We can help

There's no account to create. Open the app and tap "Forge my identity" — a key pair is generated on your device instantly. That's the entire sign-up process.

When your identity was created, Pénombre showed you a 32-word recovery phrase. That's the only way to rebuild your keys on a new device — install the app, choose "I already have an identity," and enter your phrase, in order. If you didn't write that phrase down, the identity (and the local history tied to it) unfortunately can't be recovered by anyone, including us.

Tap the + button, then have your contact scan your QR code, scan theirs, or paste each other's public keys directly. There's no central directory — you have to exchange keys yourselves.

It's a visual seal computed from your and your contact's public keys. When you meet in person, compare your two seals in the app: if they match, your conversation is authentic and no one has intercepted it.

No. Messages are encrypted on your device before they're sent, and decrypted only on the recipient's device. The server that relays messages only ever sees encrypted envelopes — never their content.

This is the one optional feature that's an exception: if you enable AI mode for a business, that customer's message is sent to our server function, which forwards it to an AI provider to generate a reply. This feature is off by default and only affects conversations where you've explicitly turned it on.

Choose a duration (1 minute, 1 hour, or 24 hours) for a conversation: every message sent after that setting automatically vanishes from both people's devices once the timer runs out.

French, English, Spanish, and Hindi. The app automatically detects your device's language; you can change it manually in Settings.