Frequently asked questions
Direct answers to the most common questions about AChat (Anonymous Chat AI).
Do I need an account to use AChat?
No. AChat needs no sign-up, email, or phone number. Open the app, pick or generate a chat ID, share the link, and talk. An optional Google sign-in only exists so you can keep a chat past the 10-day auto-delete — it is never required to chat.
Is AChat private?
It can be. A chat with a password is end-to-end encrypted in your browser (PBKDF2 + AES-GCM), so message bodies and file metadata are ciphertext on the server. A chat without a password is plaintext and readable by anyone who has the chat ID. Privacy comes from the password, not from the link being secret. See Security & encryption.
Does AChat use AI?
No. Despite the brand name "Anonymous Chat AI", AChat has no AI or LLM chat feature — conversations are between real people, not a chatbot. The "AI" in the name is historical branding. The accurate description is "anonymous, ephemeral, optionally end-to-end-encrypted chat."
How long do messages last?
About 10 days. Every message and file is stamped with an expiresAt ~10 days in the future, and Firestore TTL deletes expired documents (typically within ~24 hours of expiry). File bytes on FilesHub are cleaned up lazily when a chat is next loaded. To keep a room longer, sign in and reserve it.
Can I share files?
Yes — up to 10 MB per file and 100 MB total per chat, stored on FilesHub, with image previews and a lightbox. Note that file bytes are not encrypted at rest; on passworded chats only the file URL/metadata is encrypted. See File sharing.
What happens if I lose my chat password?
The chat becomes permanently unreadable. There is no password reset and no backdoor — that is the point of client-side encryption. Share the password over a separate trusted channel and keep it safe.
Are communities private?
No. Communities are public and discoverable, with best-effort, bypassable client-side moderation (a profanity filter, soft anonymous-ID bans, and report counters). Treat them as public spaces. Their messages still auto-delete on the 10-day schedule. See Groups & communities.
Can I embed AChat on my website?
Yes. Embed it as an inline iframe or a floating launcher. The widget is sandboxed, so the host page cannot read the messages inside. See Embeddable widget.
Is AChat free?
Yes. AChat is free with no paid tier. It runs on free-tier infrastructure (Firestore TTL + FilesHub) with no server-side functions.
Is it anonymous against everyone, including law enforcement?
No. AChat hides your identity from other participants — there is no account requirement and accounts are never linked to message authorship. But standard infrastructure telemetry (IP address, user agent) is processed by Firebase, so AChat is not anonymous against legal process.
How do I delete my account?
If you signed in: Account → Delete account in the app (or the public /delete-account page). It releases your reservations, deletes your profile, and removes your Firebase Auth record. After that, reserved chats return to the normal 10-day expiry.
Can I search my chats?
Yes — you can search across the chats you have opened, and the search runs entirely on your device. AChat keeps a small local cache of your recent chats (5 when anonymous, 10 when signed in) in this browser and searches that; your search terms never leave the browser. A passworded chat is searchable only when its password is saved on this device. See Search & message history.
Can I delete a message, or keep a chat just for myself?
Yes. Deleting a message sends it to a per-chat Trash you can restore from (kept up to 30 days, never past the chat's own expiry). If you sign in, you can also privately archive a chat so only you — signed in — can read it; a password alone will not unlock an archived chat. You can also forward a message into another chat. See Delete, archive & forward.
Who can read my chats — can an admin see them?
A built-in administrator role exists for safety and moderation. It can find and read open (unpassworded) chats, which were already readable by anyone with the ID. It cannot read passworded chats — those stay end-to-end encrypted and there is no key escrow — and every admin action is logged to an immutable audit trail. See Admin oversight.
Does AChat track me with analytics?
AChat uses product analytics (Firebase Analytics / GA4, Amplitude, Microsoft Clarity) and Sentry error reporting to improve the app and fix problems. They never receive chat IDs, message contents, passwords, or files — the chat ID is stripped from the URL first — and no advertising ID is collected. Clarity records anonymised session replays of interface usage. See Data, privacy & deletion.
Will AChat email me or send notifications?
Only if you choose. Push notifications (via OneSignal) are off by default and opt-in. A few transactional emails (welcome on first sign-in, account-deletion confirmation, a reserved-chat expiry reminder) go out via FilesHub if they apply to you. Anonymous use sends no email. See Notifications & email.
How do I contact the developer?
Use the contact page, or email aoneahsan@gmail.com.
Which platforms does AChat run on?
The web app runs in any modern browser (and installs as a PWA). There is an Android app on Google Play. There is no iOS app — on iPhone and iPad, use the web app and add it to your home screen; it works in mobile Safari.