Connect with someone

A Connection is the two-way handshake — you follow each other — and it's the key that unlocks the close-up features: direct messages and connections-only content.

How a Connection forms

You follow them, they follow you. That's it — the moment both follows exist, you're Connected. The follow you already understand is the whole mechanism.
Want to nudge it along? Send a connect request — they get a "would like to connect" notification, and one tap on their side completes the handshake. Ignoring one is silent: no refusal is announced, nothing awkward lingers, and your pending requests are always visible on your network page.
With a public profile, following back is one tap. With a private profile, your follow arrives as a request they approve first (Private profile) — so a Connection with a private person always passed through their explicit yes.
You'll see the state plainly wherever people appear: Follow → Requested → Follow back → Connected.

What being Connected unlocks

Direct messages — DMs open only between Connected people (Messages). No cold inboxes, no stranger spam: everyone in your messages is someone you both chose.
Connections-only content — people can set parts of their profile to be visible only to their Connections (Your profile is yours); connecting is how you get close.

Ending one

Unfollow — from their profile or your network page. The mutual state ends quietly: no notification, no announcement, message history stays readable, and new messages wait until you're Connected again. Organizations are different on purpose: you follow an org, you never "connect" with one — orgs are followed, people are known.

Good habits

Follow generously, connect deliberately — follows shape your feeds; Connections open your inbox.

Did you know? The moment a Connection forms is the same instant on both sides — you and they see the same "Connected since," because it's one shared fact, not two copies.