TideWhisper

How TideWhisper works

TideWhisper is for people aged 18 and over. Here is how a conversation starts, and what happens to its messages.

Send a message in a bottle

Write a message and send it into the shared discovery pool, where someone may find it and reply. Bottles are screened for inappropriate content before they are shared.

Your first message enters the discovery pool and is not end-to-end encrypted.

A corked pink bottle with a heart inside, floating on the waves

Pick up a bottle

To start a conversation, pick up a bottle drifting in the pool. Bottles that fit your preferences come first. Your plan sets how many you can pick up each day: a free plan lets you get started, while Pro and Max offer higher usage limits.

A bottle message picked up from the waves: “Anyone else awake at 3 a.m.?”

Reply once; the sender decides

Whoever picks up a bottle can send one reply. The conversation continues only if the bottle's sender answers. Photos and voice notes can be sent only to someone who follows you.

A single reply, “Me too. Want to talk?”, ready to send above an open padlock

The sender answers, and you're talking

If the bottle's sender answers, the conversation begins. From the first reply onward, text, photos and voice notes in the conversation use end-to-end encryption. Our server relays encrypted conversation content without the private keys needed to decrypt it.

The reply “Me too. Want to talk?” turning into encrypted blocks as the padlock closes

Read, and keep less online

Once both participants have read a message, its encrypted copy is removed from active servers. This does not remove copies already on your devices; clearing local history or uninstalling the app removes local copies. Existing backups expire under our retention schedule.

After both people read a message, the server copy is wiped while the copy on your phone stays

Stay in control

Block and report.

You decide whether to continue a conversation. You can block someone you do not want to hear from and report conduct that breaks the Community Rules.

Secret chats.

Lock a conversation with a secret chat PIN. The PIN is checked only on your device and is never sent to our server, so we cannot reset it.

Translation.

When you select Translate, the app first attempts on-device translation. If that is unavailable or unsuccessful, the text submitted for translation is sent in readable form through our server to our translation provider.

For account, subscription and privacy questions, see Support and the Privacy Policy.

Say it to the tide.

Messages in a bottle, for adults on iPhone.