Privacy and safety settings

TACENZA Chat encrypts everything by default. The settings on this page decide what other people can learn about you, and help you check that nobody is listening in. Most live in Settings › Privacy Center, where every setting says what it does and what it lets others learn.

Safety numbers

The first time your app sees someone’s keys, it pins them and uses them from then on. A safety number is 60 digits made from both people’s keys. If it’s the same on both devices, nobody is sitting between you.

Open the 1:1 chat and choose the Details panel, then Safety number.
Compare the numbers in person or on a call you trust.
If they match, choose Mark as verified.

Settings › Security Center lists every contact’s safety number and which ones you haven’t verified yet.

If someone’s keys change, the chat locks with a warning until you act. That can mean a new account – or someone pretending to be them. Compare safety numbers again before you choose I’ve verified it. See A safety number changed.

Message requests

With Message requests on (Settings › Privacy Center › Who can reach you), chats from people you haven’t written to go into a separate folder. They can’t see whether you’ve read them. It’s off by default.

In a request, choose Accept, Block or Delete chat. Accepting makes them a contact.

Who can add me to groups can be Everyone or Nobody – only invite links. The server enforces this, so it’s stored as a plain setting.

Blocking

Choose Block in a chat’s details panel, under Leave or delete, or in a message request.

Their 1:1 chat is hidden, and their group messages show as “Message from a blocked user”.
They aren’t told.
Blocking happens on your device, so the server never learns whom you block. Unblock people in Settings › Privacy Center › Blocked users.

To report abuse, see Report abuse.

Disappearing messages

Each chat can make new messages disappear after 5 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day or 7 days.

In a 1:1 chat, either person sets it in the details panel. In a group, the owner and admins set it in Manage group › Settings.
It applies to new messages. The server deletes them when time is up.
Set a default for new chats in Settings › Messages.

Anyone in the chat can still copy or photograph a message before it disappears, unless protected content is on – and even then, a camera can’t be stopped.

Protected content

Turn on Protected content for a chat in its details panel, or for a group in Manage group › Settings. In a 1:1 chat either person can change it; in a group, the owner and admins can.

Members can’t save, copy or forward messages, photos or files.
The chat blurs when TACENZA isn’t in focus.
Watermark photos puts each viewer’s @username across photos, so a leaked photo can be traced. On by default.
Only readable in the desktop app is on by default. Browsers show an explanation instead of messages, because a web page can’t block screenshots. Members can still send from a browser.

The desktop app for Windows keeps its window out of screenshots and screen recordings, including tools like ShareX.

Important

Protected content discourages copying; it can’t make it impossible. Any member holds the keys, so someone who modifies their app can always read and keep a chat, and no software can stop a camera pointed at a screen.

Activity and profile settings

Setting	Default	What it lets others learn
Read receipts	Nobody	Which of their messages you’ve read, in 1:1 chats. You see theirs only while you send yours.
Typing indicators	Contacts, in 1:1 chats	That you’re typing. The server passes it on without keeping it.
Share my profile	On	Your profile, to people you talk to. See Profiles.
Online & last seen	Off	Whether you’re online, mutually, in 1:1 chats.

Hide every chat when the app isn’t in focus (Screen protection) blurs all chats, not just protected ones.