What is Connect?
Connect is an exclusive and private messaging and photo sharing app for your closest friends and family members.
How is Connect different from Instagram or WhatsApp?
We believe that sharing with your friends and family should not require you to share your private life with data analysts and advertisers trying to monetize your online activity. Connect never collects, tracks, shares or analyses private data about what you share and who you share it with.
We also believe in the need to re-Connect with people who we really care about and dis-Connect from too much online noise. Users on Connect need to invite you before they can message you.
How do I find my friends on Connect?
Connect offers various ways to find and invite your friends and family. From the Friends tab, click the Invite button in the upper right corner and:
- Grant access to your Address Book to help us find existing contacts on Connect. Rest assured that your contact details are never saved on our servers.
- You may also use third party apps such as WhatsApp or Viber to directly invite your friends to Connect.
- Additionally, you may also share your private Connect ID with them or ask them to share theirs.
Not only does this protect your privacy but it also allows you to choose who you really want to invite into your exclusive circle of Connect friends.
Who can see what I share on Connect?
When you send a message to a single recipient, it is only visilbe by this specific recipient. Unless you or the recipient pin the message, it will automatically and permanently be deleted after 30 days.
When you send a message to a group, it is visilbe by all current and future members of the group. Unless you and or any of the group members pin the message, it will automatically and permanently be deleted after 30 days.
When you share a photo or video post, it is visible by all the friends and family members you are connected with on Connect. Posts are automatically and permanently deleted after 14 days.
If you post a comment or a reaction on one of your friends' posts, your comment is visible by the author of the post as well as all their friends.
You can be invited to a group with other participants who are not connected to you. While you can exchange messages with them in that common group, they will not be able to message you directly or see your posts.
Can I send voice messages?
Yes, Connect allows you to send text messages as well as voice recordings, photos, videos and PDF documents either to a single recipient or to a group conversation.
Does Connect use End-to-End Encryption?
Connect uses End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) to encrypt all your individual and group messages before they leave your device and decrypt them on the recipient(s)'s device upon reception. No one else, not even us at Connect, can read your messages.
All attachments (voice recordings, photos, videos and documents) sent via an individual or group message are full encrypted (E2EE) as well.
Full End-to-End Encryption of video messages was only introduced in version 1.4. Please make sure to download the latest version from the App Store in order to enjoy maximum security and privacy.
Posts, as opposed to messages, are visible by all your friends on Connect and are currently not encrypted.
Do I lose my messages if I use Connect on a different device?
Connect uses End-to-End Encryption with a Private key which is securely stored on your device. This Private key is required to decrypt messages you receive and is never sent to our servers. We can therefore not help you recover it should you lose it.
Should you decide to switch device and use Connect on a different phone, please make sure to either (1) Backup your Private Key to iCloud or (2) Export your Private Key in order to re-import it on your other device. These options are available under the Security & Privacy Settings menu of the Connect app.
Where is Connect developed and hosted?
Connect is developed by Connected Tech Pte Ltd, a single-developer company based and registered in Singapore. Our server are hosted on a Cloud infrastructure in Switzerland.
Where can I download Connect?
Connect is available on the Apple App Store for iOS devices. It can be downloaded here.
The Android version is still under development and we hope to have a first beta version available within the next few months.
Can I change my phone number?
Connect never scans your address book and does therefore not use your phone number to suggest friends already on Connect.
Your phone number is exclusively used to send you a verification code by SMS when you login on Connect.
If you change number, make sure to update your phone number in the Settings page of the Connect app to allow you to login with your new number.
Is Connect available in other languages than English?
You can use any language of your choice to post or send messages on Connect.
The app itself has currently been translated to Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.
Does Connect collect or share my data?
Connect never tracks, analyzes or shares any of your private data.
Check our Privacy Policy for more details.
How does Connect plan to make money?
We at Connect are strong advocates of data privacy and are therefore committed to never monetize your private data. Connect does not and will never include any sort of advertising or data trackers. We also believe that basic messaging and photo sharing features should remain free for everyone.
In order to support our work, we will soon start accepting contributions from private donors who wish to encourage the development of this private and exclusive alternate messaging platform. We may also introduce peer-to-peer money transfer to your friends and other premium services in the future.
Attributions and Open Souce licenses
Connect uses the following Open Source software:
