Safety

Built in

• No people on Nearby. Nearby only shows short messages blown nearby – never who is around, never distances. Your location is rounded, only used to work out which bubbles reach you, and deleted when you switch Nearby off.
• Your name stays yours. Others see the name you choose, or a random friendly name if you hide yours. Your email is never shown.
• Everything pops. Messages disappear within 24 hours; blown bubbles after 1 minute.
• Screenshots are blocked in chats on phones, and everyone is told if someone tries.
• Word filter for names, group names and blown bubbles.
• Group owners can make a group private, so new people need approval.
• Voting someone out: a group can remove someone who misbehaves.

Report and block

In a chat: hold down someone's message, then choose Report this message, Report the person, or Block them.

On Nearby: tap 🚩 on a blown bubble to report it or block whoever blew it – even up to an hour after it pops. You never find out who blew it.

Reports go only to the bubbles safety team, and nobody is told who reported them. Messages are end-to-end encrypted, so we can only read a reported message if you choose to include its text in the report.

Blocked people aren't told. You stop seeing each other's bubbles on Nearby; they can't reply to your bubbles, send you friend requests or chat with you 1-to-1; your 1-to-1 chat with them pops and any friendship ends; and in group bubbles you no longer see their messages. You can unblock people in Settings → Safety → Blocked people.

You can also write to safety@bubbles.software with what happened, the bubble's name or code, and when. Please don't send screenshots of illegal content – describe it instead.

We review reports, remove content that breaks our community rules and can suspend or ban accounts. We tell people when we act on their content and why.

App lock and emergency account pop

App lock PIN: in Settings → Safety you can set a PIN (4 to 8 digits) that bubbles asks for whenever it opens, after signing in, and every time you come back to it – so nobody else holding your phone can read your chats. If you forget it, your account password removes it.

Account pop PIN: a second PIN for emergencies. If someone makes you open bubbles, type it on the lock screen instead of your usual PIN. Your account is deleted straight away – your messages, chats, friends and everything about you, on our server and on your phone – and bubbles simply shows the sign-in screen. There is no confirmation, and it can't be undone. If your phone is offline, the phone is wiped at once and the account is deleted from the server as soon as bubbles is back online.

Both PINs are kept only on your phone, as scrambled copies in its secure storage – we never see them. The pop PIN isn't available while child safety is on, because child safety stops an account being deleted.

Tips

• Never share your address, school, workplace, passwords or codes with people you don't know.
• You can leave any bubble at any time with the 🚪 button.
• Be careful moving a conversation to another app – the people you meet in bubbles are anonymous.
• If someone asks for money, photos or to meet, stop and report them.

In danger?

If you or someone else is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services: 911 (US & Canada), 112 (EU), 100 (Israel police).

Child sexual abuse material is reported to the authorities, including the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).