Dropping a Bottle
Write a message to whoever finds it, seal it in a bottle, and drop it into the stream.
Dropping a bottle is the act of writing a message for a stranger and letting the current carry it. You write, you seal, you drop it in. From that moment the bottle is permanent, it is yours, and it can be found by anyone drifting the stream.
The flow
You can start writing without signing in - the draft is open to everyone and survives the sign-in window. You are only asked to sign in at the last step, when you actually seal the bottle and let it go.
What you write
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Your name | Optional - leave it anonymous if you like |
| Title | A short name for your message |
| Your message | Up to 500 characters, for whoever finds it |
There is no formatting, no images, no recipient to choose. A bottle has no address on purpose - the whole point is that you do not know who will read it. Write the thing you would say to a stranger you will never meet.
Dropping it in
When you seal the bottle, the app quietly does the on-chain work for you: it creates your message as a permanent record and drops it into the stream. You see a short "sealing and dropping it in" beat while that happens, then the bottle floats out among the others.
Dropping a bottle is a create action, so it costs a little from the starter funds you make things with. The cost is shown before you seal, and the app checks you have enough first, so you never hit a surprise. If you are short, the seal button tells you what you need rather than failing partway through. Reading and being found afterward are free. (New here? How Earning Works explains what things cost and how you earn.)
What happens next
Once your bottle is in the stream:
- It joins the current and can be pulled by anyone reading the water
- Whoever finds it can read your message and leave a reply that travels on with it
- Replies accumulate - a bottle can gather a whole trail of replies from different finders over time
- Your bottle shows up in your own logbook, so you can revisit it and see the replies it has collected
The message is permanent and it is yours. It exists independently of the app - the message and every reply left on it live on a public network, not on Bottle Drop's servers.