Questions people actually ask.

What is a Trap Phone?

A way for one person to reach you, and nothing else. You can end it whenever you want, and there is nothing left behind when you do.

It is not a second phone number. There is no number involved anywhere.

Do I have to give you a phone number, an email or my name?

No, and there is nowhere to type them. We do not ask who you are because we would rather not know. We also never ask for access to your contacts.

Is it an app or a website?

Both, sort of. It runs in your browser, and you should add it to your Home Screen the first time you use it.

That is not cosmetic. Safari deletes the storage for ordinary websites after seven days of not visiting. Adding it to your Home Screen stops it being an ordinary website, which stops your Trap Phone from being thrown away.

What if I get a new phone?

Set a passcode phrase, in Settings, and you can get your Trap Phone back on any phone by typing it. Without one, your Trap Phone lives on this device and nowhere else, which is exactly what some people want and a nasty surprise for everybody else.

Known limit: the phrase is four words you keep in your head. Nobody can look them up for you, and there is no other way back in, on purpose.

How does anyone reach me if I have no number?

You make an invitation and send it, usually with a message on it saying who you are. Opening it connects them to you straight away: there is nothing to wait for and nobody has to let anybody in.

You can hand a code over two ways: send the link, or read the six characters to them out loud.

How long does a code last?

An invitation for one person dies if unused after a time you choose when you make it: one hour, twenty four hours, or seven days. It also closes the moment somebody uses it, whichever comes first.

A code for multiple people can close itself after a number of people join, or on a date, both optional. With neither set, it runs until you close it by hand, and it shows you how many separate chats have started on it.

Somebody has my code. What can they learn about me?

Nothing. Codes are generated and none of them is derived from your Trap Phone, so a leaked code tells nobody who you are, and you can kill it without touching anything else.

Is sending a link safe?

The link is safe. The place you send it might not be. Whatever you send it through can read it, so a code in a text message is a code sitting in a text message.

The part of the link after the # is never sent to our server. Their browser reads it, so the relay never learns who let whom in.

What if I change my mind before they open it?

Close the code. The link simply stops working, and whoever holds it is not told anything about you, including whether you exist.

Can I get rid of somebody later?

Yes. Cut them off and their messages stop arriving. They are not notified, because being told is how a burner stops being a burner.

Cutting one person off does not close the code they came in on. Close the code separately if you want it dead.

What do you hold on your server?

Three things, and you can see them live in the app under What we hold: when your Trap Phone first connected, when it last connected, and, if you backed up, one locked backup that we cannot open.

No number, no email, no name, because we never had them.

Do messages stay forever?

No. Each conversation has a timer, seven days by default, and you can change it per person. When it runs out the messages are gone from both sides.