How can we help you?

Yes. You sign up with your phone number and a 6-digit code we text you, with no password or email needed. You need an account to chat, add friends and create or join events.

Open the People tab and tap the gear icon to go to Settings. Scroll to the bottom, tap Delete account and confirm. This can’t be undone: your profile, friends, devices and backup PIN are removed. Messages you’ve already sent stay visible to the other people in those chats. If you only just signed in on this phone, you can delete your account after 24 hours.

No. Choose any name your friends will recognise, up to 25 characters. It doesn’t have to be unique. Orbi also gives you an Orbi ID made from your name (we add a number if it’s taken), so friends can find exactly you. Your Orbi ID can’t be changed later.

Each Orbi account belongs to one phone number, and a number can only be used for one account. If your number belonged to someone else on Orbi before, tap “I don’t remember my PIN” when asked for a backup PIN, choose “I am a new user” and tap “Contact support”. We’ll check and text you, usually within 1–2 business days.

When you sign in on a new phone or after reinstalling Orbi, you’ll see “Unlock your chat history”. Enter your backup PIN to get your chats back. If Orbi is still signed in on another phone, set a new PIN there (Settings → Backup & restore) and enter it here, and you keep everything.

Otherwise tap “I don’t remember my PIN”, choose “Start fresh” and tap “Continue”. A security wait of at least 8 hours starts. If one of your other phones was used in the last 24 hours, the wait lasts until that phone has been unused for 24 hours. Your other phones are alerted and can approve or reject the reset. When the wait is over, tap “Check reset status”.

A reset gives you a new encryption key. Some encrypted chat history may be lost for good, your old backup PIN stops working (create a new one), and your other phones need to unlock again.

Your backup PIN is a 6-digit code that unlocks your end-to-end encrypted chats when you start using Orbi on a new phone or after reinstalling the app. It doesn’t sign you in; you always sign in with your phone number and a code. Without it, a new phone can’t open your existing encrypted chats. Create or change it in Settings → Backup & restore.

If you’re still signed in on a phone, open Settings → Backup & restore, type a new 6-digit PIN and tap ✓. You don’t need the old one. Then enter the new PIN on your new phone (tap “Retry PIN” if you’re on the waiting screen). If you’re not signed in on any phone, the PIN can’t be reset: tap “I don’t remember my PIN” and choose “Start fresh” (see “What happens if I lose access to my account?”).

The wait protects you if someone else gets hold of your phone number. While it runs, your other signed-in phones get an alert and can tap Reject, which blocks the phone that’s asking and cancels the reset. Entering the correct backup PIN on any phone also cancels it. An account can be reset at most once a day.

Yes, as often as you like. Open the People tab and tap the pencil button on your profile card at the top (it’s also at the top of Settings). Tap your photo to choose a new one, or change your name, then tap ✓. Your Orbi ID stays the same.

Your name, Orbi ID and profile photo are shown to people who can find you (Settings → Who can find you) and to people you share a chat or event with. Your phone number is never shown, but people who already have your number saved can see that you’re on Orbi, unless you choose “No one”. Friends can see the friends, groups and events you have in common. In chats, people can see when you’ve read their messages and when you’re typing. If you add your birthday, only friends who’ve added theirs can see the day and month, never the year.

Go to Settings → Phone number, enter your new number and the code we text it. The change happens 24 hours later; until then any of your phones can cancel it. Afterwards, sign in with your new number.

Open Orbi → Settings and tap Cancel change. Then go to Manage devices and remove the phone you don’t recognise.

Tap “It’s me” if it was you, or “Not me!” to block that phone right away.

Go to Settings → Manage devices. Tap the log-out icon next to a device, or “Terminate all other sessions”.

You choose in Settings → Who can find you: Everyone, Friends of friends, Contacts only or No one. Friends can always find you. “No one” also stops people with your number from seeing that you’re on Orbi.

For your safety, a newly approved phone has to wait 24 hours before it can do these things. Your other phones can still do them.

Wait 30 seconds and tap “Didn’t get a code? Call me instead”. An automated call reads the code to you.

Tap the pen icon at the top right of the Chats tab. Choose one friend for a one-to-one chat, or several friends for a group (up to 100 people), then tap ✓. Group chats are for friends only. Want to write to someone who isn’t your friend yet? Tap their name and choose Message to send them a message request.

Send a friend request. Open the People tab and search by name or Orbi ID, or look under “People you might know” or “From contacts” (if you allow contacts). Then tap Add friend. Once they accept, you’re friends and can chat and add each other to groups.

You’ll get a notification, and the request shows at the top of the People tab under Friend requests. Tap Accept to become friends, or Decline. Orbi doesn’t tell them you declined, but they can’t send you a new request for 30 days. You can also leave it unanswered, or block them from the ⋮ menu.

Rarely. People who aren’t your friends can’t start a normal chat with you, but someone who can find you can send you one short message request. It waits under People → Message requests, not in your Chats, and they can’t send anything more until you tap Accept. If you tap Delete, they can’t send you another request for 30 days. You can also block people, or change who can find you under Settings → Who can find you.

Yes. On the People tab, tap ⋮ next to the person and choose Block user. You can also block from their profile (More → Block user) or from a chat (tap their name at the top → More → Block user). Blocking ends your friendship, and neither of you can send the other friend requests, message requests or direct messages. Your one-to-one chat disappears from your list. If you’re in the same group or event you both stay in it, but you won’t be notified of their messages. They aren’t told. To unblock, go to Settings → Blocked users.

Yes. On the People tab, tap ⋮ next to the friend (or More on their profile) and choose Remove friend. They aren’t notified. Removing a friend doesn’t delete your chat, so you can both still write in an existing one-to-one chat. If they sent the original friend request, they have to wait 24 hours before sending a new one. To stop all direct contact, choose Block user instead; that also removes the friendship.

Mostly no. Only friends can start a normal chat with you. Anyone else who can find you can send one message request, which you can accept or delete. Friends can add you to group chats, and the people in that group can write to you there. You can leave a group at any time (More → Leave group). If you’re invited to an event, you’re added to its chat. To stop someone completely, block them.

A single short text message from someone who isn’t your friend yet. It waits under People → Message requests until you tap Accept or Delete. Accepting doesn’t make you friends.

Yes. Long-press your message. Edit changes a text message and marks it “Edited”. “Delete for everyone” removes your own message for everyone, and “Delete for me” removes any message just for you.

Yes. Two ticks mean seen, and you can long-press your message to see who has seen it. It can’t be turned off, and it’s never shown between blocked people.

Yes. Tap the phone icon at the top of a chat. One-to-one and group calls are end-to-end encrypted. You can’t call someone until they’ve accepted your message request.

On their profile, tap More → Report user. In a chat, tap the name at the top → More → Report.

Go to Events and tap the pen icon in the top right corner. Add a title, time and place, then tap Create event. Then tap Invite friends to invite your friends, people from your group chats or your other events, or anyone by phone number via SMS.

Yes, if you’re the host or a co-host. Open the event, tap Manage and choose Edit event. You can change the photo, title, time, place, description and event type until the event is over. Guests get a notification that the event was updated.

Open the event and tap View next to the Invited | Going count. You’ll see who’s Going, who Can’t go, who said Maybe and who hasn’t answered yet, plus how many people you invited by SMS.

Yes. Open the event, tap Invite friends (under Manage if you’re hosting) and choose Via SMS. Enter their phone number and tap Invite. If they’re not on Orbi yet, they get a text with a link to join. If they are, they get the invitation in the app. They become a guest once they answer. SMS invitations expire after 30 days, and you can send up to 5 a day.

Yes, if you’re the host or a co-host. Open the event, tap Manage and choose Cancel event. Choose “Cancel event and keep event information” to call it off: guests are notified and can still see the details and comments, and you can add a comment about why. Or choose “Delete event” to remove it completely. Deleting can’t be undone, and guests aren’t notified. Changed your mind? You can bring back a cancelled event with Restore event before it starts.

You need to be the host or a co-host. Open the event, tap Manage and choose Create group chat (you need to have invited at least one guest first). Everyone in the event is added, except people who answered Can’t go, and guests invited later join automatically. If you remove someone from the event, they also leave the chat.

You need to be the host or a co-host. Open the event, tap Manage and choose “Remind guests to respond to event”. Everyone who hasn’t answered yet, or answered Maybe, gets a reminder. You can send one reminder every 24 hours until the event starts.

Open the event and tap View next to the Invited | Going count. Tap the remove icon next to the person and confirm. They’re taken out of the event and its group chat. Hosts and co-hosts can remove any guest except another co-host.

Yes. Open the event, tap Manage → Add co-hosts and tap Add next to someone who’s invited. Co-hosts can edit the event, invite people, send reminders, remove guests and cancel the event.

Yes. Everyone in the event can comment, add a photo, GIF or poll, reply and react. Comments close when the event is over or cancelled, but stay visible.

There’s no Leave button. Answer Can’t go so the host knows, and mute the event if you don’t want notifications.

No. There are no ads in Orbi, and we don’t use your personal data for advertising or targeting. We never sell personal data or access to individual profiles. We may create and share privacy-protected aggregate statistics that don’t identify anyone.

We collect what we need to run and protect Orbi: your phone number and name, a profile photo and birthday if you add them, your friends and events, the content you share, and limited technical information such as device type, app version and crash reports. If you use Find friends, your contacts’ phone numbers are checked against Orbi accounts and then discarded. See our Privacy Policy for the full list.

Yes. Every chat on Orbi is end-to-end encrypted, including one-to-one, group and event chats, and including photos, videos, voice messages and files. Calls are end-to-end encrypted too. Only the people in the chat can read or hear them, not Orbi. A few things aren’t end-to-end encrypted, such as who is in a chat, chat names, message times, and event details and comments.

We work hard to keep it safe. Your data travels over encrypted connections, chats and calls are end-to-end encrypted, and what Orbi stores on your phone is encrypted, with your keys kept in your phone’s secure storage. Your backup PIN never leaves your phone, and our servers are in Frankfurt, Germany. No system is 100% secure, but we review our security regularly.

Instead of ads and advertising tracking, Orbi is supported by its users.
A small subscription helps keep the app simple, private, and focused.

No. The subscription is optional and supports the app—it does not unlock additional features.

You can cancel anytime through your device’s subscription settings.

No. Orbi remains fully usable without a subscription.

Try restarting the app, checking your internet connection and updating Orbi to the latest version. If it still doesn’t work, go to Settings → Report a problem in the app; you can add screenshots, and your app version is included automatically. You can also use the form at the top of this page and add your email if you’d like a reply, or email us at hello@orbichat.io.