Asking with options (Tetracom v0.6.1+)

Send a question with tap-to-answer option buttons

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 2-10 option chips by typing each option and pressing Enter (or tapping the + button). Tap an existing chip to edit or remove it.
(Optional) Toggle Urgent if you want the receiver’s phone to override their silent mode for this prompt.
(Optional) Set a Timeout in seconds. If no answer arrives by then, the prompt expires automatically and the asker is notified.
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.

Confirmation that your answer was sent (v0.6.3+)

After you tap an option, Tetracom pops a small “Response sent: <your answer>” snackbar at the bottom of the screen for a few seconds. The greyed-out buttons + checkmark on the inline card stay as before — the snackbar is additional positive feedback so you can be sure your tap registered.

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 <recipient handle>”. Body: the original question (in italics) followed by the option they picked (bold). Single OK button to dismiss.
A history entry is added. Even after you dismiss the popup, an entry appears in your History tab showing “<recipient handle> picked: <option>”. 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.

If the asker set a timeout

The timeout countdown is shown above the buttons. If it reaches zero before you tap, Tetracom auto-declines on your behalf and notifies the asker. You can still tap a button after the timeout (the message just won’t be delivered if the asker has stopped listening).

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 --timeout-seconds 60
Yes

Blocks the script until the user taps, then prints the chosen option to stdout. Exits 124 if the timeout fires without a response.

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.