ChirpingPrivacy Policy
In short
Chirping is built so that your private conversations belong to you. Messages are end-to-end encrypted, stored only on your phone, and never used for ads or analytics. Chirping has no ads, no trackers and sells no data.
What stays on your phone
Your chats, photos, files, voice notes, contacts, reactions and encryption keys are stored only in Chirping's private storage on your device. They are excluded from cloud backups and device-to-device transfers. Settings → Erase All Data deletes all of it.
End-to-end encryption
Every private message, reaction, receipt and file is encrypted on your phone before it leaves it (ECDH P-256 key agreement with AES-256-GCM). Only the recipient's phone can decrypt it — not our server, not Google, not anyone in between. Your private key never leaves your device and is protected by the Android Keystore. You can compare safety numbers in a chat's info screen to confirm nobody is intercepting your conversation.
Offline (nearby) messaging
Without internet, Chirping talks directly to nearby phones over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi using Google Play services' Nearby Connections. Android requires the Location permission for this kind of discovery; Chirping never reads, stores or shares your location. People nearby can see the name you choose and your profile photo while you're discoverable, which you can turn off in Settings.
Online mode and your account
If you choose Online + Offline, you sign in with your email address or phone number through Google Firebase Authentication. Our server (Google Cloud Firestore, Mumbai region) then stores: your email or phone number, your unique username, your public encryption key and a random device ID, so friends can find and reach you. Your email is never shown publicly. If you add an About line, it's shown on your profile to everyone signed in to Chirping, except people you've blocked.
Phone numbers and contacts
You can sign up with your phone number, or add one to an email account in Settings. It's verified by SMS through Firebase Authentication, stored privately so people who already have your number can find you, and never shown publicly. If you open New Message → Phone Contacts and allow contacts access, Chirping reads the phone numbers in your address book on your phone and checks each one against Chirping accounts. The numbers aren't uploaded in bulk, stored on our servers or used for anything else, and nobody is told you checked. The contacts found on Chirping are remembered on your phone so the list opens instantly. You can turn off contacts access at any time in Android settings.
Online messages and files are deleted after delivery
When a message or file travels over the internet, the server only ever holds the encrypted version. Messages go through our encrypted relay on Google Cloud Firestore; files go through Cloudflare's storage (R2), and only the recipient can download them. The recipient's phone deletes each message and file from the server the moment it's downloaded. Anything never collected is erased automatically (messages after 14 days, files after 15). Files up to 100 MB can be sent online; larger files wait until you're nearby.
Voice and video calls
You can call people you can message online. Calls are end-to-end encrypted: the two phones agree on keys through Chirping's encrypted inbox, then audio and video travel directly between them. When a network blocks a direct connection, the encrypted call passes through Cloudflare's relay servers, which can't listen to or watch it. Chirping never records calls by itself. You can choose to record a call with the Record button: the recording is made on your phone and saved only to your phone's storage (Recordings or Music/Chirping for voice, Movies/Chirping for video), and it's never uploaded. The other person sees that you're recording while it's on. Recordings are yours to keep or delete in your phone's files. The microphone and camera are used only during a call you place or answer. Your call history (who, when, how long) is kept only on your phone.
Notifications when the app is closed
So that messages and calls arrive even when Chirping is closed, your phone registers with Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging. When something lands in your encrypted inbox, our server (Google Cloud Functions, Mumbai region) sends your phone a wake-up signal that contains nothing: no sender, no message. Your phone then fetches and decrypts the message itself. Google can see that a signal was sent to your device and when, but not who it came from or what it says. The push token that makes this possible is stored with your account and deleted when you log out or delete your account.
Stories
Stories (text, a photo or a short video) last 12 hours. They're end-to-end encrypted on your phone: our server stores only the encrypted story, a small encrypted preview and, for each viewer, the story's key locked so only their phone can open it. Viewers are the people saved in your phone's contacts who are on Chirping and the people you chat with online, minus anyone you choose in Settings → Hide Stories From. Your phone works this out, and the Chirping account IDs of those viewers are stored with the story so the server only lets them fetch it. When you watch someone's story, your phone tells them you saw it (and how you reacted, if you did); only the story's owner can see this. If you set Last Seen & Online to Nobody, viewing isn't reported, but reacting still is. Replies and reactions are sent to the owner as normal end-to-end encrypted chat messages. Stories, their views and their media are deleted from the server automatically after 12 hours (photo and video files within a day), or straight away when you delete one. People who can see a story can pass it on, as with any message.
Online status and last seen
While Chirping is open, your phone marks you as online, and when you leave it saves the time (your “last seen”). Only people you've accepted in a chat can see it, and only while Settings → Privacy → Last Seen & Online is set to My Contacts or My Contacts Except…. With My Contacts Except…, the people you pick can't see it (the list is stored with your account so the server can enforce it, and only you can read it), and you won't see theirs. Choose Nobody to hide it from everyone; you then won't see other people's either. It's deleted when you log out or delete your account.
Signed-in devices
For each phone signed in to your account, our server stores its model (for example “Pixel 8”), Android version, when it signed in and when it was last active, so you can see your phones in Settings → Devices and log any of them out. Each phone also keeps a random secret; the server stores only a fingerprint (hash) of it, to check that a log-out really comes from one of your phones. Only you can see this list. A phone's entry is removed when it logs out or is logged out, and the whole list when you delete your account. After 4 wrong verification codes or passwords in a row, signing in on that phone pauses for 12 hours (24 hours if it happens again); this is counted only on the phone.
Stickers and GIFs
Stickers you make or import are kept only on your phone. A sticker or GIF you send travels end-to-end encrypted, like a photo. GIF search sends what you type to GIPHY (giphy.com), and your phone downloads the GIF you pick from GIPHY; the person you send it to gets it from you, encrypted, so GIPHY never learns who receives it. Animated emoji (Noto Emoji Animation by Google) are loaded from Google's servers (fonts.gstatic.com) when you open them, so Google can see your phone's internet address, as with any website; the person you send one to gets it from you, encrypted.
Message requests, blocking and muting
Nobody can message you online unless they have your phone number (as on WhatsApp), you accept their request, you've met nearby, or you share a group. Blocking someone is enforced by the server: they can no longer message you or send you requests, and their posts are hidden. Muting only hides their Chirps content and notifications on your phone.
Reports
You can report posts, comments, accounts and chats. Reports, including any details you add, go privately to our moderators and the reported person isn't told who reported them. Reports on Chirps posts and comments go first to that community's admins once 10 people report the same thing for the same reason; they can remove it, keep it, or send it to Chirping's chief moderators, and they don't see who reported it. Child sexual abuse reports go straight to Chirping's moderators. Because chats are end-to-end encrypted, a chat report only includes messages if you choose to attach them (up to the last 20 text messages); those copies are readable by our moderators and may be shared with authorities when the law requires, for example in cases of child sexual abuse. See our Child Safety Standards.
Chirps (public communities)
Chirps posts (text and an optional photo), comments, votes and community names are public to everyone signed in to Chirping and are stored on our server so others can read them. They are not end-to-end encrypted. Photos are resized on your phone and stripped of location and camera details before upload, stored in Google Cloud Storage (United States), and deleted automatically after 90 days, or straight away when you delete the post. Community logos and banners added by a community's creator or moderators are public too. Your votes are private. You can delete your posts and comments at any time.
Community admins and removed content
Each Chirps community has up to 3 admins (its creator and the next people to join), shown publicly on the community. Admins can remove posts and comments that break the rules, warn members and ban them from that community; the reason for a removal is shown to everyone. A copy of removed content is kept for Chirping's chief moderators to review. Only chief moderators can see a community's full member list; others see its admins and any members they already know. If you add a GIF to a comment, your search is sent to GIPHY (giphy.com) to find GIFs, and the GIF is loaded from GIPHY's servers; only the GIF's id is stored with your comment.
Deleting your account
Settings → Delete Online Account removes your login, username, directory entry and your Chirps posts and photos from the server. Erase All Data removes everything stored on your phone.
Services we use
Google Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore (account and encrypted relay), Cloud Storage (Chirps photos and encrypted stories), Cloud Functions and Firebase Cloud Messaging (content-free wake-up signals), GIPHY (GIF search, only if you use GIFs), Cloudflare (relaying calls that can't connect directly, storing encrypted files until they're delivered, and this website), and Google Play services Nearby Connections (offline messaging). Their use is governed by Google's privacy policy. Chirping includes no advertising or analytics SDKs.
Children
Chirping is not directed at children under 13.
Changes and contact
Chirping is developed by Dr. Faruk Hasan Biswas, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India. If this policy changes, the new version will appear in the app and at chirping.in/privacy. Questions: [email protected].