OffChat Privacy Policy

In short

OffChat sends messages directly between phones over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. There is no OffChat server and no account. We (the developer) never receive your messages, contacts, photos, voice messages or profile. Everything you create in OffChat stays on your phone and on the phones you chat with.

Who we are

OffChat is made by an independent developer. Contact: saithdevelopments@gmail.com.

What stays on your phone

• Your messages, photos and voice messages, your contacts and channels, and your profile (name, photo and bio).
• Your identity keys. They are created on your phone and protected by the Android Keystore. They never leave your phone.

OffChat excludes this data from Android cloud backups. Uninstalling the app deletes all of it, and so does Settings → Erase All Data, which also gives you a new identity. You can also delete single messages, leave channels, or turn on disappearing messages.

What other people nearby can see

• Your profile. While “Visible to people nearby” is on, phones in range running OffChat can see your name, profile photo and bio. You can turn this off in Settings.
• Direct messages are end-to-end encrypted. Only you and the person you write to can read them.
• Password-protected channels are encrypted with the channel password. Only people who know it can read them.
• Open channels (without a password, such as “General”) are not encrypted. Anyone nearby who joins a channel with the same name can read them.
• Relaying. To reach further, messages can hop through other OffChat users’ phones. Those phones can't read encrypted messages. A relaying phone may keep an encrypted message briefly in memory until the recipient comes into range.
• Catching up. When another OffChat phone comes into range, the two phones can hand each other the channel text messages from the last 24 hours that the other one missed. They are passed on exactly as they were sent, signed by their author, so messages in password-protected channels stay encrypted. Photos, voice messages and direct messages are never passed on this way.
• Verifying in person. Your QR code contains a random one-time code. When a friend scans it, their phone sends that code back to yours, end-to-end encrypted, so both of you are marked as verified. The code changes after every use and is never stored.

Find Friend

Find Friend shows you which way a friend is and how far, for example when you lose each other in a crowd. It only works between two people who have verified each other in person by scanning QR codes.

• Nothing is shared unless you agree. When a friend asks to find you, you choose: allow once, allow for one hour, always allow that friend, or decline. You can stop sharing, or take back “always allow”, at any time in the friend's info screen.
• What is sent. While you share, your phone sends your approximate position (latitude, longitude and how accurate it is) every few seconds, end-to-end encrypted, only to that friend's phone. A sharing session ends after one hour at most. Other phones may relay these messages but can't read them, and never keep them for later.
• What the friend sees. Only a direction arrow and a distance, never a map or your address.
• What is kept. Nothing. Positions are not stored on either phone, and we (the developer) never receive them. The person looking for you never sends their own position.
• On Android, your position is only sent while OffChat is open on your phone.

Reporting a message or a person

You can report a message (long-press it) or a person (in their info screen). OffChat then opens an email draft to saithdevelopments@gmail.com in your email app. The draft contains the person's name and OffChat ID, the conversation, when the message was sent, the text of the message (up to 500 characters) and the app version. Photos and voice messages are never included. Nothing is sent unless you send the email yourself, and you can read and edit it first. We use reports only to look into the problem, and we keep them only as long as that takes, or longer where the law requires it (for example when we have to pass a report about illegal content to the authorities). If you also choose “Report and Block”, the person is blocked on your phone.

Permissions

• Nearby devices (Bluetooth) and Wi-Fi: to find and connect to nearby phones. OffChat doesn't use these to determine your location.
• Location: used for Find Friend, only while you look for a friend or share your position with a friend you allowed (see above). On Android 12 and older, Android also requires it for Bluetooth scanning. OffChat never stores your location.
• Microphone: only while you record a voice message.
• Notifications: to tell you about new messages.
• Camera: only while the QR code scanner is open. The camera image is read on your phone to find the code and is never stored or sent. Photos are taken with your camera app.

Google services

• Nearby Connections (Google Play services) creates the Wi-Fi connections between phones.
• OffChat Plus purchases are processed by Google Play. We don't receive your payment details. Google's handling of payments is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.

What we don't do

No ads, no analytics or tracking by us, no selling or sharing of your data, and no collection of your messages or contacts.

Children

OffChat is not directed at children under 13. See our Child Safety Standards.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top. For questions, write to saithdevelopments@gmail.com.