Everything you need to know — from adding your first friend to going invisible while reading their messages.
cove; uses a one-time code to sign you in — no password, no hassle. Enter your phone number or email and we'll send you a 6-digit code. That's it.
After signing in, you set up your profile. You choose a display name, pick a colour for it, and create your cove code — a short handle like @alaina21 that people use to add you. No phone number, no email is ever shared with anyone.
We send a 6-digit one-time code. No password is ever created or stored.
Add a photo (optional), choose your display name and colour, and pick your cove code. Your code is permanent, so choose one you'll love.
Share your code with friends, or enter theirs to send a friend request. Once they accept the request from their Requests tab, you're in each other's circles.
Tap anyone in your circle to open a chat. Everything is encrypted from the moment you send.
The main screen is your circle — everyone you've added, organised by who's available right now. Online contacts appear at the top, then away and offline below.
Each contact shows their name, their current status dot, and their mood or music status underneath.
Tap a contact to open their chat. Long press a contact to get a quick action menu.
Friend lists — Custom folders to organize your friends list. No one can see this but you.
Adding a friend — Tap the + for quick add, or from the people page. Just enter their cove code, and send a request. Once they accept, they appear in your circle.
Your status updates automatically based on activity, or you can set it manually at any time by tapping the status picker.
You're active in the app. Your contacts see a green dot next to your name.
You haven't used the app for a while. Messages still arrive but your friends see that you're away from cove; right now. The default away timer is 30 minutes of inactivity. Pro users can change this.
You're not connected. You get to go Offline and not be instantly accessible. Messages are held and delivered the next time you open the app. The free offline timer is fixed at 45 minutes. Pro users can configure it.
You appear offline to everyone — but you're fully connected. Messages arrive instantly, you read everything in real time, and your read receipts are suppressed. Nobody knows you're there — it's like an invisibility cloak! Enable it by tapping your status at the top of your circle and selecting Ghost.
Mood bar — Tap the mood bar under your display name to edit it, like "Iced matcha life 🍵" or your favourite lyrics — make it extra angsty.
This is the most important thing to understand about cove; — and most messaging apps don't make it clear.
You actually disconnect. Messages wait in a queue. You don't receive them until you come back online. Your contacts see you as offline because you are offline.
You stay fully connected. Messages arrive instantly. You read everything in real time. Your read receipts are suppressed. Everyone sees you as offline. You see them perfectly. They see nothing.
Think of it this way — offline is leaving the party. Ghost Mode is standing in the corner with an invisibility cloak. You're watching everything, reading every message the second it arrives. Nobody knows you're there.
Ghost Mode is a Pro feature. When it's on, your status shows as offline to everyone in your circle, but your app stays live.
Tap any contact in your circle to open their chat.
Tap the paperclip on the left of the input bar to send files, photos from your gallery, or documents.
Tap the sticker icon inside the input pill to open your sticker collection. Tap Create to make a new one from any photo in your gallery.
Tap the camera icon on the right to take a photo or video and send it instantly.
Tap the microphone to record a voice message.
Tap any sticker in the picker to send it instantly. Tap received stickers to add them to your list.
Read receipts — no icon means not received (contact is offline, in Ghost Mode, or has no signal). A single open circle ○ means sent. A single filled circle ● in blue means they've read it. That's it — three states, one circle. Pro users can hide their read receipts in Settings → Privacy.
Long press any message to star it. Starred messages are saved and can be viewed anytime from a contact's profile under "View Starred Messages".
If a contact is offline, the input bar shows a banner telling you the message will be delivered when they're back. You can still send — it'll arrive the moment they open the app.
The ping does one thing: gets someone's attention.
Tap the 👋 Ping button in any chat header. The recipient's screen physically shakes, their phone vibrates, and the ping sound plays — even if they're in another app. It's impossible to miss.
You can't turn off ping vibration globally — it's our star feature! You can mute the ping individually for each person in their contact profile.
The ping sound is the same for everyone — it's part of what makes it recognisable. It cannot be changed or muted individually.
You can mute ping vibration specifically for one contact — for example if your mum pings you constantly — without turning it off for everyone. Open their profile and toggle Mute Ping Vibration.
Every contact in cove; has a profile you can view anytime. Tap their name in the chat header, or long press them in your circle and tap Full Profile.
This is also where all per-contact settings live.
In any chat, swipe up from the chat header to open a quick profile panel without leaving the conversation. This is where all per-contact settings live.
Turn off all notifications from this person — useful if a group chat is noisy or someone's messaging you non-stop.
Their pings won't vibrate your phone, but pings from everyone else still will.
Long press any message in a chat to star it. Open that contact's profile and tap "View Starred Messages" to see everything you've saved from that conversation.
They'll see your written mood instead of what you're listening to. Useful if you don't want everyone knowing your playlist.
They won't see when you're in a game. Your written mood shows instead. Good for when you want to play without anyone knowing.
Wipes the chat history with this contact and starts fresh. Your messages disappear from your phone — they don't disappear from theirs. Useful when you want a clean slate without removing them from your circle.
cove; can show what you're listening to or what you're playing — automatically, in real time. Your circle sees it in your status line without you having to type anything.
Connect in Settings. While a track is playing, your status shows "🎵 Artist — Song" instead of your mood text. When the music stops, your mood comes back.
Connect Steam in Settings → Gaming Presence. While you're in a game, your status shows "🎮 Playing [game]". When you quit, your mood returns.
Priority order: gaming status always shows first, then music, then your written mood. If you're playing a game and listening to Spotify at the same time, your circle sees the game.
You can hide music or gaming status from specific contacts individually. Open their profile and use the Hide Activity toggles — they'll see your written mood instead, and never know those features are on. If you don't want anyone to see your music or gaming status — do not connect it.
cove; was designed with privacy as a starting point, not an afterthought. Here's what's always on, and what you can control.
Every message is encrypted on your device before it leaves. We cannot read your messages. This is on by default, always, for everyone.
You add people by cove code only. No one ever sees your phone number or email — not even the people you message. You don't get contact suggestions either!
cove; has no advertising. We don't sell your data to anyone. We charge for Pro extras via subscription or a lifetime option — that's our entire business model.
Pro users can hide read receipts globally — you can read every message without anyone seeing the double tick. Enable in Settings → Privacy.
Pro is $3.99/month or $29.99/year. If you'd rather never think about it again, there's a $49.99 lifetime option — pay once, yours forever. All plans include every Pro feature, current and future.
Appear offline while receiving every message in real time.
Read without anyone knowing. No double ticks for your contacts.
Set your own away and offline timers instead of the defaults.
Connect your music for live now-playing status.
Connect Steam for live game status.
Switch the entire app colour — Blue, Pink, Lavender, Navy, and more.
Organise your circle into custom folders — Close Friends, Work, Family.
Free cove; includes unlimited messaging, voice and video calls, Ping, coloured names, stickers, group chats, dark mode, and the default Blue theme. Pro is for people who want the extras.
No. Ghost Mode suppresses your read receipts. They see their message as delivered but not read — even if you've read it five times.
They're held on our servers and delivered the moment you come back online. The sender sees no receipt icon at all until you're back — then it switches to ○ sent, and ● once you've read it.
No. Cove codes are globally unique — like a username. If someone already has @alaina21, you'll need to choose something else.
No. Your code is permanent by design — it's how your contacts find you and how your identity persists. Choose carefully.
No. We only fetch and share the name of the game you're currently playing — nothing else. No friend lists, no hours played, no account details.
$3.99 a month, or $29.99 for a full year. And if you're sick of subscriptions entirely, you can pay $49.99 once and it's yours forever — every current Pro feature, plus anything we add in the future.
Maybe 👀 we're working on it.
Tap the + button in your circle to create a group. Add at least 2 people from your contacts, give the group a name, and start chatting. Groups appear in their own Groups section. All the same features work in groups — Ping, stickers, presence, everything.
You already have 2FA with your Google and Apple sign-in. You also set up a 6-digit PIN to keep your account on your device extra secure. In Account Security you can also set up App Lock, which uses biometrics for an extra layer of protection when opening the app. This makes it significantly harder for anyone to take action on your account.
Go to Settings → Delete Account. You'll be asked to enter your cove code (the @ prefix, lowercase letters, numbers, or underscores, minimum 4 characters) to confirm the deletion.
After you confirm, you have a 30-day grace period to change your mind — just sign back in and cancel before the window closes. After 30 days, everything is permanently and irreversibly deleted — your messages, your data, your profile. Your cove code is also released and becomes available for someone else to claim.
Muting silences notifications from that person — you still receive their messages, you just won't be notified. Blocking removes them from your circle entirely and prevents any contact. They won't know they've been blocked.
Your account and all your messages stay on our servers. When you reinstall and sign back in, everything is exactly where you left it. Deleting the app is not the same as deleting your account.
cove; enforces one active device at a time. When you sign in on a new device, your existing device gets a notification asking to approve the login. Approve it from the old device — or use your recovery phrase if you don't have access to it anymore.
No. cove; has an approval-only inbox. You only receive messages from people you've accepted as friends. Nobody can cold-message you.
You're removed from the group and stop receiving messages. The rest of the group continues normally. Your previous messages remain visible to the other members.
View Once lets you send a photo or video that can only be opened one time. The moment the recipient views it, it's gone — and screenshots are blocked. Perfect for things you'd rather not live on someone's camera roll forever.
Yes. Two ways: you can export a specific chat by going to that person's profile and scrolling to Export Chat — the file saves locally to your device. To back up all chats, go to Settings → Storage and Data → Chat Backup → Backup Chats, and cove; will generate a file you can save locally via your phone's share sheet. We do not upload your backups to any cloud — for extra privacy.
Yes. Go to Settings → Account Security → Export My Data. cove; will generate a full ZIP file containing your messages, media, contacts, and settings. The file saves locally to your device — we do not upload it to any server. Your data stays yours.
Yes. Ghost Mode just hides your presence — you appear offline to everyone while still being fully connected. You can read, reply, and send messages normally. Nobody knows you're there.
Open Settings — your cove code is right at the top of the screen under your name. Share it with anyone you want to add you. They enter it on their end and send you a friend request.
Tap the People tab at the bottom of the screen. From there you can see everyone in your circle, remove friends, or block someone. Removing a friend just takes them off your list — they can add you again. Blocking is permanent — they can never send you a friend request again.
Yes. You can turn on disappearing messages for individual conversations — messages automatically delete after 24 hours. Toggle it on from that person's profile in chat. It works one conversation at a time, so you're in full control of who gets the extra privacy.
Yes. From your circle screen, tap your name at the top to open your profile. From there you can update your display name, profile picture, and header image — everything your friends see when they view your profile. Your Cove code is permanent and cannot be changed.
cove; signs you in through Google or Apple — there's no separate email address stored in the app. Your account is tied to whichever provider you signed up with. If you want to update the email on that account, you'd do it through your Google or Apple settings directly.
Your PIN is set up the first time you sign into cove; and is required every time you open the app. It's stored securely on your device and keeps your account protected even if someone else picks up your phone. Once a week, cove; asks you to confirm it so you never forget it. You can also add biometrics (Face ID or fingerprint) on top of your PIN for an extra layer of convenience — go to Settings → Account Security to set it up.
cove; doesn't send you a notification when you're blocked. From your side, it looks the same as if they removed you as a friend — they simply disappear from your circle. You won't be able to message or see their profile.
The person who creates the group is automatically the admin. Admins can change the group name and avatar, add or remove members, promote other members to admin, demote admins, and delete the group entirely. There can be multiple admins in one group. Manage all of this from the group profile — tap the group name in the chat header.
Yes, but only admins can do this. Open the group profile by tapping the group name in the chat header. From there you can add new members from your circle or remove existing ones. Removed members stop receiving messages immediately and can be re-added later.
Yes. Open the group profile, tap the member you want to promote, and select Make Admin. They'll have the same permissions as you. You can also demote any admin from the same screen.
Yes. There's a search bar inside every chat — tap the search icon in the chat header to find any message in that conversation.
Yes. Long press any message and tap Forward. You can then choose which contact or group to send it to.
Yes — 50 MB per file for media and attachments. This covers photos, videos, voice notes, and documents.
No. Once a message is deleted — whether for you or for everyone — it's gone permanently and cannot be recovered.
Yes, but only within 4 minutes of sending. Long press the message and tap Edit. After 4 minutes the option disappears. Edited messages are marked so the recipient can see they were changed.
Two ways: swipe left on any chat in your circle and tap Mute, or open the chat, tap their name in the header to open their profile, and toggle Mute Notifications. Muting silences message notifications from that person without removing them from your circle.
Go to Settings → Appearance. Dark mode is free for everyone. Accent colours — which change the overall colour scheme of the app — are a Pro feature. There are 9 themes to choose from including Blue, Pink, Lavender, and Navy.
Your Pro features stay active until the end of your current billing period. After that, your account reverts to free and Pro-only features are no longer accessible. If you purchased the lifetime option, that's a one-time payment — there's nothing to cancel and your access never expires.
Refunds are handled by Apple or Google depending on where you purchased. Visit the App Store or Google Play support pages to request one — their policies apply.
Go to Settings → More → App Settings → Language and pick your preferred language from the list.
To report a user, open their profile and scroll to the bottom — there's a Report option there. To report a bug or send feedback, go to Settings → More → Report a Bug. We review every report.
cove; stores your display name, Cove code, profile picture, mood, and presence status so your circle can see you. Your messages are encrypted with AES-256-GCM — we can't read them. If you connect music or Steam, we store only what you're currently playing, nothing else from those services. Your phone number and email are never shared with other users — they can only find you by your Cove code. We don't sell your data to anyone. Ever.