Features

Everything Windpost does

Every feature of the app that invited families are testing today, on iPhone and Android, each in one line. Nothing here is planned or nearly finished.

Messages

Messages of every kind	Words, photographs, videos, voice messages, video notes and documents, each sealed on your phone before it leaves.
Thirty at once	Photographs and videos picked together go as one, each checked before it is sent.
A photo editor	Crop, turn, draw, write or blur by hand first; the copy sent carries nothing about where it was taken.
Voice message	Up to fifteen minutes, played at normal speed, one and a half or twice as fast.
Video note	Recorded in the chat like a voice message, up to a minute long.
Moving photographs	A moving photograph from an iPhone or an Android phone keeps its few seconds of movement.
Big files	Documents and videos up to 500 MB, sent in pieces, so a dropped connection carries on where it stopped.
Trim	A video of up to thirty minutes can be shortened before it is sent.
Send the original file	A document can go as the file itself, to be saved unchanged.
Keep a copy, or not	You choose whether the person you send a photograph or a document to can save it.
View once	A photograph, video or voice message opens one time, then is gone from both phones. A screenshot can still be taken.
Disappearing messages	For each chat: off, a day, a week or a month, on both phones.
Keep in chat	In a disappearing chat, either of you can keep one message past the timer, on both phones.
Delete for everyone	Takes your message back from both phones, even after it was read. It cannot reach a copy already saved.
Edit	Fix your own words for a day after sending; both phones show the message as edited.
Replies and reactions	Slide a message to reply to it, and react with any emoji.
Delivered and read	Ticks show when a message has arrived and when it has been read.
Send later	Choose a day and time, up to 30 days ahead.
Send without sound	It arrives as usual, without a sound or a notification.
Message effects	Confetti, hearts, balloons or stars, once on both phones.
Formatting	Bold, italic, struck through or monospace, in messages of up to 20,000 characters.
Link previews	Your phone fetches a link’s title and picture and sends them sealed; the receiving phone never contacts the site.
Forward	To up to five chats, families or circles; never a view-once message, or anything the sender did not let you keep.
Pin and star	Pin up to three messages for both of you, and star messages on your own phone.

Chats

Search all chats	Words, captions and document names across every chat and note, searched on your phone; nothing is sent.
Photos and files	Every photograph, video, document and link of a chat, on one page.
Notes to myself	A chat with yourself for words, photos, voice and documents, kept sealed on this phone and never sent.
Lists and filters	Unread, favourites, families, groups, and lists of your own.
Pinned chats	The chats you choose stay at the top.
Archive	Out of the list, into Archived. Nothing is deleted.
Mark as unread	A dot stays until you open it. Nobody else is told.
Starred messages	The messages you starred, from every chat, in one place on this phone.
Online and writing	A green dot while a contact has Windpost open, and “writing…” while a message to you is being typed.
Opens without a connection	Your chats, families, albums and documents open as this phone keeps them, and what you write offline goes when the connection is back.

Calls

Voice and video calls	Phone to phone, with up to five people.
Adding people	Add people during a call. Someone who is not in a family or group with everyone on the call joins only if everyone agrees.
Private calls	Every call passes through a forwarder that holds no keys, so no phone learns another’s internet address, and nothing said is recorded anywhere.
Share screen	Everyone on the call can see your screen. Tap Stop to end it.
A small window	A video call carries on in a small window while you look something up.
Effects	Faces, hats, backgrounds, make-up, filters and funny voices, drawn on your own phone. Every call starts with them off.
Noise filter	Each phone cleans the sound of its own microphone, so the others hear you rather than the tap, the television or the fan. On unless you switch it off.
Reactions	A heart or a laugh floats up on everyone’s screen.
When nobody answers	Leave a voice message instead.
Recent calls	The calls kept in your conversations, in one list, with a mark for a missed call.
Missed calls	A missed call shows on the contact’s row and in a notification.
Ring my phone	A call rings even while Windpost is shut.
Ring like a phone call	On iPhone, a call rings on the lock screen like any phone call, and stays out of the Phone app’s list of calls.
Earphones and speaker	The call comes out of whatever is in your ear, and the speaker is one tap away.
Connection details	Tap the call’s connection quality to see how it is carried and where the sound is going.
Quiet while you talk	No sound from the app plays over a call.

A video call in Windpost with four members of a family, the effects open

Families, groups and albums

Families and groups	Joined only by an invitation from someone already in it.
Circles	Smaller chats inside a family: your house, the cousins, the grandparents.
Must-read messages	Each person answers with Got it, and a reminder goes only to those who have not read it yet.
Family album	Photographs at full size, with hearts and comments, kept on the family’s phones.
Baby album	Ages and milestones beside the photographs.
Event album	Guests join with one code and share photographs until a closing time.
A document library	The family’s shared documents, in one place.
Polls	Everyone sees who chose what.
Events	Going, Maybe and Can’t, with a reminder on your phone.
Birthdays	Shared with your families only if you choose to.
Mentions	An @ and a name tells that one person, even in a muted chat.
Admins	Pin up to three messages, write a few lines about the family, choose how long messages stay, and make a chat where only admins write.
Removed means kept out	An owner or admin who removes someone can tick one box, and no invitation lets that person back in until an owner or admin allows it.
Invitations	A family invitation works once, and for 72 hours. See who joined, take one back, or send a new one.
Join with one tap	An invitation sent inside Windpost arrives as a card with a Join button.
Document collections	Ask people for documents: each person sends them to you alone, and co-hosts can help you collect.
Save all as ZIP	A whole album or library, or only the files you tick, saved as one ZIP or sent to a computer.

A baby album in Windpost, with the baby's age and the month's photographs

Safety

Share where I am	Once, or live for 15 minutes or an hour while Windpost is open. Never in the background, and nobody can turn it on for you.
Where is everyone?	Ask the whole family in one message; nobody’s place is shared unless that person sends it.
Help me	Say what is happening (a fall, being lost, feeling unwell) and your family is told at once, with where you are.
SOS	Hold for two seconds, in the app, on the home-screen widget or from the app icon. Everyone in the family is told, with where you are.
I'm safe now	Ends an SOS. You can see who received it and who opened it.
I'm home	Tells your family you got home, in one tap.
Someone asked me for money	Asks the family before anything is paid: they are told at once, so one of them can call you.
Grandparent mode	A few large buttons: Photos, Messages, Call someone, I’m home, Help me and SOS. A must-read message shows in large letters.
Help gets past a mute	Help me and SOS reach the family even in a muted family, or a chat where only admins write.

Grandparent mode: large buttons for photos, messages, calling, saying I'm home, Help me and SOS

Documents and tools

My documents	IDs, passport, insurance: kept here, reminded before they expire.
Never on the relay	My documents stays sealed on this phone, out of every backup, and opens with your fingerprint, face or screen lock.
Expiry reminders	A reminder before a paper expires, for you, for one other person, or for both.
Scan & send	Photograph pages, straighten them, send one PDF.
Sign & send	Sign a PDF with your finger and send it back.
Sealed signature	Anyone can check it has not changed since. Not a certified signature.
Documents as real files	PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, OpenDocument and CSV, up to 500 MB.
Send to computer	Over your own Wi-Fi, straight to the computer's browser.
Shared lists	Shopping and to-do lists for a family or a group.
Park my car	Pin where it is, with a note. Kept on this phone only.

Contacts

Add a contact	With a QR code, a code or a link that a person hands over. There is no search and no directory.
Names you choose	The name you give a contact stays on your phone; the contact’s own name is offered once.
Introduce one relative to another	The person introduced is asked first, and only a yes makes a one-time invitation.
A first look at the settings	A new chat offers the choices that matter once: photographs and documents, disappearing messages, notifications.
Photographs by permission	A contact’s photographs and documents come through only once you allow them.
Your name and picture	Sent sealed to your contacts and families; a contact who gave you another name keeps it.
Block	Ends the connection and deletes the conversation on your phone. The other person is not told.
Report	Shows us one thing you received, with a reason. It is the only time we see a message.
Disconnect	Ends the contact. Either of you can invite the other again later.

Privacy and security

Encrypted end to end	Words, photographs, voice, video, documents and calls are sealed on the phone that sends them. Only the phones in the conversation can open them.
Keys on your phone	Your account is a key made on your phone. On iPhone it is kept in the Keychain of that one device.
No phone number, no email	Nothing anyone could look you up by, and no address book uploaded.
Only people you invite	No directory, no search, no public groups and no strangers.
Adults only	Everyone making an account confirms being 18 or older. There are no accounts for children.
A sealed store	Your history is kept sealed on your phones, and out of iCloud and Android backups.
A message on the relay	Until every phone it is for has it: at most thirty days for a phone that is switched off.
An event album on the relay	Its photographs stay until thirty days after the event closes.
Messages padded to fixed sizes	So the relay cannot weigh one. A big file is not padded, so its size shows.
Delivery records	The record that a message was delivered is deleted after six hours.
Verify	Compare sixty digits or a QR code once, in a room. If a verified key changes, the app says so loudly and stops sending until you compare again.
Lock Windpost	Asks for your fingerprint, face or phone PIN before it opens. Calls and SOS still get through.
Locked chats	Chats that open only with your fingerprint, face or phone PIN
Ask the keyboard not to learn	On Android, Windpost asks your keyboard not to keep what you type here.
Read receipts	Can be turned off.
Show when I'm online	Turn it off and your phone stops saying you are online, or writing.
Quiet notifications	What passes through Apple or Google names nobody and carries none of your words. It says more only if you turn on Say what is waiting.
Your location	Read only when you tap to send it, never in the background.
No ads, no analytics	No advertising, no analytics, no crash reporting service and no tracking.

Your data

A sealed backup	Off until you turn it on. What your phone keeps goes to the relay sealed, and the relay cannot open it.
Recovery code	Sixteen characters made on your phone bring your account back on a new phone, with your contacts, chats and families.
Family recovery	Two relatives you chose confirm on their own phones, then a day’s wait follows that you or either of them can stop.
Told if it is used	If your recovery code is used, Windpost says so, and That wasn’t me stops the code.
Save the backup as a file	A sealed copy to keep on a computer, a USB stick or a drive. It opens with your recovery code.
Export, free	A chat, a family or a group as one ZIP that opens on a computer without the app. The copy is not sealed, and a chat’s export leaves out view-once messages.
Storage	When the phone is almost full, Windpost says so and lets you choose. Photographs are never made smaller.
Downloads your way	Photographs, voice, videos and documents download by themselves, on Wi-Fi only, or when you tap.
Delete my account	Your account, backup and contacts, deleted for good
Without a backup	A lost phone means starting again, because your history was on that phone.

Notifications and sounds

Mute	A chat, a family or a group, for 8 hours, a week or always. Calls, Help me, SOS and mentions still come through.
Say what is waiting	Off unless you turn it on: then a notification can name the kind of message, and on Android which chat and how many.
Sounds in the app	A short note when a message arrives or is sent, which you can switch off.
The ring	Choose what a call sounds like, in the app and on the lock screen.
Earphones in	The ring goes into your earphones alone.
In your language	Notifications follow the app’s language.

Look, language and accessibility

Colours	Ten colour looks: some follow your phone from day to night, some stay light, some stay dark.
Chat wallpaper	Colours, faint patterns or your own photograph, behind every chat or only one.
Language	Seven languages: English, Turkish, French, German, Spanish, and Chinese in simplified and traditional characters.
Screen readers and large text	Every button and picture has a name your screen reader can say, and words follow your phone’s text size.
Clear to read	Every colour look keeps words clear against the background, and buttons are big enough for a finger.
Less motion	The logo's flame and the dots that show someone writing stand still, and pages fade in instead of sliding.
Your clock	Times follow your phone’s 12- or 24-hour setting.
Plain pages about the app	What Windpost can do, what it cannot do, and every feature, explained in the app itself.
Open-source licences	Listed in the app, for everything Windpost is built with.

Worth knowing

Windpost is not an emergency service. It does not call emergency services: if someone is in danger, call your local emergency number.

Anything you send can be kept by the person you send it to: screenshots are allowed, and a photograph or a document can be saved unless you switch off keeping a copy.

Windpost is in testing. Its security properties are being tested, and it has not had an independent security review yet. What it cannot do is under honest limits on the home page, and what our relay holds, and for how long, is in the privacy policy.