Your chat passphrase

The first time you open chat, you choose a chat passphrase. It locks your chat keys on your device and never leaves it. We cannot see it and we cannot reset it.

Use at least 10 characters. A few words you will remember work well. A passphrase that appears in known lists of leaked passwords is refused.

You can change it in Settings. Your old messages stay readable; only the lock changes.

If you forget it, nobody can open your old messages, not you and not us. You can reset chat and start fresh: you get new keys, your conversations and groups stay, your friends see that your security code changed, and the old messages stay unreadable for good.

This is the one place where a security choice costs you something real, so choose a passphrase you will remember, or keep it in a password manager.