10 km or 50 km? How to tell when it's time to go regional (and when to come back)

The 10 km room is your town. The 50 km room is your region. Both are one tap apart, and switching costs nothing, but they feel very different: one is a conversation among people who share your streets, the other among people who share your roads, your weather and your weekend plans. This article helps you choose between 10 km and 50 km: what changes when you go regional, the signs that it's time to widen your room, the signs that it's time to come back, and a quick way to decide.

The difference in one picture

Here's the same spot, a few seconds apart, in the two rooms. In the 10 km room, two people nearby are talking about a hardware shop. One asks whether it opens on Sundays. Another says it's closed. A little later, the first thanks someone for a tip you can't see.

A screenshot of the 10 km room from one spot. Only two nearby people are talking, the header shows 3 people in range, and Kim Oanh thanks someone whose answer you can't see.

Now the 50 km room from the same spot. The hardware conversation is still there. Nothing said in a smaller room disappears when you step up. But now you can see the answer that was being thanked: someone 12 km away pointing to a warehouse by the motorway exit that opens on Sundays. Around it are messages from further out: a ferry running again 41 km away, a night market that's moved to Fridays in the next town, a trail race over the ridge looking for volunteers. The header goes from 3 people in range to 8.

A screenshot of the 50 km room from the same spot. The same messages are there, plus the answer from 12 km away that Kim Oanh was thanking, a trail race and a ferry update, with 8 people in range.

That's the trade in a nutshell. The 50 km room gives you more people, more answers and more of what's going on, at the price of more that isn't about your town.

How the rule works, in plain words

Each message carries the size of the room its sender chose. You see it when the distance between you is no more than the smaller of your room and theirs. So:

• In the 10 km room, you hear people within 10 km who are listening at 10 km or wider, plus people close enough to be inside their own smaller rooms. You never hear anyone further than 10 km away.
• In the 50 km room, you hear everything the 10 km room would show you, plus people between 10 and 50 km away who chose the 50 km room.

The same applies to what you send. A message from the 10 km room reaches at most 10 km. A message from the 50 km room can reach 50 km, but only to people who are listening that wide. Someone 25 km away sitting in their own 10 km room won't see it, however useful it is.

That's why the answer from 12 km away in the pictures above appears only in the 50 km room. Its sender posted from the 50 km room, and the person asking was close enough to see it in their 10 km room. You, 12 km from the sender, are outside the 10 km circle and only catch it when you widen yours.

Signs it's time to go wider

The 10 km room is quiet

If the last message in your 10 km room is from yesterday, or there's just you and one other person in range, try 50 km. In the countryside, in small towns and on the edge of a city, the 50 km room is often the first one with a real conversation in it. Farms, villages and islands: when the 50 km room is the one that's awake goes into that in detail.

Your question is about the region

Roads between towns, the weather in the hills, the airport, a big festival, a specialist hospital, a service that drives out to you. If the answer probably lives outside your town, ask where the answer lives.

You need an unusual answer

A vet for goats, a mechanic for an old tractor, someone who plays a rare board game, a tutor for a language few people speak. The rarer the thing, the more people you need to ask. Five times the radius is twenty-five times the area.

You're on a journey

On a long drive, a 10 km room is behind you before you've read it. The 50 km room covers the road ahead: the pass, the ferry, the motorway junction.

You've asked in the 10 km room and got nothing

Give your town a fair chance, then widen. Say where you asked first: "Asked in town, no luck, anyone further out?" People appreciate knowing you've tried closer to home.

Signs it's time to come back

The talk is about places you never go

If the room is full of a city you don't visit, or a coast road you never drive, the 50 km room is showing you too much. Your 10 km room keeps what's relevant.

It's busy

Around a big city, the 50 km room can hold a lot of people. If messages scroll past faster than you can read them, step down. You'll still hear the whole town.

Your question is local

"Is the pharmacy on the high street open?" doesn't need an audience of a whole province. Asking in the right-sized room gets you answers from people who actually know that high street.

You'd rather not be seen by so many

People in the 50 km room only ever see a distance rounded to the nearest kilometre, never your coordinates. Still, it's the largest local audience CicadaChat has. For anything personal, a smaller room or a private chat is the better fit.

A quick way to decide

The rule of thumb: pick the room whose edge is about as far as you'd travel for the thing you're asking about. If you'd drive an hour for it, 50 km. If you'd only cross town, 10 km.

Switching is free, and often

There's no joining and no leaving. Tap 10 km or 50 km in the row of room tabs on a phone, or Within 10 km or Within 50 km in the Location rooms list on a computer, and the room reloads around you. Nobody is notified that you've arrived or gone, apart from the people-in-range count changing.

Many people keep one room as home and visit the other. Someone in a busy city might live in the 10 km room and check the 50 km room before a weekend away. Someone in the country might live in the 50 km room and drop into 10 km to see what's happening in the nearest town. CicadaChat remembers the last room you picked on each device, so whichever you use most becomes the one the app opens in.

What happens to what you've already said

Your messages stay where you sent them, with the reach you chose at the time. A question posted in the 10 km room doesn't grow to 50 km because you've moved up, so if you want the region to see it, ask again in the 50 km room. It's fine to repeat a question when you change rooms; just keep the wording short so people who saw it in both know it's the same one.

Answers come the same way. If someone replies in the 50 km room from 30 km away, you'll only see the reply while you're in the 50 km room. Remember to look there before stepping back down.

How it compares with the smaller step

The step from 1 km to 10 km is about going from a walk to a ride. The step from 10 km to 50 km is about going from a town to a region. The first is covered in 1 km or 10 km? How to tell when it's time to go wider, and much of its advice carries over: go wider when it's quiet or when the answer is far away, and come back when it's noisy or the question is close to home.

What's different at 50 km is who you'll meet. In the 10 km room, most people know the same landmarks you do. In the 50 km room, many don't. Name places fully, say which town you're in when it matters, and don't assume "the market" or "the bridge" means the same thing to everyone. For everything else about the regional room, the 50 km room: chatting with your whole region is the place to start.

What stays the same in both rooms

• Nobody sees your coordinates. They see a rounded distance: to the nearest 250 m in the 10 km room and the nearest kilometre in the 50 km room.
• Tap anyone's name to start a private chat that only the two of you can read.
• Photos are re-encoded on your device before they're sent, which strips hidden location data.
• Sharing your exact location is always your choice, and the warning tells you who will see it: Everyone within 10 km or Everyone within 50 km will see this exact spot.
• Messages can't be edited or deleted after they're sent.
• Guests can use both rooms. A free account adds friends and private rooms.

Try both today. Open CicadaChat, look at 10 km, then tap 50 km and see what your region is talking about.