Work in progress. PyriteChat is in early testing on Android. Features, and this site, will change. Do not rely on it for anything important yet.

PyriteChat privacy policy

Effective date: September 27, 2026. This policy describes what data the PyriteChat app handles, where it is kept, and what other people can see. PyriteChat is made by PyriteShip.

What we collect

Nothing. PyriteChat has no servers of its own, and the app sends no data to PyriteShip. It has no accounts, analytics, advertising, crash reporting or push notifications.

Your identity and recovery phrase

Your 12-word recovery phrase is created on your phone and stored in its secure storage (the Android Keystore). Your identity key is derived from the phrase each time the app starts and is never saved. Neither is ever uploaded. Your display name is shared with the people you add and the people you message.

Messages and contacts

Messages are end-to-end encrypted with XMTP's MLS protocol. They are stored in the app's private storage on your phone and on your contact's phone. The message database is encrypted, but its key is kept in the same app storage, so what protects it is Android's separation between apps and your phone's screen lock. Your contact list and message requests are stored only on your phone.

What nearby phones can see

PyriteChat works over Bluetooth, so phones near you take part in delivery.

• Phones nearby can see that a phone is running PyriteChat.
• When two phones running PyriteChat connect, they exchange their identities' public IDs in the open. In the current version, anyone nearby with a Bluetooth scanner, not only other PyriteChat users, can see your ID, follow your phone from place to place, and see which phones you connect to. Message contents stay encrypted. Private discovery, which fixes this, is in progress.
• When another phone relays or carries a message for you, it holds a sealed envelope for at most 10 minutes. It cannot read the message, and the envelope does not show who sent it, who it is for, or which conversation it belongs to. Relaying does not hide everything:
  • Each envelope has a hop counter that goes down by one per phone, which shows roughly how far away the sender is.
  • Each envelope has an expiry rounded to ten minutes, which shows roughly when the message was written.
  • The phone that sends a new message can be located by radio by the first phone that receives it.
  • Phones compare lists of the sealed envelopes they hold. Someone listening can recognise a phone by that list.
  • Someone watching every phone in a crowd can match when messages are sent and when they arrive.
• Signal-strength patterns can identify a phone, whatever the app does.
• If you leave Relay for others on, your phone does the same for other people's sealed envelopes.

Camera

The camera is used only to scan contact QR codes. No images are saved or sent.

Internet use

By default PyriteChat sends messages only over Bluetooth and does not use the internet. In Settings → Network you can choose XMTP's network instead, which uses the internet. While it is selected, your encrypted messages go through XMTP's servers, which handle them under XMTP's own policies (xmtp.org).

Deleting your data

In the app, Settings → Delete identity removes your recovery phrase, contacts and messages from your phone. Uninstalling the app does the same. Copies of messages already delivered to your contacts stay on their phones. Envelopes carried by other phones are kept at most 10 minutes on any one phone and expire within 20 minutes of being sent.

App stores

If you install PyriteChat from Google Play or the App Store, Google or Apple may collect data about the download under their own privacy policies.

Contact

Questions about this policy: greg@pyrite.rocks.

Changes to this policy

PyriteChat is a work in progress, and this policy will change as the app does. The effective date at the top shows the latest version.