What happens to your messages on Chatavi (and what doesn’t)
25 September 2026 · 4 min read
“Anonymous” gets used loosely online. Some apps call themselves anonymous and still keep every message you have ever sent. So here is exactly what happens to your words on Chatavi, in plain language, and what we deliberately do not do.
While you are chatting
When you send a message, it travels over an encrypted connection (the same kind of encryption your bank uses) to our server in India, which passes it straight to your chat partner. Before it is delivered, an automatic filter checks it for phone numbers, email addresses, UPI IDs, links and severe abuse. If it finds one, the message is not delivered and you see why.
The filter is a set of rules, not a person, and not an AI reading your chats. Nobody at Chatavi watches conversations as they happen.
When the chat ends
Your messages are not saved to disk or to any permanent database. While a chat is live, the server keeps its last 50 messages in temporary memory for one reason only: so that if someone reports the chat, the report can show what was said. The moment the chat ends, whether you tap Next, choose End chat, or the other person leaves, that memory is erased.
There is no chat history to scroll back through, for you, for your partner, or for us.
If a chat is reported
A report is the one exception. When either person reports a chat, a copy of that conversation (up to the last 50 messages) is stored so a moderator can review it. It is deleted automatically after 30 days, unless Indian law requires us to keep it longer (for example, to help the police with a case).
To help moderators work through reports quickly, a reported conversation may be checked by an AI moderation service that suggests whether rules were broken. Only reported chats are ever checked this way, never normal conversations. A human makes the decision on anything that is not clear-cut.
What we do keep: connection records
Indian law (the CERT-In Directions of 2022) requires online services to keep certain system logs for 180 days. So for every connection we record technical details such as your IP address, a random session ID, a random device ID, your browser type and the times you connected and disconnected. For each chat we record which two sessions were connected and for how long.
These records never contain what you said. They exist so that abuse can be investigated, bans can be enforced, and lawful requests from Indian authorities can be answered. They are stored in India, encrypted, readable only by authorised administrators, and deleted automatically after 180 days.
What we never ask for
- No account, email address or phone number
- No real name
- No access to your contacts, photos, camera, microphone or location
Your nickname and interests are stored in your own browser so you don’t have to set them up each time. You can wipe them by clearing your browser’s site data.
What this means for you
- You can speak freely, within the Community Guidelines. Nobody is building a profile of your conversations.
- You are anonymous to other users, not invisible. If someone breaks the law, connection records can help the authorities find them. That protects you too.
- Screenshots are the one thing we can’t stop. Your partner can always capture their screen. Don’t type anything you would hate to see shared, and never share personal details. Our guide on staying safe while chatting anonymously covers this in more detail.
For the full legal details, read our Privacy Policy. If you have a question it doesn’t answer, our Grievance Officer’s contact details are on the Grievance Redressal page.