Help and questions.

Clear answers to the questions people ask most. If yours isn't here, write to us at hello@safe-alias.app.

Inbox and aliases

An alias is the address you hand out instead of your own. Mail lands here, you reply, and your real contact stays yours.

What's the difference between my real email and a SafeAlias alias?: An alias is an address that travels in place of yours: senders see only name.safe-alias.app. You read and reply from your SafeAlias inbox. Your real email, your phone, your name, never get exposed to the sender.
A request says pending. What does that mean?: The first time a new sender writes you, the thread sits in Pending until you accept it. You can see who they are (with email verified), but they don't yet know whether you're reachable. From there: Accept to start the conversation, Decline to close it, or Decline & block to stop them coming back.
Can I have more than one alias?: Yes, up to your plan's cap: 1 on Essential, up to 25 on Resolute. Create one per channel (your site, a profile, a campaign) and toggle each on or off any time from Manage aliases.
What does the sender see when I reply?: They get an email coming from your safe-alias.app alias, with a secure link to read and reply. They never see your real address, your IP, or your phone number. The link is personal: if it ends up in the wrong hands, it doesn't work without an email-OTP verification.
How long do messages stay in my inbox?: On Resolute we keep messages indefinitely. On Essential retention is 12 months: older messages are deleted automatically after that. You can always export everything in plaintext from your browser whenever you want.

Clients, notes, and blocks

Every sender you've talked to in one place. Encrypted private notes. A blocklist that spans every alias.

Can I block a sender without them knowing?: Yes. When you block someone, they keep seeing the messages they send as if they went through normally, but nothing reaches you. No bounce, no rejection notice. From their side it looks like silence; from yours, they're effectively blocked.
What if they switch email?: We track multiple identifiers (hashes of email, IP, browser fingerprint) per sender. When you block a thread, the block holds even if the same person writes from a different address or a different alias. It's not a mathematical guarantee against someone with technical skill, but it raises the bar enough to stop most attempts.
Can you read the notes I write about clients?: No. Notes are encrypted in your browser with your personal key before they leave your device. Only ciphertext lands on our servers. Without your sign-in, nobody (us included) can open them.
What's the difference between Mute and Block?: Mute silences notifications for that single thread, but the sender can keep writing. Block on a thread closes that single (alias, sender) pair. Adding an email to the Blocklist silences that person across every one of your aliases, present and future.

Safety check-in

A safety net that fires from our servers. Set a timer before an appointment, confirm when it ends, or a trusted contact gets an automatic alert.

Does it work if my phone dies?: Yes. The alert fires from our servers, not your device. Even with a flat battery, no signal, or the phone off, the timer keeps running and the alert goes out the moment it expires.
What does my trusted contact get if I don't confirm?: An email (on Essential) or also an SMS and a voice call (on Resolute) with the name you chose, the missed-confirm time, and (if you allowed it) the rough position from your browser's last reading. No private messages, no conversation content: just the signal that something's off.
Does my trusted contact need to know in advance?: Yes. When you add them, they get a confirmation email: they have to click the link to declare they consent. Until they confirm, we cannot alert them. It's a guarantee against pulling someone into an alert they never signed up for.
Can I cancel an active check-in?: Yes, any time before it expires. Open the active check-in and tap Confirm or Cancel. Confirming closes the timer; cancelling drops it without sending anything.
Do SMS and voice always work?: SMS and voice calls are part of Resolute, because external providers charge per message. On Essential, alerts go out by email only. Two things to know. First, your trusted contact must have verified their phone number before any SMS or call is sent. Second, an SMS shows as "SafeAlias" across most of Europe, but a voice call always comes from a US number, +1 620 466 9112. Ask your contact to save it as "SafeAlias" so an alert call is not mistaken for spam. Email and SMS are the reliable channels; the call is an extra, best-effort layer.

Safety packet

What you want your trusted contact to receive IF a check-in goes unconfirmed. Stays sealed until the alert fires.

What's it actually for?: The basic alert just tells your trusted contact "@name didn't confirm". That often isn't enough to act on: they know something is off but don't know what to do. The safety packet adds usable context (where you were, the meeting person's name and phone, identifying details if you had any, expected return time, free-form notes) so the trusted contact can act immediately: call the right number, head to the right place, give specific info to whoever needs it.
Is it encrypted like my messages?: Not the same way. Messages are end-to-end: they only open in your browser and your sender's browser, never on our servers. The packet is encrypted on our servers with a separate key, because the system has to be able to open it and send it to your trusted contact even when you can't (flat battery, no signal, phone off). It's a necessary trade-off for this use case. The key isn't in the database: a packet read needs both a compromised server AND a DB dump.
When does it fire?: Never automatically. When you create a check-in there's a checkbox "Attach the safety packet to the alert". If you tick it and the check-in expires without confirmation, the packet is opened and included in the alert email. Without the tick, the packet stays sealed and the alert goes out as before (just "didn't confirm" + approximate location).
Can I edit or delete it?: Yes, any time from Safety → Safety packet. Edit fields and hit Save: the previous version is overwritten. Hit Delete packet and the row is removed from the database (not sealed, deleted). From that moment any check-in you'd ticked "attach packet" goes out without the packet.
Can I attach photos or files?: Not yet. Today the packet is structured text only (six fields plus free-form notes). Photo or file attachments are a possible follow-up: the clearest use case being a scan of the meeting person's ID if you'd received one in advance.

Account, PIN, and theme

The settings that are yours: how we call you, how the app looks, how it speaks to you.

Can I change my handle after signup?: Yes, any time from Settings. The new handle has to be available and follow the rules (3–30 chars, lowercase letters, numbers, dashes, underscores). Changing it doesn't rename your existing aliases: those stay as they are.
What's the app PIN?: A local 4–8 digit PIN that locks the app after 5 minutes of inactivity. It's a shoulder-surfing shield, not a second factor: real authentication is still your Supabase login. Add or remove it from Settings → Security.
What's the camouflage skin?: It changes the browser tab title to Notes and swaps the SafeAlias logo for a neutral icon. Useful if you're worried someone might glance at your screen. We can't change the icon of the installed app on your phone: that's set at install time and stays there.
Can I export my data and take it with me?: Yes. From Settings → Export you download a JSON archive with all your messages, notes, contacts, and documents. Decryption happens in your browser: what leaves our server is encrypted; what lands on your disk is already plaintext.
How do I choose how much email you send me?: From Settings → Email notifications, choose between: only new requests (default, quiet), every message (also replies on accepted threads, capped at one email every 15 minutes), or never (everything stays in the in-app bell).

Privacy and encryption

How we handle your data and what we can (and can't) do with it.

Can you read my messages?: No. Messages are end-to-end encrypted: sealed in the sender's browser, traveling encrypted, opened only in your browser. The very first message on a brand-new thread may travel in standard form before the sender's key exists; from the second send onward, the whole conversation is end-to-end.
What happens if I close my account?: We delete everything from our servers within 30 days: profile, aliases, messages, notes, trusted contacts, check-ins, documents, blocklist. When you say delete, it's actually deleted. No shadow backups sticking around for years.
Do you store my payment data?: No. Payment is handled by a PCI-DSS-certified payment processor. We never see card numbers or PayPal credentials. Our database holds only your subscription state.
Do you use Google Analytics or ad pixels?: No. No third-party analytics, no tracking pixels, no fingerprinting for profiling. The only outbound connections are technical providers (Supabase for the database, Resend for email, a PCI-DSS-certified payment processor for paid plans, Cloudflare for DNS). Each of them only sees what's needed to do their job.
What do you do if law enforcement or a court asks for my data?: We respond only to legally compelled requests, within applicable law. When that happens, we notify you in advance where the law allows it. What we could hand over wouldn't include message content (it's encrypted) nor documents (also encrypted): only the metadata needed to run the service.

Subscription and billing

How the trial, payment, refunds, and plan changes work.

What happens after the 30-day trial?: The plan you picked starts automatically, charged to the card or PayPal you signed up with. If you change your mind, cancel any time from the subscription panel and we charge nothing. If you want a refund within 14 days of a charge, we'll do it, no questions.
Can I switch from Essential to Resolute (or back)?: Yes, any time. We pro-rate the price difference. Switching to Resolute opens the new limits (more aliases, unlimited contacts, SMS and voice) immediately. Switching back to Essential keeps everything working: aliases above the cap are simply deactivated, nothing is deleted.
Can I get a refund?: Yes. Within 14 days of a charge, full refund, no questions. Request it from the subscription panel or by writing to hello@safe-alias.app. We usually process within 1 business day.
Can the same card start two free trials?: No. Each card or PayPal account can start one trial only: a minimum guard against using the trial as an indefinite free pass. If you really signed up by mistake twice, write to hello@safe-alias.app and we'll fix it.
What if I genuinely can't afford it right now?: Write to hello@safe-alias.app. There's a small assistance program, funded by Resolute supporters, for people in a tight spot. No forms, just a short email.

Didn't find your question?

Write to hello@safe-alias.app. A real person reads it, not a bot. Usually within 1 business day, sooner on weekdays.