Terms of use

Effective 5 October 2026 · applies to the Nullchat apps for iPhone, Android, web and Mac, this website, and the public push service

• Agreement
• Who can use it
• Acceptable use
• Blocking and reporting
• Your key
• Relays and push
• Open-source licence
• No warranty
• Liability
• Ending use
• App stores
• Changes
• Contact

1. Agreement

These terms are an agreement between you and Codeways Pvt Ltd (“we”, “us”), the publisher of Nullchat. By installing or using Nullchat you agree to them and to our privacy policy. If you don’t agree, don’t use the app.

2. Who can use Nullchat

You must be at least 13 years old, or older if your country sets a higher minimum age for using messaging services without a parent’s consent. If you are under 18, you confirm that a parent or guardian has agreed to these terms for you. You must not use Nullchat if you are barred from doing so by applicable law, including export and sanctions laws.

3. Acceptable use

Nullchat has no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users. You agree not to use Nullchat, or any relay or push service it connects to, to:

• harass, bully, threaten, stalk, intimidate or impersonate anyone;
• send hateful content that attacks people based on race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or similar characteristics;
• create, share or request sexual content involving minors, or groom or sexually exploit anyone. We report child sexual exploitation to the relevant authorities;
• send sexual content or intimate images to people who haven’t agreed to receive them, or share intimate images of someone without their consent;
• promote or incite violence, terrorism, self-harm or suicide;
• send spam, unsolicited bulk messages, scams, phishing or malware;
• buy, sell or facilitate anything illegal, or infringe anyone’s intellectual property or privacy;
• flood, overload, probe or attack relays, the push service, other users’ devices or our infrastructure, or get around rate limits.

You are responsible for what you send. Because messages are end-to-end encrypted, we can’t see them, and we don’t monitor them. That doesn’t make abuse acceptable.

4. Blocking and reporting

• Requests first. Nobody can land in your chat list without your say-so. People who aren’t your contacts show up under Contacts → Requests, where you can accept, ignore or block them.
• Block. In a chat, open Chat info from the button in the top bar and choose Block. You can also block from Requests. A blocked person’s messages, including in shared groups, are discarded on your device, and they stop receiving your push handle.
• Report. Choose Report… from the chat’s ⋯ menu, from Chat info, from a group’s member list, or from Requests. Pick a reason, add a note if you like, and optionally attach some of that person’s text messages, which you select one by one. The app prepares an email to us; nothing is sent until you send it, and blocking is ticked by default. You can also email us directly at the address in Contact with the person’s public key (the npub1… shown in Chat info). We can’t read your messages, so we only see what you choose to send.

We review every report and aim to respond within 24 hours. Nullchat has no central account system, so we can’t delete someone’s identity. What we can do: ban the key from services we operate (such as the push service and the public demo contact), pass reports about illegal content to relay operators and law enforcement where appropriate, and act on any other measure we add to the app. Details are on the support page.

5. Your key and your data

Your identity is a cryptographic key created on your phone. You are responsible for keeping your phone and your 12-word backup phrase safe. Anyone with the phrase can act as you. If you lose both your phone and the phrase, nobody, including us, can recover your identity or messages. You keep all rights to the content you send. We don’t receive it, so we claim no licence to it.

6. Relays, push and other third parties

Nullchat sends encrypted messages through Nostr relays that are operated by independent third parties, not by us. Relays may be unavailable, slow, rate-limited, lose messages, refuse to delete them, or change their rules at any time. Your use of a relay may be subject to that operator’s own terms. Notifications are delivered by Apple and Google. We are not responsible for third-party relays or services, and we don’t guarantee that any message will be delivered, delivered on time, or deleted.

The public push service is offered free and may be rate-limited, changed or discontinued. You can run your own relay and push service instead; see the support page.

7. Open-source licence

Nullchat’s source code is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). These terms don’t limit any right the AGPL gives you: you may study, modify and redistribute the code under that licence, and if you run a modified version as a network service, the AGPL requires you to offer its source to its users. These terms govern your use of the builds we publish and the services we operate. The “Nullchat” name and logo identify our builds; if you distribute a modified version, please give it a different name so people aren’t confused about who made it.

8. No warranty

Nullchat is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, to the fullest extent permitted by law. In particular:

• Nullchat is pre-1.0 software and has not been independently audited. It has no forward secrecy yet. Read the threat model before relying on it.
• Disappearing messages are a courtesy, not a guarantee. Dark chats and view-once photos are deleted by honest apps, but a recipient can use another camera, a modified app or a compromised device to keep anything you send.
• Do not rely on Nullchat where a failure could put someone’s life, safety or freedom at risk, or for emergency communication.

9. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Codeways Pvt Ltd and the Nullchat contributors are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, messages, profits or goodwill, arising from your use of, or inability to use, Nullchat, relays or the push service. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us for Nullchat, which is zero. Some jurisdictions don’t allow these limitations, so they apply to you only as far as the law allows. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have as a consumer that can’t be waived by contract.

10. Ending use

You can stop using Nullchat at any time with Settings → Delete everything, or by uninstalling it. If you break these terms, we may block your key from services we operate, without notice.

11. App stores

If you got Nullchat from the Apple App Store, these terms are between you and Codeways Pvt Ltd, not Apple. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support, is not responsible for any claims about the app (including product liability, legal compliance or intellectual property claims), and is a third-party beneficiary of these terms with the right to enforce them against you. Apple’s Standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement also applies, except where these terms say otherwise. If you got Nullchat from Google Play, Google Play’s terms also apply to your use of the store.

12. Changes

We may update these terms. We will post changes here and update the date at the top. If you keep using Nullchat after a change, the new terms apply.

13. Contact

Questions, abuse reports and legal notices:

Codeways Pvt Ltd
support@example.com