Frequently asked questions.
Plain-English answers to the questions we've been getting. If yours isn't here, ask via the contact page.
Launch and access
01 Can I use ChatVia now?
Yes. ChatVia is open to everyone: sign up free at app.chatvia.in. There is no waitlist and no invite needed.
02 Do I have to pay to use ChatVia?
No. The Free plan includes 100 MB of storage and needs no payment method. Paid plans are based purely on storage, start at ₹10 a month, and can be cancelled any time.
The product
01 How is this different from WhatsApp?
Most consumer messengers were built to send messages. Your chat history lives on your phone, and a backup is the only thing standing between you and losing everything when you change devices. ChatVia is built so the conversation itself is the product: kept server-side (encrypted), searchable across years, automatically there on every new device.
02 Is it end-to-end encrypted?
Today, message data is encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM) and in transit, but ChatVia operators have technical access to message contents for incident response. The full end-to-end encryption model (per-conversation keys derived on your device, no operator access) ships with v1.0 alongside a third-party audit. We'd rather be specific about that than claim a posture the code doesn't fully back yet. See the security page for the full picture.
03 Can I delete messages, or is everything kept forever no matter what?
Permanence is the default; deletion is your call. You can permanently delete any message, any file, any conversation. We treat 'delete' as meaning delete, not 'hide from your view.'
04 What about my existing WhatsApp / Telegram / Signal chats? Can I import them?
Import paths from the major messengers are on the roadmap, with the obvious caveat that some platforms make export hostile by design. We will support whatever can be supported cleanly; we will not pretend to support what we cannot.
05 Will this work on my phone?
iOS and Android are the priority. The web app at app.chatvia.in works in any modern browser. Desktop clients come after.
Data, India, and security
01 What does "data stays in India" actually mean?
Every message, file, and photo is stored on servers physically located inside India, operated under Indian law. Not a regional cache. Not a "primarily India" arrangement. The primary storage of your data is in India, period.
02 Can the government read my messages?
Today, in principle: ChatVia operators have technical access to message contents and so could be compelled to produce them under Indian law. At v1.0, with end-to-end encryption shipping: the message contents will be mathematically out of reach of both ChatVia operators and any legal process. Only metadata (who you message, when, from which devices) will be producible. We'd rather state this clearly than claim a stronger posture than the current code supports.
03 What if I want to leave?
You can export your full conversation history at any time in standard formats. You can permanently delete your account, and we mean delete. Nothing is held hostage.
04 Will you ever sell my data or use it for ads?
No. There is no ad business model. Your conversations are not training data and are not sold to anyone, for any purpose, ever.
The future of communication ownership.
Conversations are how we live and how we work. They should be secure, searchable, permanent, and yours, without backups, without migrations, without loss. Communication belongs to the people who create it.
