Support

Report objectionable content or an abusive user

We operate a zero-tolerance policy for objectionable content and abusive users, set out in section 4 of the Terms of Service. We review every report and act on it within 24 hours.

From inside the app (preferred)

Tap the ⋯ menu on any post, or open a person's profile card, and choose Report. Reporting does three things at once:

• Blocks that person immediately on your device.
• Purges their content from your phone and stops you relaying anything of theirs.
• Opens a prefilled email to us containing the details we need — the content, the sender's identity key, and a timestamp.

You can read the email before it sends, and remove anything you would rather not share.

By email

If you cannot use the in-app flow, email support@offing.xyz with the subject line Abuse report. Please include as much of the following as you can:

• The handle of the person involved (for example @wild-wren-28).
• What the content was, or a screenshot of it.
• Roughly when and where you saw it.
• Which category from the rules you think it falls under.

What happens to a report

Offing has no servers, so we want to be precise about what a report does and does not achieve. A vaguer answer would be a misleading one.

Immediately, on your device

The moment you tap Report, the offending user is blocked and their content is removed from your phone. Your phone stops carrying and relaying anything of theirs to anyone else. None of this waits on us, and none of it needs a network connection.

Within 24 hours, from us

We review the report. Where it identifies a violation of the rules, we take every step available to us:

• Revoking that user's right to use Offing under the Terms of Service.
• Shipping an app update that refuses content originating from the reported identity key.
• Referring criminal content to law enforcement.
• Reporting the user to Apple or Google where their policies apply.

We will tell you what we did, unless doing so would compromise an investigation.

What we cannot do

We cannot delete content from other people's phones. There is no connection between us and them — that is the same architecture that means we never see your messages either. Content on the mesh expires by itself within a few hours, which caps how long anything survives, but within that window a copy that has already been delivered stays on the receiving device until it expires.

We would rather tell you this plainly than imply a takedown power we do not have.

Blocking someone

Open the person's profile card — tap their name on a post, their blip on the radar, or their row in People — and choose Block.

Blocking is thorough, immediate, and entirely local to your phone:

• Their posts, stories, replies, and reactions disappear from every feed.
• They vanish from your radar, your People list, and the nearby count.
• Everything their device sends you is refused before it is even processed.
• Your phone stops relaying their content onward, and drops anything of theirs already queued.

Blocking does not notify the other person. You can unblock from the same profile card at any time.

Staying safe

• Handles are not verified. Anyone can claim any name. Use the QR verification in the app to confirm someone is who they say they are, face to face.
• Check your safety words. Every conversation shows a short word list. Read them aloud together — if they match on both phones, nobody is in the middle of your conversation.
• Pinned locations are public. Pins on public posts are rounded to roughly a 100-metre grid before they are sent, and pins inside a group keep full precision. Either way the post relays past the people you can see, so do not pin where you live or where you are sleeping.
• Your handle, status, and tags are broadcast to everyone nearby, whether or not you post anything. Pick a handle you are comfortable being seen by strangers.
• Meet in public. If you are meeting someone from the app, pick a busy place and tell a friend where you are going.

Troubleshooting

I can't see anyone nearby

Offing only finds people who are also running Offing, within Bluetooth range — usually a few tens of metres, less through walls and crowds. Check that Bluetooth is on, that you granted the Bluetooth and location permissions, and that the app is open. The first beacon can take up to a minute to land.

Why does it want location permission?

Android requires location permission for any app that scans for nearby Bluetooth devices. We do not read your coordinates for scanning, and we do not track you. Location is only actually read when you pin a spot to a post or ask for a bearing to one. See the privacy policy.

My messages aren't arriving

Messages travel phone to phone, so delivery depends on there being a path between you and the recipient — either directly, or through other people's phones. If they move out of range, the message waits and is delivered when a path reopens, until it expires. Keeping the app in the foreground gives the mesh the best chance to work.

The app is draining my battery

Continuous Bluetooth scanning and advertising costs power, and there is no way around that for a mesh app. The app throttles its radio use as your battery drops. Closing the app stops all radio activity immediately.

I lost my identity / I reinstalled

Your identity key lives only on your device and there is no backup, by design. Reinstalling the app generates a brand-new identity, so previous conversations cannot be recovered and people who verified you will need to verify you again. Their app will show your safety words have changed, which is exactly what it should do.

On iOS this needs a little help from the app, because the system keychain is not deleted along with an app. Offing detects a reinstall and clears the old key itself, so deleting the app really does mean starting over.

Common questions

Do I need an account?

No. There is no sign-up, no email, no phone number, and no password. You pick a handle and you are in. Your identity is a cryptographic key generated on your phone.

Does it work without internet?

Yes — that is the whole point. Offing never needs the internet. It works in airplane mode as long as Bluetooth is on.

Can you read my messages?

No. Direct messages and group posts are end-to-end encrypted, and we operate no servers through which they pass. We hold no keys and there is no mechanism by which we could be compelled to read them. Public feed posts are exactly that — public to anyone in range.

How long do posts last?

Roughly six hours, after which they delete themselves on every device holding them. There is no archive and no feed history.

How do I delete my data?

Delete the app. Your posts, conversations, contacts and block list are stored only on your device and go with it. There is no account to close and no server-side copy to request, because there is no server.

Worth knowing how that works on iOS: the system keychain is not deleted along with an app, so Offing checks on first launch whether it is running beside a keychain from a previous install and clears it. That is what makes deleting the app a genuine reset rather than a pause.

Is Offing open source?

Not yet. If that changes we will say so here.