Sending a password in an email leaves it sitting in two mailboxes indefinitely. Avvi’s answer is a link that expires and stops working after a number of views you choose.

The secret is encrypted in your browser before it is sent, so what is stored is not readable without the link itself.

Mentioning that you need to share a credential is enough. Avvi offers the form rather than asking you to type the secret into the conversation.

The feature is switched off until enabled twice: for your organisation by Avvi, and for your access group by your master administrator.

Before you begin

Have the secret ready to paste. Do not type it into chat, and Avvi will not ask you to.

Decide how long the link should last and how many views it should allow. One view and a short window is right for a single recipient.

Have a way to tell the recipient the link is coming, ideally not the same channel you send it through.

Create the link

1. Open chat and say you need to share a password or a secret.
2. Fill in the form Avvi offers, pasting the secret into it.
3. Set how long it should last and how many views to allow.
4. Send the link to the recipient.

The link stops working when either limit is reached, whichever comes first.

Good to know

A lifetime can be set from an hour up to a week. Views are offered as once, three, five or ten. Shorter and fewer is better for anything sensitive.

Because the secret is encrypted before it leaves your browser, a link with a spent view count cannot be recovered by anybody.

Verify it worked

Confirm with the recipient that they opened it, ideally on a different channel from the one you sent it on.

Do not reveal the secret yourself to test it. Opening the page costs nothing; clicking to reveal is what spends a view.

If something doesn’t look right

If the recipient says the link does not work, the usual causes are the expiry, the view count, or a link broken across two lines in an email. That has its own page.

If the form does not appear at all, the feature is not enabled. Avvi says either that secure links are not enabled for your organisation, or that your access group does not allow them, and the two need different people to fix.

If you set one view and forwarded it to two people, only the first gets it. Create another rather than raising the count afterwards.

If you pasted the secret into the chat by mistake, treat it as disclosed and change it.

To report a problem, open a support conversation from the Help drawer with the client and roughly when you created the link.

FAQ

Q: Can Avvi see the secret?

A: It is encrypted in your browser before it is sent.

Q: How long can a link last?

A: From an hour up to a week.

Q: How many times can it be opened?

A: Once, three, five or ten.

Q: Can I extend one?

A: No. Create another.