Communicating with aliens

[ElanaAhova]

I have encountered 5 alien races in game. I have researched the specific projects for several alien races. Can't find actual interface to actually begin communication. Help please.

[DeMatt]

Have you checked the "Contacts" button in the upper-left?

Have you encountered any aliens that are actually empire-building, ship-piloting types like yourself, instead of spacefaring wildlife?

[Mansen]

Not all aliens you discover are sentient and intelligent enough to speak with you.

[ElanaAhova]

These are alines with ships. Fleets. etc.

[Khatsworth]

From what I can tell, Mansen is right about it. I've met about 4~5 spacefaring alien species too, and while I've resarched them, none appear to be major factions. I guess it's kind of like city-states in Civ5; they're there for special events and to populate the world, but aren't full blown factions like the one you're controlling.

However 3 of the ones I've researched have caused special event windows that gave my empire (permanent?) bonuses, and one was revealed to just be a sort of passive space whale, which made it so my science/construction ships stop fleeing from them because they're not actually aggressive.

[ElanaAhova]

OK, cool. Thanks. Guess I should stop researching alien languages until I finish the colony ship research.