Privacy Policy

Zapchat, by Technology Awareness Group (TAG). Last updated 6 August 2026.

This describes what Zapchat actually does with your data. It is written to be accurate rather than reassuring; where something may surprise you, it is stated plainly.

The short version

Zapchat links to your existing WhatsApp account as a companion device. To do that, your messages pass through a relay server operated by TAG. Message content is decrypted on that server — this is unavoidable for any companion client that is not WhatsApp's own. Content is queued on that server only until your device has it: at most 12 hours once delivered, and at most 7 days if your device has not come to collect it. It is never used for advertising, profiling, or training anything.

What passes through TAG's server

• Message content — text, photos, videos, voice notes, documents, locations and contact cards, in both directions. Held in a queue that is capped in size and age and written to disk, so that a restart or a deploy does not cost you messages your phone had not collected yet. Deleted 12 hours after your device confirms it has a message, and 7 days at the very most if it never does.
• Call audio — voice calls are carried through the relay. Calls are not recorded.
• Your WhatsApp session credentials — stored on the server so the link survives restarts. This is what lets Zapchat act as your companion device.
• Contact identifiers — phone numbers and WhatsApp identifiers of people you exchange messages with, so conversations can be named and routed.

Notifications

When a message arrives, the notification carries the sender's name and the message text so that you can read it without opening the app. That means both pass through Apple's push service on the way to your device. Phone numbers and WhatsApp identifiers do not.

This changed in August 2026. Notifications used to carry only an identifier, and your device fetched the text itself — which is better for privacy and only works when iOS lets the app run. On a phone with Background App Refresh off, or in Low Power Mode, it did not, and the notification said nothing but “New message”. We chose the notification you can read.

A muted or archived chat is the exception: its notification carries no text at all, because it is not meant to interrupt you.

What we do not do

• No advertising, and no sale or sharing of your data with advertisers.
• No analytics SDKs, no third-party trackers, no crash reporters that carry content.
• No message content in server logs. Logs record counts, timings and opaque identifiers only.
• No use of your messages to train machine-learning models.

Retention and deletion

Message content is discarded continuously — by age, by volume, and as soon as your device has collected it. The outside bound is 12 hours for anything your device has confirmed receiving, and 7 days for anything it has not. Those two limits are the whole answer to how long TAG can hold your content, and a restart does not extend either one. Your session credentials persist until you unlink Zapchat, either from WhatsApp's Linked Devices screen on your phone or by asking us to delete your session. Unlinking ends TAG's access; deleting the session removes the stored credentials.

Other people

Messages you receive were written by other people who did not choose Zapchat. Their content passes through the same relay under the same terms described here.

Children

Zapchat is not directed at children and requires an existing WhatsApp account, which WhatsApp itself age-restricts.

Not affiliated with WhatsApp

Zapchat is an independent client. It is not made by, endorsed by, or affiliated with WhatsApp LLC or Meta. Your use of WhatsApp remains governed by WhatsApp's own terms and privacy policy.

Contact

Questions, or to have your session deleted: support@tag.org.