diff --git a/include/message.php b/include/message.php
index cca913b4ef..05157cc83a 100644
--- a/include/message.php
+++ b/include/message.php
@@ -27,13 +27,50 @@ function send_message($recipient=0, $body='', $subject='', $replyto=''){
 	$hash = random_string();
  	$uri = 'urn:X-dfrn:' . $a->get_baseurl() . ':' . local_user() . ':' . $hash ;
 
-	if(! strlen($replyto))
+	if(! strlen($replyto)) {
 		$replyto = $uri;
 
-	$r = q("INSERT INTO `mail` ( `uid`, `from-name`, `from-photo`, `from-url`, 
+		$conv_guid = get_guid();
+
+		$recip_host = substr($contact[0]['url'],strpos($contact[0]['url'],'://')+3);
+		$recip_host = substr($recip_host,0,strpos($recip_host,'/'));
+
+		$recip_handle = (($contact[0]['addr']) ? $contact[0]['addr'] : $contact[0]['nick'] . '@' . $recip_host);
+		$sender_handle = $a->user['nickname'] . '@' . substr($a->get_baseurl(), strpos($a->get_baseurl(),'://') + 3);
+
+		$handles = $recip_handle . ';' . $sender_handle;
+
+		$r = q("insert into conv (uid,guid,recips) values (%d, '%s', '%s') ",
+			intval(local_user()),
+			dbesc($conv_guid),
+			dbesc($handles)
+		);
+		$r = q("select * from conv where guid = '%s' and uid = %d limit 1",
+			dbesc($conv_guid),
+			intval(local_user())
+		);
+		if(count($r))
+			$convid = $r[0]['id'];
+	}
+	else {
+		$r = q("select convid from mail where uid = %d and uri = '%s' limit 1",
+			intval(local_user()),
+			dbesc($replyto)
+		);
+		if(count($r))
+			$convid = $r[0]['convid'];
+	}		
+
+	if(! $convid) {
+		logger('send message: conversation not found.');
+		return -4;
+	}
+
+	$r = q("INSERT INTO `mail` ( `uid`, `convid`, `from-name`, `from-photo`, `from-url`, 
 		`contact-id`, `title`, `body`, `seen`, `replied`, `uri`, `parent-uri`, `created`)
-		VALUES ( %d, '%s', '%s', '%s', %d, '%s', '%s', %d, %d, '%s', '%s', '%s' )",
+		VALUES ( %d, %d, '%s', '%s', '%s', %d, '%s', '%s', %d, %d, '%s', '%s', '%s' )",
 		intval(local_user()),
+		intval($convid),
 		dbesc($me[0]['name']),
 		dbesc($me[0]['thumb']),
 		dbesc($me[0]['url']),
diff --git a/mod/message.php b/mod/message.php
index 60e6b38fce..172a1ca98f 100644
--- a/mod/message.php
+++ b/mod/message.php
@@ -27,6 +27,10 @@ function message_post(&$a) {
 			break;
 		case -3:
 			notice( t('Message could not be sent.') . EOL );
+			break;
+		case -4:
+			notice( t('Message collection failure.') . EOL );
+			break;
 		default:
 			info( t('Message sent.') . EOL );
 	}