GSN is a private, encrypted way to message, call and share with the people you choose.

Every conversation is protected by end-to-end encryption, so only you and the people you're talking to can read it. See Who can read my messages?.

GSN is built on an open, independently reviewed encryption standard.

Getting started takes a few minutes.

If you're new to GSN

1. Step 1Download GSN from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Step 2Open GSN and create your account with a username, email and password.
3. Step 3When GSN shows Protect Your Messages, choose a backup password and tap Set Up Backup, so you can bring your messages to a new phone. See How do I keep my messages if I get a new phone?.
4. Step 4Invite the people you want to talk to, and start messaging and calling.

If your organization gave you a setup code

1. Step 1Download GSN from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Step 2Open GSN and tap Have a setup code?
3. Step 3Enter your code and tap Connect.
4. Step 4Choose your password. You're now on your organization's private server.

Yes. You can use GSN on our shared server at no cost.

Free — message other GSN users, make voice and video calls, and share files. A great fit for individuals, families and small groups.

Paid (Business and Pro) — your organization gets its own private server, full administration and its own users. See What is a private server?.

You can start free and start a private server whenever you're ready. See plans and pricing.

GSN has apps for:

• iPhone and iPad, from the App Store (iOS 17 or later)
• Android phones and tablets, from Google Play (Android 7 or later)

GSN has three kinds of conversations. All are private and end-to-end encrypted. The difference is how many people are in them and who runs them.

Direct Message

A private conversation between you and one other person. You're equals. Best for one-on-one conversations. To include more people, start a Group.

Group

A private chat for a handful of people — a team, a family, a circle of friends. Anyone can add people and start a call. The person who created the Group (the Creator) runs it.

Room

A larger, structured space where people have roles: Admins, Moderators and Members. Best for communities and organizations. See What can each Room role do?.

For who can add people, remove people and delete messages, see Who can do what in a conversation?.

Here's who can do each thing in a Direct Message, a Group or a Room.

In a Room, each person's role decides what they can do. Direct Messages and Groups don't use roles.

Admin

Admins run the Room. Whoever creates a Room is its first Admin. An Admin can:

• Add and remove people
• Delete anyone's messages
• Start calls
• Change the Room's name and photo
• Make people Moderators or Admins, and move Moderators back to Member
• Delete the Room

Moderator

Moderators keep the Room in order. A Moderator can:

• Remove people
• Delete anyone's messages
• Start calls

Member

Members take part. A Member can:

• Send messages
• Add people
• Delete their own messages

Changing roles

Admins are equals: an Admin keeps their role unless they step down themselves.

Yes. Groups, Rooms and group calls use the same end-to-end encryption as Direct Messages. Only the people in the conversation can read it.

• When someone is invited, they see messages from the time they're invited.
• When someone leaves, they keep what they could already see and receive nothing new.

Set up your backup. GSN keeps an encrypted copy of your message keys, locked with a backup password only you know.

Set up your backup

GSN asks you to do this after you first sign in.

1. Step 1When GSN shows Protect Your Messages, choose a backup password and enter it again to confirm.
2. Step 2Tap Set Up Backup.
3. Step 3Save your backup password somewhere safe, like a password manager.

If you tapped Remind Me Later, GSN asks again the next time you sign in.

On your new phone

1. Step 1Install GSN and sign in with your username and password.
2. Step 2When GSN shows Restore Your Messages, enter your backup password and tap Restore Messages.
3. Step 3Your messages appear, just as they were.

You can also restore later: go to Settings → Secure Account Backup → Restore from Backup.

You can set a new one in the app. Your backup password belongs to you alone — GetSafeNow never has it — which is what keeps your messages private.

1. Step 1Open GSN on a phone that's signed in and go to Settings.
2. Step 2Tap Secure Account Backup, then Forgot Password.
3. Step 3Choose a new backup password. GSN makes a fresh backup with it.

Messages from before the new backup stay readable on the phone you used.

You can change it in your profile.

1. Step 1Open GSN and go to Settings → Profile.
2. Step 2Tap Reset Password.
3. Step 3Enter your current password, then your new password twice.

Your new password works right away. Sign in with it on your other devices.

Yes. Sign in on the new device with your username and password, then enter your backup password to bring your messages with you. See How do I keep my messages if I get a new phone?.

You can delete your account in the app.

1. Step 1Open GSN and go to Settings.
2. Step 2Tap Delete Account at the bottom, then Continue.
3. Step 3Enter your password and tap Delete.

If you're the Owner of a private server, cancel your subscription as well. See How do I cancel my subscription?.

Can't open the app? See Delete your account for other ways.

Only the people in the conversation.

Your messages are encrypted on your device before they're sent, and only the intended recipients can decrypt them. GetSafeNow employees, server administrators, hosting providers and third parties can't read them.

This isn't a policy we could choose to change. The keys that unlock your messages are created on your device and shared only with the people you're talking to. GetSafeNow never has them.

Your messages, calls and files are encrypted on your device and stay encrypted until they reach the other person's device. They're never readable in between — not on the internet, and not on our servers.

Encryption is always on, in every conversation. Privacy isn't a feature you turn on. It's the foundation of how GSN works.

We keep only what's needed to run the service:

• Connection logs — brief records of connections, kept for 24 hours to diagnose problems and prevent abuse.
• Notification tokens — so we can tell your phone a new message has arrived. They identify a device, never message content.
• Billing records — for paid customers, kept as tax law requires.

We never log message content. Our Privacy Policy lists every category of data and how long we keep it.

Free users — on our shared server.

Paid customers — on your organization's own private server, which your organization administers.

Either way, your messages are stored encrypted, and the keys stay on your devices. We don't sell your data, mine it for advertising or share it with third parties. Our business is your subscription, not your data.

A court can only compel us to provide information we have.

Your conversations are end-to-end encrypted and we don't have the keys, so readable message content isn't something we have to give. We may hold limited account, billing or service information.

No. The GSN apps aren't open source, but GSN uses open-source components, including the encryption it's built on.

That means the strength of your encryption rests on published, verifiable math. See our Open Source page for the components we use.

Yes. GSN is designed around a simple principle:

Deleted Means Deleted™

Some platforms hide deleted content or keep it indefinitely. GSN permanently removes data you delete. For many organizations that's not a preference — it's a business, legal or compliance requirement.

Learn more: Deleted Means Deleted: Why True Data Deletion Matters →

A private server is a dedicated communications environment used only by your organization.

Your users, files and messages are isolated from every other customer. No other organization shares your server, and no other organization's administrator can see into it.

Compared with the free shared server, you also get your own administration and user management, data ownership, and a communications environment built only for your organization.

• Your own private server, on a subdomain you choose
• Administration: add, suspend and remove users, and appoint Co-Admins
• Control over which other servers yours can talk to
• Pro adds the compliance console: a tamper-evident audit log, reports and the Compliance Viewer role

Business starts at $29.95 a month; Pro is priced per seat. See plans and pricing.

Yes, with servers you approve.

Your private server connects only to servers on your approved list. Your Owner or Co-Admins manage that list, so you can talk with partners on their own servers while staying closed to everyone else. See What can each server role do?.

Every private server has an Owner, and can have people who help manage it.

No role can read your messages

Server roles control who can manage the server, never who can read conversations:

• No one can read a conversation they aren't in — not a Co-Admin, a Compliance Viewer, the Owner or GetSafeNow.
• Seeing that a Room exists, its name and who's in it is different from seeing what was said.
• An Owner or Co-Admin can delete a Room without being able to read it.
• The audit log records administrative actions, such as who added or removed a user. It never contains message content.

Owner

The account that set the server up. There's one Owner per server, and no one else can suspend or remove them. The Owner can do everything, including three things only the Owner can do:

• Appoint and remove Co-Admins
• Set how long the audit log is kept (Pro)
• Appoint Compliance Viewers (Pro)

Co-Admin

Helps run the server day to day. Co-Admins manage Members; the Owner manages Co-Admins. A Co-Admin can:

• Add, suspend and remove Members
• Manage which other servers yours can talk to
• See the list of Rooms, their names and members
• Delete Rooms
• Use the compliance console: audit log and reports (Pro)

Compliance Viewer (Pro)

Read-only access to the compliance console — the audit log and reports. Made for an auditor, lawyer or compliance officer.

Member

Everyone else. Members message, call and manage their own account settings.

At a glance

How roles are assigned

• Co-Admin — the Owner assigns it in the app under Manage Users.
• Compliance Viewer — the Owner assigns it in the compliance console (Pro).

GSN is built on an open, audited messaging standard — and then goes much further.

On top of that foundation we've built extensive custom work across the server platform and the apps your team uses: true data deletion, dedicated private servers, hardened security controls, privacy-first defaults and enhanced administration you won't find in a standard installation.

The standard is the foundation. GSN is the platform.

You can cancel anytime in the billing portal.

1. Step 1Go to billing.getsafenow.app and sign in.
2. Step 2Choose Cancel subscription and confirm.

Your server stays active through the end of your billing period. After that, your server and everything on it — messages, files, Room history and user accounts — is permanently removed. We don't archive your communications after your service ends.

Yes, on Pro. Change your seat count anytime in the billing portal at billing.getsafenow.app.

• Added seats are ready right away, billed for the rest of the month.
• Removed seats come off at your next billing date.

Your plan stays active through the end of the month you've paid for, so you get the full time. Subscription fees aren't refunded. See our Terms of Use.

In the United Kingdom? When you first buy a subscription, you can cancel within 14 days for a refund. Because your service starts right away, we may deduct a proportionate charge for the service already provided. Renewals don't count as new purchases. To cancel in this period, contact us at help.getsafenow.app or email [email protected]. See Section 19A of our Terms of Use.

All major credit and debit cards, through our payment processor Stripe. Your card details go straight to Stripe — we never store them.

Signal is an excellent privacy tool for individuals. It wasn't designed for organizational administration, user provisioning, dedicated infrastructure or communications ownership.

GSN gives you the privacy people value in Signal, plus the administrative control and organizational features businesses and professional organizations need.

Both offer convenience and encryption, but they're consumer apps, not built for organizations with confidentiality, compliance or privacy requirements.

Organizations need administrative control, data ownership, user management and their own communications infrastructure — which consumer messaging apps don't provide.

Teams and Slack are excellent productivity tools. They aren't designed for the privacy, ownership and communications control of end-to-end encrypted infrastructure.

For organizations handling sensitive communications, privacy and productivity are often two different requirements.

You can — but running a secure communications platform takes far more than installing software.

Self-hosting means security hardening, monitoring, backups, updates and ongoing support, and your organization fixes anything that breaks. GSN also adds features a standard installation doesn't have. See What makes GSN different from standard messaging software?.

The question isn't whether you can run your own server. It's whether maintaining a communications platform is the best use of your organization's time.