Frequently asked questions
You need an adult to set your account up with you. This is for security purposes and also because there is a small charge for using the app.
Once your account is set up you can start chatting to your friends – so long as they have a ChatFOSS account.
So tell your friends to get on ChatFOSS too and you can start messaging and video chatting today.
To make a friend on ChatFOSS, you need to know their ChatFOSS ID and they need to know yours. You simply add your friend to your list of friends. And as soon as your friend does the same, you can start chatting!
Since ChatFOSS is designed to be private, neither you nor friend will be able to see that the other wants to chat with you. This is to stop people you don’t really know guessing your username and inviting you.
If your friend does not have a ChatFOSS ID or you don't know it, you can invite them by using their (or their parent's) email address or phone number and they will receive an email or SMS asking them to join ChatFOSS.
You can also remove a friend at any time.
Yes, ChatFOSS groups are called circles. If you are in a circle you can send group messages, share photos, videos and video chat together.
In ChatFOSS you have to accept an invitation before you are added to a circle, so friends can’t put you in a group you do not want to be in. And only you can remove yourself from a group.
Even better, just because you decide to be in the same group as someone else, it does not make the two of you friends. You only become friends if you BOTH individually decide to add each other as friends.
ChatFOSS is just as much fun as other social networks, but the difference is that you have direct control over who sees your stuff.
Instead of having to share everything all the time, you choose whom you want to see each photo or message.
Also strangers cannot look for you, follow you or find you. Only your friends on ChatFOSS will know you have a ChatFOSS account. You are invisible to everyone else.
Your parents do not see your conversations, photos or videos.
Your parents do see whom you have made friends with, so that they can be sure that you are only talking with people you know.
Parents give you a ChatFOSS account so that you have a safe place to have fun with your friends online.
ChatFOSS uses the most secure data centres, state-of-the-art privacy technology, and the same level of encryption as used by the military.
Please be careful not to share your password with anyone.