Frequently Asked Questions

The recent surge in data leaks, cyber attacks, corporate data mining, and widespread surveillance has prompted people to search for more secure communication alternatives.

In the past, users resisted minor inconveniences in an app, but today, given these risks, many find those inconveniences a small price to pay for enhanced privacy.

OffGrid isn’t here to replace WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal. It’s here to complement them.

Think of it like a conference room. You don’t work there all day, but when a sensitive or focused conversation needs to happen, that’s where you go.

OffGrid works the same way. It’s built for conversations that need to disappear.

Your everyday chat app is like an open office. OffGrid is your private room, meant for a specific kind of exchange, with just the people who need to be there.

• Market Traders and Analysts: Exchange confidential market insights, trading strategies, or proprietary research without fear of interception or data mining.
• Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors: Negotiate deal terms, share due diligence findings, or discuss portfolio strategies in a space where numbers and strategy remain strictly confidential.
• Finance Executives: Securely discuss sensitive topics such as tax strategy, share pricing, mergers and acquisitions, and investment planning, ensuring no digital record exists.
• Corporate Executives & Board Members: Securely deliberate on unannounced mergers, layoffs, or executive succession plans. Share pre-release earnings reports or strategic pivots with absolute confidence that no internal discussions will leak.
• Legal Professionals: Consult on case details, client information, or sensitive negotiations, maintaining attorney-client privilege and compliance with confidentiality requirements.
• Celebrities and Influencers: Interact with teams, agents, or trusted contacts while maintaining anonymity and avoiding leaks, screenshots, or tabloid drama.
• High-Net-Worth Individuals & Family Offices: Privately discuss estate planning, inheritance strategies, or confidential financial matters without leaving a digital trail. Coordinate with legal advisors on sensitive transactions without risking exposure.
• Real Estate Developers & Brokers: Negotiate off-market property deals, discuss confidential client requirements, or coordinate bidding strategies for high-stakes acquisitions. Securely share sensitive financials, appraisals, or development plans with investors and legal counsel.
• Art Collectors & Auctioneers: Confidentially negotiate private sales and acquisitions of high-value artwork, discuss provenance, or share vault locations and transportation logistics for pieces.
• Cybersecurity Professionals: Coordinate incident response, share threat intelligence, or discuss vulnerabilities without risk of leaks or traceability.
• HR & People Operations Teams: Confidentially discuss sensitive matters like layoff plans, executive compensation, or workplace investigations. Safeguard whistleblower reports, employee disputes, or diversity initiatives from leaks that could create liability or damage culture.
• Intellectual Property & R&D Teams: Discuss patents, prototypes, or proprietary formulas before filings are complete. Collaborate across borders on unpublicized innovations, with no risk of intercepted messages or data mining.
• Medical Professionals: Discuss patient cases, treatment plans, or research data without risking HIPAA or other regulatory violations.
• Scientific Researchers: Collaborate on unpublished findings, grant proposals, or experimental data, protecting intellectual property.

An alias ID and password.

You can change your alias ID anytime, and when you do, the old one gets erased.

OffGrid does not require any personal identifiable information (PII) to sign up.

• No phone number.
• No email.
• No social media account.
• No official ID.

Nothing traces back to your real identity.

OffGrid operates on a subscription model, offering a free version with essential features and a Pro version with advanced capabilities.

Subscriptions are managed via the App Store and Play Store. OffGrid does not store your payment information and has no access to your real identity.

Not yet. We will go open source after the Pro version is released.

Only your alias ID and password for authentication.

• No personal data, metadata, or app activity gets logged or stored.
• Your contacts stay encrypted on your device, and we can’t access them.
• Custom configurations made within the app are encrypted and stored on your device; we can’t access them.

Nothing.

Since we don’t collect personal information, we have no way to contact you to change it.

If you forget your password, you cannot access your account.

Accounts inactive for 45-days are automatically deleted.

No. Your contacts live exclusively on your device and stay there.

To show contacts on multiple devices, apps have to store them on servers, which OffGrid does not do.

If you log in from another device, the app will work as normal, but your existing contacts will not be on the new device.

No.

Only one device can be active per user; logging in on a second device automatically logs you out of the previous device.

Your internet provider can see that you are connected to an OffGrid server, but that is all.

They cannot see who you are talking to, your alias, or any message content.

If you click on a weblink, the visited website can register the source.

They can record that you came to the website from OffGrid, and that is a security breach.

In OffGrid, tapping a link automatically copies it. You will have to manually paste it in your browser.

OffGrid’s end-to-end encryption is just as strong as Signal, WhatsApp, and other familiar names.

All messages in OffGrid are end-to-end encrypted.

Your alias ID on our server is fully encrypted.

All operational and configuration data stored on your device is fully encrypted.

Not yet. But it’s included in our roadmap.

Even on end-to-end encrypted platforms (like WhatsApp), metadata such as communication times, IP addresses, and locations, remains unencrypted and can reveal a lot about a user’s social network, habits, and location patterns.

This data can often be as revealing as the actual message content itself, allowing third parties to analyze who you interact with, when, and from where.

While no digital system can operate with zero metadata, OffGrid’s architecture ensures metadata is:

• Minimized (only what’s essential for delivery and operations)
• Ephemeral (deleted after use)
• Non-identifiable (cannot be linked to real identities)

OffGrid collects the bare minimum metadata required to function, all of which is either encrypted or deleted immediately after use.

Unlike other apps, we never store timestamps, contact maps, or behavioral logs that could reconstruct your activities.

Web browsers and desktop operating systems introduce significant risks that make it impossible to guarantee the same level of security.

Even if OffGrid’s servers were hacked, any stolen data would be useless. It cannot be tied to anything valuable.

None of the data could be used for social engineering, identity theft, corporate data mining, or AI model training. The absence of messages, metadata, and personally identifiable information makes this possible.

Imagine a hacker breaking into a bank vault…only to find it’s already empty.

That’s OffGrid.

OffGrid enforces zero-trust security principles to ensure no interaction is ever assumed safe.

• Verification: Users must accept a contact request before being able to send messages. Changing your alias ID forces re-verification from all contacts.
• Least-Privilege Access: No messages, metadata, or permissions (camera, location, contacts) are stored or granted.
• Assume Breach: Even if our servers are hacked, stolen data is useless. No messages, identities, or recoverable traces exist.

Unlike traditional zero-trust networks, OffGrid applies these principles at the app level, ensuring every conversation leaves no digital footprint.

Not yet, but decentralization is in our development plan.

No message storage: Messages are never stored anywhere. Not on our servers, not on your device. You can only chat in real-time.

No Screenshots or Screen Recordings: Screenshots and screen recordings are blocked within the app. If you try to take a screenshot in a chat, the recipient is notified of the attempt without your knowledge, and you are kicked out of the chat.

No Edit Messages: The content of sent messages can never be altered, preventing the manipulation of information at a later stage.

No Predictive Typing: Prevents keystroke data or typing patterns from being stored or analyzed, ensuring that no part of what you type can be logged, profiled, or used to identify you.

No GIFs or Stickers: Disabled to prevent hidden code or external data requests that could expose your device or compromise security.

No Link Previews: Link previews expose your IP address, location, and telco provider. They are not supported in OffGrid.

No Profile Pictures: Profile pictures are not supported, eliminating the possibility of visual identification.

No Location Access: OffGrid never accesses or tracks your location. While your device may reveal your whereabouts (nothing can be done about this), the app itself does not.

No Camera Access: OffGrid never accesses your device's camera.

No Contacts Access: OffGrid operates independently of your personal contacts. Your phone's contact list is never accessed or mapped.

No Metadata: OffGrid retains only the bare minimum metadata required for functionality. None of this is linked to your real identity. Any temporary metadata generated (such as routing information) is deleted immediately after the operation is complete. All photos, videos, and files are stripped of metadata before being sent.

Single Session Enforcement: Only one device can be active per user at a time. Logging in on a second device automatically logs you out of the first.

Auto-Delete Inactive Alias IDs: Alias IDs inactive for 45-days are automatically deleted.

Multiple Alias IDs: Create as many alias IDs as you want.

Disable Copy Text: Text cannot be copied from within the app, protecting your words from easy extraction. You may paste text or URLs from outside the app into chats, but cannot copy messages out.

App Lock: Requires a unique 6-digit PIN each time to open the app.

Auto-Log Out: Each time you close the app, you must re-enter your alias ID and password.

Save Media: Prevents recipients from saving photos and videos to their gallery. Files must be saved to the user's device to be viewed.

Invisible Typing: Hide your typing and voice indicators.

Incognito Mode (Pro): When enabled, no one can add you as a contact.

Hide Alias (Pro): Replace your alias ID with ciphertext within chats for an added layer of anonymity. Though the chat content may be visible, there is no definite way to prove who the chat is taking place with since the alias ID is hidden.

Timed Photos (Pro): Photos disappear after a set viewing time.

App Disguise (Pro): Allows you to change the OffGrid app icon on your phone to something else so it's less identifiable.

Metadata Masking (Pro): Injects fake metadata in real-time to confuse tracking and surveillance tools.

Voice Mask (Pro): Convert your voice note into a different voice before sending to protect your identity.

Block Groups (Pro): Prevents other users from adding you to group chats.

Killswitch: Instantly wipes your alias and all your data from our servers and your device, allowing you to disappear without a trace.

Group Chats (Pro): Create groups of up to 25 participants. Groups are intentionally capped at 25 participants to maximize security. The larger the group size, the greater the possibility of a security breach.

Contact Permissions (Pro): Manage if a contact can:

• Send you voice notes:
• Send you photos or videos
• Send you files
• Add you to groups
• Request to save messages

Floating Killswitch (Pro): Movable floating icon on every page in the app to activate Killswitch. Tapping the icon initiates Killswitch with warning. Holding for 3 seconds initiates Killswitch with no warning.

Auto-Engage Killswitch (Pro): Automatically trigger the Killswitch after a designated period of time.

Terminate Chat (Pro): Forcefully close the chat for all participants, ensuring no one can access the messages after you leave.

Decoy PIN (Pro): Opens the app in a hidden mode resembling a new, empty account, protecting your real data if you're forced to open it in front of others.

Reverse Decoy PIN Killswitch (Pro): Enter the Decoy PIN in reverse to activate the Killswitch without confirmation, providing a quick and discreet exit.

Save Messages (Pro): Securely retain messages on your device with mutual consent. When both participants agree, messages can be stored locally for a limited, predefined duration after which they are auto-deleted. Permanent storage is not possible.