Help
Features and instructions
Everything a Disapp user needs to do, step by step. Nothing here is hidden behind a training course — if something isn’t where this page says it is, open the Profile screen and it will be within two taps.
Creating your account
Open the app and choose Register. Enter your email, pick a display name, and set a password. Disapp will ask you to confirm the password a second time so a typo doesn’t lock you out. You can add a phone number later under Profile if you want other users to find you that way — it’s optional.
Logging in
Tap Log in, enter your email and password, and you’re in. If you’ve enabled two-factor authentication (recommended) Disapp will ask for a six-digit code from your authenticator app before it unlocks the conversation list.
Two-factor authentication with an authenticator app
Open Profile → Two-factor authentication and tap Enable. The app shows a QR code. Open your authenticator of choice — Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, Bitwarden, Aegis, anything that speaks TOTP — and scan the code. Your authenticator will start showing a new six-digit code every thirty seconds. Type that code back into Disapp to confirm the pairing worked.
Disapp also gives you ten one-time backup codes. Write them down on paper or save them in your password manager and keep them somewhere you can reach even without the app — they’re what lets you log in if your phone is ever lost or wiped. Each code only works once.
Biometric unlock (Android)
In Profile → Appearance and security, turn on Unlock with biometrics. After that, every time you open the app you’ll be greeted by your fingerprint or face prompt before any chats appear. The app re-locks as soon as it goes into the background — a quick glance at a notification is fine, but the next time you actually open Disapp you’ll need to authenticate again.
The duress PIN
The duress PIN is a second password you set up specifically for the situation where someone is forcing you to unlock the app. Configure it under Profile → Privacy → Duress passphrase. When you’re forced to unlock, type the duress PIN instead of your real password. Disapp accepts it silently, clears your session, and presents a clean freshly- installed-looking screen. The person watching sees a messenger with no history and no chats. Behind the scenes your account records the event so you have a timestamp of when it happened.
Recovery passphrase
Under Profile → Privacy → Recovery passphrase you can set a passphrase that unlocks your message history on a fresh install. Pick something at least eight characters and memorable — or save it in a password manager. Without this passphrase, reinstalling the app (new phone, lost phone, factory reset) means your old chats can no longer be read. With it, you restore and keep everything.
Marking a conversation as private
Open the chat you want to hide, tap the chat header to open the info pane, and flip Private chat on. That’s all. From now on the chat disappears from your main list until you enter your secret code into the New Chat search field. Nothing in the app tells anyone looking at your phone that the feature is even in use — there is no label, no badge, no little lock icon.
Showing and hiding private chats with the secret code
Set your secret code in Profile → Privacy → Hidden chats. It must be at least four characters and it doesn’t have to look like a password — it can be a word, a phrase, or a nonsense string. To reveal your private chats, open New Chat and type the code into the search field as if you were searching for a contact. The field clears itself silently and your private chats appear in the list. Type the code again to hide them.
The decoy code for when someone is watching
Set a decoy code under the same Hidden chats screen. The decoy code is different from the secret code and exists specifically for the moment when a partner, an employer, or any other onlooker demands that you “show them the hidden chats.” Type the decoy code into the New Chat search. Visually nothing happens — exactly like the real secret code. What you’ve actually done is put the app into a cooldown window in which even the real secret code reveals nothing. From the onlooker’s point of view, whatever you type next appears to be the wrong code. No data is deleted. You wait out the cooldown — one, four, or twenty-four hours depending on which length you chose — or you type your real secret code to exit it once you’re alone.
Starting a chat with someone
Tap New Chat and type the person’s email, phone number, or display name. Disapp searches as you type. Pick the match and the chat opens. If the other person lets their account be discovered by phone number and you have them in your device’s address book, Disapp will surface them automatically under the Discovery row — one tap and you have a chat open.
Group chats
From the conversation list, tap + New group. Pick the members you want to add, give the group a name, and send the first message. You can add or remove people later from the group’s settings screen. Admins can rename the group, manage members, and set the conversation’s photo; regular members can leave at any time.
Sending photos, videos, and files
Tap the + button next to the message field. Choose Photo, Video, Document, Contact, or Location. Videos come with a thumbnail the recipient sees before they tap play; documents arrive with their original filename when you send them from a browser. On long-press you can also copy text, save an attachment to your phone’s gallery or Downloads folder, or open a PDF directly in your preferred viewer.
Reply, edit, forward, react, delete
Long-press any message in the chat. A menu appears with Reply, Edit (your own messages only), Forward, React, Copy, Delete for me, and Delete for everyone. Reactions are a row of common emojis at the top of the menu; one tap sends. Replies quote the original message above your new one. Edits mark the message as edited in both people’s views without a separate notification.
View-once photos
When you attach a photo, there’s a toggle for View once. The recipient can open the photo exactly one time. After that, their copy becomes a greyed-out circle that says it’s been viewed. Useful for anything you don’t want living in another person’s gallery.
Self-destructing messages
In the chat header’s self-destruct icon, pick how long new messages you send stay visible: thirty seconds, five minutes, one hour, one day, or one week. Once the timer runs out, the message disappears from both sides. The setting is per- conversation, so sensitive chats can have their own shorter window while ordinary ones stay permanent.
Link previews
Paste a web link into a message and Disapp shows a small preview card under the bubble — title, site name, and image if the page has one. If the preview doesn’t load first time, long-press the bubble and choose Retry preview.
Copying text and saving attachments
Long-press any message for a Copy entry that puts the text on your clipboard. For photos, videos, and files, long-press also offers Save photo, Save video, or Save file — images land in your Pictures folder, videos in Movies, and documents in Downloads under a Disapp subfolder so you can find them in your Files app.
Selecting multiple messages at once
Long-press a message, pick Select messages… from the menu, then tap any other message to add it to the selection. The top of the screen changes to a selection toolbar showing how many messages you have picked. From there you can Copy all of them in one go (they paste as “Name · time / text” one per line) or Download every photo, video, or file they carry in one tap. The X button exits selection mode.
Jumping back to the latest message
When you scroll up through older messages, a small down-arrow button appears at the bottom-right of the chat. Tapping it scrolls you straight back to the newest message without you having to swipe.
Searching inside a conversation
In the chat’s header, tap the magnifying glass to open a search field. Type a word or phrase and Disapp filters the conversation to just the messages that contain it. Tap the X to return to the full conversation.
Pinning a conversation and “Delete for me”
On the conversation list, long-press a row for a small menu. Pin keeps the conversation at the top of your list regardless of when the last message arrived. Delete for me hides the conversation on this device only — the other person still sees it. Delete for everyone (admins only, for group chats) tombstones the conversation for all members.
Blocking another user
Open the user’s profile — from a chat header, or from their card in search — and tap Block. Blocked users can’t send you messages, can’t see your online status, and won’t find you in search. Un-block from Profile → Blocked users.
Controlling what others see on your profile
Profile → Privacy has a row of toggles for every field that could appear on your public card — phone, date of birth, age, last name, middle name, city, country. Turn off what you don’t want visible. You can also disable read receipts here so people can’t tell whether you’ve opened their messages; you lose the same visibility on theirs as a consequence.
Controlling how people find you
Still under Privacy, two toggles decide whether people can find your account: Searchable by phone number and Searchable by name. If both are off, someone who wants to message you needs your exact email or your QR code — the address book sweep and the name search won’t return you.
Changing the look of the app
Profile → Appearance lets you pick a preset theme (System, Light, Dark, New York, Moscow Nights, Kyoto Wisteria), change the font family, and adjust text size. The change applies instantly — no restart.
Building your own theme (Android)
From Appearance, tap + Create a new theme. You get a live preview plus controls for bubble colours (including gradients), corner radius, background, composer styling, and wallpapers. When you’re happy, save — your theme shows up under Custom themes. A long-press on any custom theme gives you Edit and Delete.
Browsing the theme gallery
From Appearance, tap Browse theme gallery. Themes show as two columns of portrait thumbnails. Tap one to see it large. If you like it, tap Add to Themes — your copy is independent from the gallery version, so a later update to the gallery doesn’t change yours.
Sharing a theme you built
In the theme editor, choose Export. Disapp produces a single .disapp-theme file signed by your device so the person you share it with can see it hasn’t been tampered with. They install it from the Appearance screen’s Import theme from file button.
Notifications and the unread bell
The top-right of the conversation list has a bell with a small number — that’s how many unread conversations you have. Tap it to jump to the next unread one. If a chat is marked private and currently hidden, it doesn’t produce a notification and doesn’t count toward the bell — you only see it once you’ve revealed private chats with your secret code.
Managing your devices
Every phone or browser you sign in on becomes a device on your account. Profile → Manage devices lists them. If one is lost or you don’t recognise it, tap Revoke and that device can no longer read any message sent after the revocation.
Restoring your history after reinstalling
On a fresh install, log in as normal. Disapp checks for a key backup and, if one exists, prompts you for the recovery passphrase you set earlier. Type it and your old messages become readable again. If you never set a recovery passphrase, older messages simply stay locked — nothing you can do after the fact will decrypt them, so it’s worth setting the passphrase before you need it.
Audio & video calls
One-tap calls from any 1:1 chat header. The call icon sits next to your contact’s name; pick the phone for audio, the camera for video. Media flows peer-to-peer through WebRTC, falling back to a TURN relay only when both ends sit behind unfriendly NATs. The server never sees your audio or video — it just shuttles the SDP handshake. Each call ends with an inline call-log bubble in the chat (“0:42, ended”) so the timeline keeps a record without exposing the media. Group calls aren’t live yet; that requires an SFU and is on the roadmap.
Channels
A one-to-many publishing surface for announcements, team broadcasts, or any list where a small set of authors writes and a large set of subscribers reads. Two kinds when you create one: org channels are end-to-end encrypted — subscribers receive a per-device wrap of a rotating sender key, the server can’t read content, and the compliance escrow can; public channels ship plaintext with an author signature, intended for content that’s wide-open by intent (marketing, public figure broadcasts). Tap the QR icon in the channel header to share a link — scanning it on another device subscribes that user. Channels live alongside DMs in your Chats list; two filter chips at the top (“DMs” / “Channels”) let you narrow the view without losing the unified inbox.
Send to yourself & scheduled messages
The first row in your Chats list, marked “You”, is a private chat with yourself — great for jotting links, rough notes, or anything you’d otherwise email yourself. Combined with scheduled send, it doubles as a reminder system: type “Buy milk”, tap the clock icon next to the send button, pick a date and time (default — one hour from now), and Disapp delivers the message to you at that moment. The clock icon works in any chat — you can also schedule a message to a friend or a group. Pending scheduled messages appear in italics at the bottom of the chat with the line “Scheduled for 17:00 on 12/15/2026”; long-press to cancel before it fires. The message is encrypted at scheduling time against the recipient set as it stands then, so the server can’t read it while it waits in the queue.