Privacy policy

Last updated 14 October 2026

Kappi is a small chat app made for a group of friends. This page says what it collects, why, and how to have it deleted. Questions go to swanofflabs@gmail.com.

Your messages

Messages, reactions, games, letters and doodles are encrypted on your phone before they’re sent, and only the friend you send them to can decrypt them. Kappi’s server can’t read them. It holds each encrypted envelope only until the friend’s phone receives it, then deletes it. Envelopes nobody collects are deleted after 30 days. Your chat history is kept on your phone, in an encrypted database, and in your encrypted backup if you turn one on.

What Kappi’s server keeps

• Your Google account ID, which is how Kappi knows it’s you.
• Your username, display name and avatar choice, which friends see.
• Your public encryption key, so friends can write to you.
• Which kind of phone you use and a push notification token, so you get notified about new messages.
• A fingerprint (hash) of your sign-in session, not the session itself.
• If you turn on chat backup, a random key that unlocks your backups (see below).

Kappi doesn’t store your email address. Google gives Kappi your name and email when you sign in. Kappi uses them only to suggest a username and to show which account you signed in with, and the email stays on your phone. (Accounts from Kappi’s earlier email sign-up keep their email only until their first Google sign-in.)

Google user data

• Sign-in: your Google account ID, name and email address, used as described above.
• Google Drive (only if you turn on chat backup): Kappi asks for access to its own hidden app folder in your Drive, and nothing else. It can’t see or change any of your other files. The backup is encrypted on your phone before it’s uploaded. The key that unlocks it is kept on Kappi’s server, and the server never sees the backup, so neither Google nor Kappi’s server can read it alone. Restoring needs you to sign in with the same Google account.

Kappi’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Kappi doesn’t sell this data, use it for advertising, or share it with anyone except as needed to run the features above.

Location and photos

Letters are stamped with your city. Kappi reads your phone’s rough location only when you share your city (Me → City for letters) or write a letter, works out the city on the phone, and shares just the city name with the friends you chat with, end-to-end encrypted. Your exact location is never sent. A photo you pick for a postcard goes only to the friend you send it to, end-to-end encrypted, and into your encrypted backup if it’s on.

Services Kappi uses

• Cloudflare runs Kappi’s server. It sees your IP address when your phone connects and keeps short-lived request logs.
• Google provides sign-in, Google Drive for backups, and delivers notifications to Android phones.
• Expo sends push notifications and app updates. A notification says only who wrote and how many messages are waiting, never what they say.

Kappi has no ads and no analytics, and doesn’t sell or rent anyone’s data.

Keeping and deleting your data

• Logging out erases your chats and keys from the phone. If backup is on, Kappi backs up first so you can restore later.
• Your backup can be deleted in the app (Me → Google Drive backup → Turn off backup → delete), or on the Google Drive website under Settings → Manage apps → Kappi → Options → Delete hidden app data.
• Your account: email swanofflabs@gmail.com from the Google account you sign in with, and your account is deleted, along with your session, any waiting envelopes and your backup key. Backups left in Drive can’t be opened after that.

Children

Kappi isn’t meant for children under 13.

Changes

If this policy changes, this page will say so, with a new date at the top.