What happens to my chats when I sign in on a new device?
Your chats travel with you — secured by your password
Unlike some other apps, your chats do remain available when you sign in on a new phone or reinstall the app.
How it works:
- Your private key sits in an encrypted backup on our server, secured with your account password
- On first use on a new device, we ask once for your password
- Your phone fetches the encrypted backup and unlocks it locally with that password
- Your old messages are decrypted and become readable again
What you'll see in practice:
- You open the Chats tab → password prompt appears
- You enter your account password
- Your chats appear — including older conversations
Important:
- This only works if you still know your account password. Forgot it? Use the password-reset link in the prompt — afterwards you have to re-encrypt on every device where you were signed in.
- The very first time you ever use chat, no backup is fetched (there isn't one yet) and a new key is generated
- We can't restore your chats ourselves — only your password unlocks the backup
