Help centre

Install GistUp, enter your phone number and type the 6-digit code we send by SMS. Then choose your name and a username, and confirm you are 18 or over.

3 to 20 characters: lower-case letters, numbers, dots and underscores, starting with a letter. Names that could pass as GistUp or Macvertech staff, banks or government bodies are reserved.

Check the number and your signal, wait a minute and ask for a new code. Never give this code to anyone.

Go to Settings and tap your picture. Your photo is encrypted: only people you chat with can see it, not strangers and not GistUp.

Go to Settings, then Social links. Like your photo, your links are encrypted and sent only to people you chat with. They see them when they tap your name in a chat. Leave a box empty to remove a link.

Tap New chat and type the person's username. If they allow it, you can also type their phone number.

One tick: sent to GistUp. Two grey ticks: delivered to their phone. Two coloured ticks: read.

Press and hold it. Delete for me removes it from your phone. Delete for everyone works for one hour after sending.

Tap New group, give it a name and add people by username. You become the group's admin.

Open the group, tap ⓘ, then Leave group. The others see that you left.

Anyone who knows your username. By phone number only if you switch it on in Settings, under Who can find me.

A first message from someone you have not chatted with. Accept it to chat, or delete, block or report it. They are not told you read it.

The other person reinstalled GistUp or moved to a new phone. Your chat carries on, encrypted with their new keys.

Open the chat, tap ⓘ, then Report. You can include the last 5 messages so our safety team can review them. See Safety tips.

With an invite code: Community tab, Join with code. Or tap Find communities and groups, search by name, category or city, and tap Ask to join. An admin approves you.

Admins: open the community (or the group's ⓘ) and tap Show in GistUp search. Choose a category and city. Everyone who asks to join waits for an admin's approval.

In a group or channel, tap 📎, then Poll or Event. Votes are end-to-end encrypted and counted on each phone. Tap Going on an event to get a reminder on the day.

GistUp has checked that this business, church, mosque, school, public figure or organisation is the real one. Anyone without a tick could be pretending. If a verified account changes its name, the tick is removed until we check again.

Type your message, then hold the send button (or tap 📎, then Schedule). Choose a time up to 30 days ahead. You can cancel it until it goes out.

Admins: press and hold the message and choose Pin for everyone. It shows at the top of the chat for every member.

The community's admins see the report without your name, and GistUp's safety team can always review it. Reports about an admin go only to GistUp.

Everyone on GistUp. Gists are public posts, not end-to-end encrypted, unlike your chats. People you block can't see them.

Yes. When you write a gist, choose Everyone, People I follow, or Nobody. Set your default in Settings, Public profile.

No. Gists use your public photo, which you choose separately in Settings, Public profile. Your chat photo stays private.

Our safety team removes gists that break the Terms, for example scams, harassment or nudity. You'll see the reason in Activity.

Anyone who joins the room, and GistUp's safety team. Live Rooms are not end-to-end encrypted. Messages are deleted after 7 days.

No. Gifts are free and have no money value. You can send one every few seconds.

Pictures from other people in a room stay blurred until you tap them, so you choose what you see. Report anything harmful.

Yes. Settings, Who can find me, turn off Message requests from rooms.

Go to Settings, Chat backup, Turn on backup. Save the 64-digit key on paper or in a password manager, then tap Back up now. After that it backs up once a day on Wi-Fi.

Install GistUp on the new phone, sign in with the same number, tap Restore chats from backup and enter your key.

Nobody can open the backup without it, including us. If your old phone still works, open Settings, Chat backup, Show backup key.

No, to keep backups small. In restored chats you can download them again for 30 days after they were sent.

Keep Data saver on (Settings, Data saver). Photos are sent smaller, and media downloads on mobile data only when you tap it.

Go to Settings, Storage and data, to see what GistUp uses, set a limit, or clear downloaded media from a chat. Your messages stay.

Not yet. It is planned for a later version.

Settings, Delete my account. See what is deleted.