where you will be able to easily stay in touch with all of your contacts from other networks, and access the latest news.

We will keep you posted about new features in our corporate blog and newsletters.

Why should I try Alternion?

The web is becoming more fragmented every day with the numbers of user accounts, contacts, friend updates, photos, videos, blogs, email and instant messages increasing exponentially. Our goal is to help you put all these pieces ...

The web is becoming more fragmented every day with the numbers of user accounts, contacts, friend updates, photos, videos, blogs, email and instant messages increasing exponentially. Our goal is to help you put all these pieces together. Alternion provides you with efficient tools to manage all of your web activities, news, content, and contacts. You don't need to install anything, Alternion is a free web service that works in your browser.

Here are some of the examples how Alternion can help you do that:

  • If you're anything like us, you probably have accounts on several different networks. Connecting all of your accounts to Alternion will allow you to save a lot of time by combining everything in one place, and removing the hassle of checking and managing all of your separate networks.
  • If you have a lot of contacts on different networks, you will be able to combine all of your communications in one place, and make it easy to stay in touch with your friends.
  • If you are an avid social media user, you will be able to manage your rich online identity and easily update your different networks.
  • If you represent a brand with active presence in social media, you will be able to create your "social business card" by administrating all of your accounts and updates from one place. It will make it much easier for your fans to follow your updates and content from different networks.
How will you make money?

We intend to keep the core of our service free. At the same time, we plan to experiment with different models (including advertisements and premium services) as we grow and learn from your feedback what special features we can ...

We intend to keep the core of our service free. At the same time, we plan to experiment with different models (including advertisements and premium services) as we grow and learn from your feedback what special features we can provide to our community to improve their Alternion experience.

I have a feature request or a technical problem with my account, how do I contact you?

You can share and rate ideas and problems on our community support forum, or you can privately email your comments to our email addresses listed on the Contact page.

You can share and rate ideas and problems on our community support forum, or you can privately email your comments to our email addresses listed on the Contact page.

What browsers do you support?

Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer 7+, Opera. During our beta period you may notice some small bugs when viewing our site in Internet Explorer or Opera, but they will be fixed soon.

Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer 7+, Opera. During our beta period you may notice some small bugs when viewing our site in Internet Explorer or Opera, but they will be fixed soon.

Do you have mobile and iPad versions?

Not yet, but we plan to develop them. We are a very small team, and are focusing now on the Alternion website. We plan to consider other platforms in the future and will be announcing our plans in our blog and newsletters.

Not yet, but we plan to develop them. We are a very small team, and are focusing now on the Alternion website. We plan to consider other platforms in the future and will be announcing our plans in our blog and newsletters.

Do you have an API?

We do not have a public API yet. We plan to develop one, but don't currently have a specific timeline. We are a very small team... oh, we already said that :)

We do not have a public API yet. We plan to develop one, but don't currently have a specific timeline. We are a very small team... oh, we already said that :)

Who are your investors?

So far we have only used funds from our founders and friends. We are open to new funding opportunities, and are looking forward to meeting people and organizations who share our vision of a social communication center. If you are ...

So far we have only used funds from our founders and friends. We are open to new funding opportunities, and are looking forward to meeting people and organizations who share our vision of a social communication center. If you are interested in exploring funding opportunities in Alternion, please contact us.

I really love Alternion! How can I help you, guys?

We love you, too! There are many ways you can help us, and we are glad you asked :) You can give us your feedback about your Alternion experience on our community support forum. You can tweet about Alternion or share our Facebook ...

We love you, too! There are many ways you can help us, and we are glad you asked :) You can give us your feedback about your Alternion experience on our community support forum. You can tweet about Alternion or share our Facebook page among your friends. You can invite your friends and family to join Alternion, and you can write about us in your blog. But most importantly, just use our site and enjoy it, and it will make us very happy.

Getting Started Expand

Do I need to sign up?

Currently we are in a closed beta and you need to have an invite to create an account and get access to the Alternion website. In the future we plan to open access to some pages (e.g. public user profiles, public photos and videos...

Currently we are in a closed beta and you need to have an invite to create an account and get access to the Alternion website. In the future we plan to open access to some pages (e.g. public user profiles, public photos and videos, etc) to people without an Alternion account.

How can I receive a beta invite and sign up for Alternion?

You can request an invite on our home page. If you are a blogger who wants to write about Alternion, please contact us at info@alternion.com and we will send you a batch invite for your readers.

You can request an invite on our home page. If you are a blogger who wants to write about Alternion, please contact us at info@alternion.com and we will send you a batch invite for your readers.

OK, I signed up, what's next?

To enjoy all of the Alternion features, connect your social accounts from other networks on the Settings Services page, as well as your IMAP/POP email accounts on the Settings Emails page. You can manage who can see your updates ...

To enjoy all of the Alternion features, connect your social accounts from other networks on the Settings Services page, as well as your IMAP/POP email accounts on the Settings Emails page. You can manage who can see your updates from your social networks. Your emails won't be visible to anyone on Alternion.

That's it, now you can enjoy your Alternion experience!

  • On your Home Page you will see updates of your contacts from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Alternion.
  • On your Profile you will see your updates from all of the services, which you connected (we support automatic import of your profile feeds from 220+ external services), as well as your photos and videos from Alternion, Facebook, and Flickr.
  • In the Messages section, you will see all of your email messages.
  • In the Contacts section, you will see your contacts from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Alternion.
  • You can browse and search other Alternion users in the Explore People section.
  • In the Contacts Photos and Contacts Videos sections, you will see full-size photos and videos of your contacts from Alternion, Facebook, and Flickr; as well as photos and videos of other Alternion users.

This is only a brief glance of what you can do on Alternion. After the real-time aggregation of all this content, including your social graph, you will be able to comment, post, share, retweet, mention, send messages, and much more.

Adding Services Expand

How can I connect my accounts from other services?

You can add your accounts from all of the 220+ supported services in your settings. Simply click the service name and you will be either redirected to another service for authorization (for Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr) or will ...

You can add your accounts from all of the 220+ supported services in your settings. Simply click the service name and you will be either redirected to another service for authorization (for Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr) or will be prompted to enter your username or user ID in the popup (for other supported services).

How can I remove services?

In your settings click the trashcan icon to remove a service from your Alternion account. All of your previous posts from this service will be removed from Alternion and we will not collect or display any of your future posts from...

In your settings click the trashcan icon to remove a service from your Alternion account. All of your previous posts from this service will be removed from Alternion and we will not collect or display any of your future posts from this service.

Can I add several accounts from the same service?

Absolutely! You can connect multiple accounts from any of the supported services, including Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Please note that Twitter allows to switch to another account when you are signed in to Twitter and ...

Absolutely! You can connect multiple accounts from any of the supported services, including Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Please note that Twitter allows to switch to another account when you are signed in to Twitter and authorizing it with an application, but Facebook and Flickr don't. Therefore, when you are adding additional accounts from Facebook or Flickr make sure that you are either signed off of Facebook/Flickr or signed in with the account you are adding.

Can I have several Alternion accounts?

Yes, but you can only connect a specific external account from Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr to one Alternion account. In other words, you cannot connect your Twitter account to two different Alternion accounts. The reason is that ...

Yes, but you can only connect a specific external account from Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr to one Alternion account. In other words, you cannot connect your Twitter account to two different Alternion accounts. The reason is that we need to have unique user IDs when we update news feeds from the services with two-way integration (Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr). There are no such limitations for other supported networks.

What services do you support?

Currently we support Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr with two-way integration, and more than 220 other services with one-way integration. Going forward, we plan on supporting more services, especially services with two-way ...

Currently we support Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr with two-way integration, and more than 220 other services with one-way integration. Going forward, we plan on supporting more services, especially services with two-way integration.

What is the difference between the "two-way" and "one-way" integration of external services?

We fully integrate with the services with two-way integration (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, more services coming soon). This means that from these services we pull not only your personal updates, but also updates (news feed) and ...

We fully integrate with the services with two-way integration (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, more services coming soon). This means that from these services we pull not only your personal updates, but also updates (news feed) and full-size photos and videos of your contacts, as well as your social graph on these services. You can also post your updates to these services, including retweets and mentions for Twitter, comment on updates and on photos and videos of your contacts, and more. We connect these services via their public APIs.

For the services with one-way integration we pull only your personal updates, i.e. your entire "profile feed", but without your "news feed" with the updates of your contacts. And you are not able to post updates to these services from Alternion.

We are working on connecting more services via APIs, which will allow you to see updates and content of your contacts from the greater number of external services, as well as to extend your social address book to additional services.

What exactly do you aggregate from each of the connected services?

It depends on the specific service and may include your posts, comments, bookmarks, reviews, uploaded photos and videos, all your activities together, etc. In the Services section, you can see the connection type for each service...

It depends on the specific service and may include your posts, comments, bookmarks, reviews, uploaded photos and videos, all your activities together, etc. In the Services section, you can see the connection type for each service ("Read" for the services with one-way integration, and "Read/Post" for the services with two-way integration), and which data we pull from each service. Select "show details" to see all the data for all supported services. You will also see tips for each individual service in the popup when you connect this service.

How many of my accounts on external networks can I connect to Alternion?

Currently you can connect up to 6 accounts from Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, and up to 20 accounts from other 220+ supported services.

Currently you can connect up to 6 accounts from Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, and up to 20 accounts from other 220+ supported services.

Do you support Facebook Pages?

Not yet, but we are planning to add support for Facebook Pages in the future.

Not yet, but we are planning to add support for Facebook Pages in the future.

Why is my favorite social network not integrated with Alternion?

Our intention is to support as many external services and networks as possible while providing our users with the best possible experience. Thus our strategy has been as follows: 1. We have built the Alternion platform in ...

Our intention is to support as many external services and networks as possible while providing our users with the best possible experience. Thus our strategy has been as follows:

1. We have built the Alternion platform in such a way that we can easily add any network, which presents activity feeds of their users in a proper RSS format. So far we have identified more than 220 of such services, and have connected them to Alternion with one-way integration. Please let us know via our community support or by contacting us directly if we have missed any of your favorite networks.

2. Our long-term focus is supporting more networks with open and well-documented APIs. Such services can be connected with two-way integration, which results in more capabilities for our users (including updates from your contacts on these services, ability to post to these services, and more). We have decided to initially focus on building our core platform and features. So far we have integrated Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr via their public APIs, but we will soon be adding integration via APIs for more services. Our nearest plans include two-way integration with YouTube, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Digg, Myspace, and many other services. Please let us know what services you want us to add first.

Privacy and Settings Expand

Do you have access to my passwords on the social networking services which I connect?

No, we don't. We connect Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr via a password-less OAuth authentication and authorization. You will be redirected to these services for authorization, and will not be entering your passwords to these ...

No, we don't. We connect Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr via a password-less OAuth authentication and authorization. You will be redirected to these services for authorization, and will not be entering your passwords to these services on Alternion. All the other 220+ services, which we support, we also connect without asking for your passwords, you only enter your username or user ID.

Do you have access to my passwords on the email accounts which I connect?

We connect email accounts via IMAP and POP protocols (depending on the email service), thus we have to ask for your passwords on these services. We use industry-standard encryption to ensure safety of your data and prevent any ...

We connect email accounts via IMAP and POP protocols (depending on the email service), thus we have to ask for your passwords on these services. We use industry-standard encryption to ensure safety of your data and prevent any unauthorized access.

Unfortunately, not many email services allow a password-less OAuth authentication. In the future we will be adding this type of authentication for Gmail and Yahoo! Mail, as well as for other email services when OAuth authentication for them becomes available.

Can I control who can see my updates, photos, and videos from the services I connected?

Absolutely. In the Services section you can determine for each connected service who may see your stream from this service, including your text updates, photos and videos. These settings will also apply to your updates and photo/...

Absolutely. In the Services section you can determine for each connected service who may see your stream from this service, including your text updates, photos and videos. These settings will also apply to your updates and photo/video uploads on Alternion.

Anyone on Alternion can subscribe to follow your updates from your connected services, but you can decide (using the options listed below) who is allowed to actually see your updates.

We offer three levels of privacy for each of your connected services:

  • Everyone
  • Only People I Follow
  • Only Me

If you choose the first option (Everyone), then anyone can see your updates, photos, and videos from this service. For all services except Facebook, the default setting is "Everyone" while the default setting for Facebook is "Only People I Follow".

The second option (Only People I Follow) means that you need to follow someone on Alternion to allow them to see your updates from this service.

If you choose the third option (Only Me), then nobody will be able to see your updates from this service. This option allows you to use Alternion as your personal aggregation center and social dashboard, without sharing your updates, photos, and videos with others.

Don't forget to click Apply Settings after you choose the desired settings for each of your connected services. You can change your settings anytime, and new settings will apply to all of your updates, including the old ones.

How can I control who can see my personal information, send me messages on Alternion, and post on my Alternion profile?

You can manage these settings in the Privacy Settings section. For some general information (such as your interests & hobbies) the default settings are "Everyone". For more sensitive data (such as who can send you messages...

You can manage these settings in the Privacy Settings section.

For some general information (such as your interests & hobbies) the default settings are "Everyone". For more sensitive data (such as who can send you messages, who can post on your profile, and who can see your contact information) the default settings are "Only People I Follow". For your email address the default setting is "Only Me". You can change these settings anytime.

What additional privacy settings are available?

For the connected services you can indicate if you want to show a link to your profile on these services on your Alternion profile. You can do that in the Services section. In the future we will be adding the ability to customize ...

For the connected services you can indicate if you want to show a link to your profile on these services on your Alternion profile. You can do that in the Services section. In the future we will be adding the ability to customize privacy options for different groups of your contacts.

How can I control which of my Alternion activities are posted in the news feed on my Alternion profile?

You can do that in the Activities section. You can change these settings anytime. When you change them, the new settings will only apply to your new activities.

You can do that in the Activities section. You can change these settings anytime. When you change them, the new settings will only apply to your new activities.

How can I control which notifications Alternion will be sending me?

You can do that in the Notifications section, for both the notifications sent by email and for the notifications sent to your Alternion profile as direct messages.

You can do that in the Notifications section, for both the notifications sent by email and for the notifications sent to your Alternion profile as direct messages.

How can I change my password or email address?

You can do any of that in the Account section.

You can do any of that in the Account section.

How can I delete my Alternion account?

You can do that in the Account section. We are sorry to see you go, but we hope you'll be back! Please note that when you delete your Alternion account all of your updates and content from your connected services will be ...

You can do that in the Account section. We are sorry to see you go, but we hope you'll be back!

Please note that when you delete your Alternion account all of your updates and content from your connected services will be deleted from Alternion permanently. The same will happen to your updates, information, and content, which you uploaded directly to Alternion. Of course, when you delete your Alternion account nothing will happen to your information and accounts on other services. We will only delete what was imported to Alternion, but we have no influence over your accounts elsewhere.

News Feed Expand

What is the News Feed on Alternion?

In the News Feed (your home page) you will see updates of all of your contacts from Alternion and services with two-way integration (currently Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. More services coming soon).

In the News Feed (your home page) you will see updates of all of your contacts from Alternion and services with two-way integration (currently Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. More services coming soon).

How can I post updates to Facebook and Twitter from Alternion?

You can post updates simultaneously to Facebook, Twitter, and Alternion using the field "What's new" either on your home page or on your profile page. Your Alternion updates will always post to Alternion. By default they will also...

You can post updates simultaneously to Facebook, Twitter, and Alternion using the field "What's new" either on your home page or on your profile page. Your Alternion updates will always post to Alternion. By default they will also post to Facebook and Twitter, but you can uncheck these two services when posting new updates.

Keep in mind that the character limit of your post is dictated by whichever service has the shortest limit. So if you are simultaneously posting through Alternion to Facebook and Twitter, it's limited to Twitter's 140 characters. To Facebook only, the limit is 420. If you are not posting outside of Alternion, our limit is a whole 1,000 characters.

When I comment or like a post, photo or video from other services, will it get posted to these services too?

Yes. Your comments and likes on Facebook posts will be posted on your Facebook friends' walls (or on your wall, if you commented or liked your own posts). Your replies or retweets on Twitter posts will appear on Twitter. Moreover...

Yes. Your comments and likes on Facebook posts will be posted on your Facebook friends' walls (or on your wall, if you commented or liked your own posts). Your replies or retweets on Twitter posts will appear on Twitter. Moreover, you can also comment on the detailed photo and video pages of your contacts from Facebook and Flickr. These comments will be posted back to these services as comments on their respective detailed photo and video pages.

Comments or likes on all your connected services' posts and detailed photo and video pages will also publish on Alternion.

Can I post from multiple accounts?

Absolutely! If you connected multiple accounts from Facebook and/or Twitter, you can post simultaneously to all of these accounts, or you can select specific accounts where you want to post your updates.

Absolutely! If you connected multiple accounts from Facebook and/or Twitter, you can post simultaneously to all of these accounts, or you can select specific accounts where you want to post your updates.

What is the difference between the upper tabs All Contacts and Alternion Contacts?

The All Contacts tab, which is active by default, shows updates of all of your contacts from Alternion and services with two-way integration (currently Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, but more services coming soon). ...

The All Contacts tab, which is active by default, shows updates of all of your contacts from Alternion and services with two-way integration (currently Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, but more services coming soon). Specifically, you will see Alternion updates from the people you follow on Alternion, Facebook updates from your Facebook friends, tweets from the people you follow on Twitter, new videos and activities from your YouTube contacts, and new photos from your Flickr contacts.

The Alternion Contacts tab shows updates from the people you follow on Alternion including all of the services which they connected (220+ external services are supported), provided that they made these updates visible in their privacy settings on Alternion.

Can I watch videos directly in the News Feed?

You can play videos from Alternion, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Howcast, Viddler, Sevenload, Revver, and Smotri.com directly in the News Feed. In addition, you can play videos uploaded to Alternion, as well as Facebook video uploads...

You can play videos from Alternion, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Howcast, Viddler, Sevenload, Revver, and Smotri.com directly in the News Feed. In addition, you can play videos uploaded to Alternion, as well as Facebook video uploads by your friends, on their individual video pages. On individual video pages you can also see video details, other videos from this contact, view and post comments, and more.

What are the filters in the left menu and how they work?

Left sidebar allows you to filter updates by type (status updates, photos, etc) and Source (Alternion, Facebook, Twitter, etc). You can select one or several filters, e.g. you can choose to see new photos and videos of your ...

Left sidebar allows you to filter updates by type (status updates, photos, etc) and Source (Alternion, Facebook, Twitter, etc). You can select one or several filters, e.g. you can choose to see new photos and videos of your contacts from Facebook and Flickr. To select several filters, click the "+" sign on the right of the chosen filters. To deselect one of the filters from the selected group, click the "x" sign on the chosen filters.

If you connected multiple accounts from Facebook, Twitter, and/or Flickr you can select to see updates of your contacts from all of these accounts, or only from some of your accounts.

Can I customize the filters in the left column?

You can customize the "Source" filters in the Alternion Contacts and Community tabs by clicking "Manage Filters" in the left menu. Simply select appropriate checkboxes in the popup that appears, to add or remove sources.

You can customize the "Source" filters in the Alternion Contacts and Community tabs by clicking "Manage Filters" in the left menu. Simply select appropriate checkboxes in the popup that appears, to add or remove sources.

Can I delete my status updates, comments, or content on external services from Alternion?

Your status updates, comments, or content (photos, videos, links, etc.) on external services cannot be deleted from Alternion. To delete them, you will need to visit these services.

Your status updates, comments, or content (photos, videos, links, etc.) on external services cannot be deleted from Alternion. To delete them, you will need to visit these services.

Profile Expand

What is an Alternion profile?

Your Alternion profile automatically collects and updates in real time all of your updates and content from your accounts on other services. It allows you to bring your entire web activity to Alternion where you can manage your ...

Your Alternion profile automatically collects and updates in real time all of your updates and content from your accounts on other services. It allows you to bring your entire web activity to Alternion where you can manage your online identity.

In other words, your Alternion profile is your social business card, and probably the most complete one.

What information is collected on my profile?

You can connect all of your accounts from 220+ services supported by Alternion. All of your updates from these accounts will be automatically collected on your Alternion profile, and you can filter them by type and source. ...

You can connect all of your accounts from 220+ services supported by Alternion. All of your updates from these accounts will be automatically collected on your Alternion profile, and you can filter them by type and source.

We also automatically collect and present on your profile the following information:

  • Your full-size photos, photo albums, and videos from Facebook, Flickr, and Alternion.
  • List of your accounts on other services.
  • Lists of your followers and those you follow on Alternion.

You can also enter your personal information such as name, bio, location, website, interests & hobbies, contact information, personal details, and your education & career details.

In the upper right corner of your profile you can see your statistics (numbers of your updates, connected accounts, following, followers, photos, and videos).

How can I edit my profile information?

In the Profile Info section, you can edit your personal and contact information, as well as your other details, by clicking the corresponding links either in the left sidebar or in the central column.

In the Profile Info section, you can edit your personal and contact information, as well as your other details, by clicking the corresponding links either in the left sidebar or in the central column.

How can I control which of my accounts are shown on my profile?

In your settings in the Services section, you can choose whether you want to show a link to your external account on your Alternion profile for each of your connected accounts. Please note that you need to separately select ...

In your settings in the Services section, you can choose whether you want to show a link to your external account on your Alternion profile for each of your connected accounts. Please note that you need to separately select whether you want to show updates from your accounts on your profile.

How can I control who can see my updates and personal information?

In your settings in the Services and Privacy Settings sections, you can control: who can see your updates from each of your connected accounts, who can see your personal and contact information, who...

In your settings in the Services and Privacy Settings sections, you can control:

  • who can see your updates from each of your connected accounts,
  • who can see your personal and contact information,
  • who can post on your profile,
  • who can send you direct messages.
How can I customize my profile design?

When you click "Customize profile design" on your profile page you can customize your profile design with a plenty of themes and backgrounds, or upload your own background picture.

When you click "Customize profile design" on your profile page you can customize your profile design with a plenty of themes and backgrounds, or upload your own background picture.

Messages Expand

How can I collect my emails from other services?

In your Email Settings you can connect any of your IMAP/POP email accounts. In the Email Messages section, we will collect in real time all of your emails from the connected services. You will be able to filter emails by source, ...

In your Email Settings you can connect any of your IMAP/POP email accounts. In the Email Messages section, we will collect in real time all of your emails from the connected services. You will be able to filter emails by source, send emails, and much more. Your connected email accounts and email messages are always private.

How can I add email accounts?

When you add an email account in Email Settings, Alternion will try to automatically connect it with the default settings for this email provider. If that doesn't work, you can manually enter settings for your IMAP or POP email ...

When you add an email account in Email Settings, Alternion will try to automatically connect it with the default settings for this email provider. If that doesn't work, you can manually enter settings for your IMAP or POP email account (look for the "advanced settings" link):

  • Connection type for your incoming server (IMAP or POP).
  • Incoming server address, port number, security setting.
  • Outgoing server address, port number, security setting.

Please contact your email provider for the correct settings (usually they can be found in Help or Account sections).

How can I remove email accounts?

In your Email Settings, click the trashcan icon to remove (i.e. disconnect from Alternion) any of your email accounts. All of your messages from this account, as well as your email address and password will be removed from the ...

In your Email Settings, click the trashcan icon to remove (i.e. disconnect from Alternion) any of your email accounts. All of your messages from this account, as well as your email address and password will be removed from the Alternion servers, and we will not collect any future emails from this account.

How can I customize the connected accounts?

For each email account you can enter an Account name (i.e. a nickname for this account, such as Gmail Personal, Gmail Business, AOL, etc). It will be seen only by you and will allow you to filter your emails by accounts. Also, for...

For each email account you can enter an Account name (i.e. a nickname for this account, such as Gmail Personal, Gmail Business, AOL, etc). It will be seen only by you and will allow you to filter your emails by accounts. Also, for each email account you can enter a 'From' name (e.g. Steven Brubeck), which will be seen by the recipients of your email messages sent from this account via Alternion.

You can change these names directly in your Email Settings. Just click the blue names in the columns Account Name and 'From' Name, to make edits instantly.

If you added several email accounts, you can select 'Primary email', which will be your default email address for sending emails via Alternion. When you compose a new email message you can change the outgoing email address to another one of your connected email accounts.

Can I add several email accounts from the same service?

Yes! You can also filter your inbox by email accounts, as well as send messages from any of your accounts, organize folders, and much more.

Yes! You can also filter your inbox by email accounts, as well as send messages from any of your accounts, organize folders, and much more.

How can I send emails via Alternion?

When you click "Compose Message" in the left column of the Email Messages section, you will see a form for composing and sending a new message. By default it will have your primary email account in the "From" field, but you can ...

When you click "Compose Message" in the left column of the Email Messages section, you will see a form for composing and sending a new message. By default it will have your primary email account in the "From" field, but you can change it to any of your other email accounts, which you connected to Alternion.

Do you archive or store my email messages?

We neither archive nor store your email messages. All messages are received dynamically when you login to Alternion.

We neither archive nor store your email messages. All messages are received dynamically when you login to Alternion.

How frequently does Alternion check for new email messages?

We only check your email messages when you login to Alternion. Currently we don't download email messages in the background, so you need to refresh the page to get the new ones. We will upload new messages every 15 minutes, but ...

We only check your email messages when you login to Alternion. Currently we don't download email messages in the background, so you need to refresh the page to get the new ones. We will upload new messages every 15 minutes, but you can do a manual refresh at any time by clicking 'Check Mail' button.

What features for viewing and sending emails are available?

Most of the basic email features are supported, including: Reply, Reply All, Forward Delete, Mark as Spam Add Star, Remove Star Mark as Read/Unread Folders (labels) for IMAP email ...

Most of the basic email features are supported, including:

  • Reply, Reply All, Forward
  • Delete, Mark as Spam
  • Add Star, Remove Star
  • Mark as Read/Unread
  • Folders (labels) for IMAP email accounts
  • View message
  • Compose message
  • Save as Draft
  • Cc and Bcc
  • Rich formatting for new messages
  • Support for non-English characters

We also have some additional features, such as the ability to filter emails by source (including the ability to select several sources). Plenty of additional features are in development.

Currently we are not supporting sending attachments (although you can receive emails with attachments via Alternion), but will be adding this feature soon.

Will you be adding new features to your email system?

Absolutely! We are building a social communication center and want our users to be able to utilize all of their communication channels. This includes constant enhancements of their Alternion email aggregation experience, including...

Absolutely! We are building a social communication center and want our users to be able to utilize all of their communication channels. This includes constant enhancements of their Alternion email aggregation experience, including:

  • Search email messages
  • Ability to send attachments
  • Ability to add photos and documents from your social accounts
  • Integrated address book from your email accounts
  • Integrated calendar from your social and email accounts

and much more.

Please let us know if there's anything really important you'd like to see ASAP.

How can I collect my direct messages from other services?

Currently in the Direct Messages section, you can see all of your direct messages on Alternion, as well as reply to them, view full history of your messages with a particular person, and more. Soon we will be adding aggregation of...

Currently in the Direct Messages section, you can see all of your direct messages on Alternion, as well as reply to them, view full history of your messages with a particular person, and more. Soon we will be adding aggregation of your direct messages from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other networks to this section.

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What is the Contacts section for?

In the Contacts section you can see information about each of your contacts from the services with two-way integration (currently Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Alternion. More services coming soon). Almost immediately after you ...

In the Contacts section you can see information about each of your contacts from the services with two-way integration (currently Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Alternion. More services coming soon). Almost immediately after you connect your external accounts, you will see a list of all of your contacts from these services.

In other words, this is your social address book, which integrates your entire social graph from the other services that you use.

What are the main features of this section?

Information of your contacts from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Alternion. Latest updates of each of your contacts from these services. Ability to filter your contacts by service (Facebook, Twitter, ...

  • Information of your contacts from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Alternion.
  • Latest updates of each of your contacts from these services.
  • Ability to filter your contacts by service (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Alternion) and type (Friends & Following, Followers). If you connected several accounts from Facebook, Twitter or Flickr, you can filter your contacts by each of these accounts.

In the future we will be adding a great deal of new features to this section, so stay tuned!

What are the groups "Friends & Following" and "Followers" in the left column of Contacts?

In the "Friends & Following" group we display posts from your "closest" contacts, i.e. your friends from Facebook, contacts from Flickr, and people you follow on Twitter and Alternion. In the "Followers" group we display posts...

In the "Friends & Following" group we display posts from your "closest" contacts, i.e. your friends from Facebook, contacts from Flickr, and people you follow on Twitter and Alternion. In the "Followers" group we display posts from your followers from Twitter and Alternion.

I have more than 500 contacts on Twitter, but Alternion shows fewer, why?

Because of the Twitter API limits, when you connect your Twitter account we are able to import up to 500 of your latest Twitter "following" and up to 100 of your latest Twitter followers. Each time you login to Alternion, we will ...

Because of the Twitter API limits, when you connect your Twitter account we are able to import up to 500 of your latest Twitter "following" and up to 100 of your latest Twitter followers. Each time you login to Alternion, we will be adding up to 100 of your new following and up to 100 of your new followers (i.e. your new Twitter contacts, which you created after you connected Alternion).

Can I edit the information of my contacts or merge the same contacts from different services?

Not yet, but we are planning to add these features in the near future. We will keep you posted about our new features in our blog and newsletters.

Not yet, but we are planning to add these features in the near future. We will keep you posted about our new features in our blog and newsletters.

What is in the Contacts Photos section?

In the section Contacts Photos you can see photos and photo albums of your contacts from Facebook, Flickr, and Alternion. We are planning to add support for Picasa, Photobucket, Twitpic, Plixi, Yfrog, and some other photo sharing ...

In the section Contacts Photos you can see photos and photo albums of your contacts from Facebook, Flickr, and Alternion. We are planning to add support for Picasa, Photobucket, Twitpic, Plixi, Yfrog, and some other photo sharing services in the future.

When you select the All Contacts tab you will see photos of all of your contacts from Facebook, Flickr, and Alternion. Specifically, you will see Facebook photos of your Facebook friends, Flickr photos of your Flickr contacts, and Alternion photos of the people you follow on Alternion.

When you select the Alternion Contacts tab you will see photos of the people you follow on Alternion from all of the services which they connected, provided that they made these photos visible in their privacy settings on Alternion.

When you click any photo in this section, you will see a detailed page of this photo, including the full-size photo, photo information, and more. You can comment on the photo and your comments will be posted to the respective service (Facebook, Flickr, or Alternion).

How can I see photo albums of my contacts?

In the left menu of the section Contacts Photos you can select Viewing Mode: Photo Albums and see photos of your contacts as photo albums.

In the left menu of the section Contacts Photos you can select Viewing Mode: Photo Albums and see photos of your contacts as photo albums.

What is in the Contacts Videos section?

In the Contacts Videos section you can see videos of your contacts from Facebook, YouTube and Alternion, and filter them by service and video category. We are planning to add support for Vimeo, and some other video sharing ...

In the Contacts Videos section you can see videos of your contacts from Facebook, YouTube and Alternion, and filter them by service and video category. We are planning to add support for Vimeo, and some other video sharing services in the future.

When you select the All Contacts tab you will see videos of all of your contacts from Facebook, YouTube and Alternion.

When you select the Alternion Contacts tab you will see videos from the people you follow on Alternion from all of the services which they connected, provided that they made these videos visible in their privacy settings on Alternion.

When you click any video from this section, you will see a detailed page of this video, including the full-size video, video information, and more. You can comment on the video, and your comments will be posted to the respective service (Facebook, YouTube or Alternion).

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What is in the Explore People section?

In the Explore People section you can browse and search all Alternion users, including the option of advanced search. We will soon be adding the ability to find your friends from other services who are using Alternion (...

In the Explore People section you can browse and search all Alternion users, including the option of advanced search.

We will soon be adding the ability to find your friends from other services who are using Alternion (including your friends from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL, and other email clients). You will also be able to import your address books to invite friends to join Alternion. Rest assured we will never email your friends (or post on their walls or send them direct messages, etc) without your explicit consent.

What are the options of advanced search?

You can browse and search Alternion users by name, gender, age, location, personal details, education details, career details, and interests. For each search query you can see quick information about the users (name, location) or ...

You can browse and search Alternion users by name, gender, age, location, personal details, education details, career details, and interests. For each search query you can see quick information about the users (name, location) or detailed information (name, username, location, bio, website).

How can I see photos or videos of a certain contact?

In the Contacts Photos and Contacts Videos sections you can see a field "Filter by contact" on top. When you enter a name of a certain contact, you will see all of the photos or videos of this contact. Alternatively, you ...

In the Contacts Photos and Contacts Videos sections you can see a field "Filter by contact" on top. When you enter a name of a certain contact, you will see all of the photos or videos of this contact.

Alternatively, you can click on the username to see all of the photos or videos of this contact.

What is your favorite song?

The Girl from Ipanema performed by Astrud Gilberto, João Gilberto and Stan Getz.

The Girl from Ipanema performed by Astrud Gilberto, João Gilberto and Stan Getz.

What does the last question have to do with Alternion?

Nothing. We were just curious if you read all the questions :)

Nothing. We were just curious if you read all the questions :)