Everything you need to know — from adding your first friend to going invisible while reading their messages.
pike; uses a one-time code to sign you in — no password, no hassle. Enter your phone number or email and we'll send you a 6-digit code. That's it.
After signing in, you set up your profile. You choose a display name, pick a colour for it, and create your user code — a short handle like @alaina21 that people use to add you. No phone number, no email is ever shared with anyone.
We send a 6-digit one-time code. No password is ever created or stored.
Add a photo (optional), choose your display name and colour, and pick your user code. Your code is permanent, so choose one you'll love.
Share your code with friends, or enter theirs to send a friend request. Once they accept the request from their Requests tab, you're in each other's circles.
Tap anyone in your circle to open a chat. Everything is encrypted from the moment you send.
The main screen is your circle — everyone you've added, organised by who's available right now. Online contacts appear at the top, then away, busy, and offline below.
Each contact shows their name, their current status dot, and their mood or music status underneath.
Tap a contact to open their chat. Long press a contact to get a quick action menu — mute, view full profile, remove friend, or block.
Collapsible groups — tap any status group header (like "Online") to collapse it and hide those contacts. Your collapsed state is remembered next time you open the app.
Adding a friend — tap your profile picture or your name at the top of your circle screen to open settings. Tap Add a Friend, enter their user code, and send a request. Once they accept, they appear in your circle.
Your status updates automatically based on activity, or you can set it manually at any time by tapping your own name at the top of your circle.
You're active in the app. Messages arrive in real time. Your contacts see a green dot next to your name.
You haven't used the app for a while. Messages still arrive — you'll see them when you come back. The default away timer is 10 minutes of inactivity. Pro users can change this.
You're around but don't want to be disturbed. Messages still come through. Set this manually when you need focus time.
You're not connected. Messages are held and delivered the next time you open the app. The free offline timer is fixed at 45 minutes. Pro users can configure it.
You appear offline to everyone — but you're fully connected. Messages arrive instantly, you read everything in real time, and your read receipts are suppressed. Nobody knows you're there. Enable it by tapping your status at the top of your circle and selecting Ghost.
Mood bar — below your status you can set a short written mood, like "Iced matcha life 🍵" or "sleep > go to class". Tap the mood bar at the top of your circle to edit it.
This is the most important thing to understand about pike; — and most messaging apps don't make it clear.
You actually disconnect. Messages wait in a queue. You don't receive them until you come back online. Your contacts see you as offline because you are offline.
You stay fully connected. Messages arrive instantly. You read everything in real time. Your read receipts are suppressed. Everyone sees you as offline. You see them perfectly. They see nothing.
Think of it this way — offline is leaving the party. Ghost Mode is standing in the corner with an invisibility cloak. You're watching everything, reading every message the second it arrives. Nobody knows you're there.
Ghost Mode is a Pro feature. You enable it in Settings → Privacy → Ghost Mode. When it's on, your status shows as offline to everyone in your circle, but your app stays live.
Tap any contact in your circle to open their chat. The input bar at the bottom has everything you need.
Tap the paperclip on the left of the input bar to send files, photos from your gallery, or documents.
Tap the sticker icon inside the input pill to open your sticker collection. Tap Create to make a new one from any photo in your gallery.
Tap the camera icon on the right to take a photo or video and send it instantly.
Tap the microphone to record a voice message. The icon switches to a send arrow when you start typing.
Tap any sticker in the picker to send it instantly. No need to long press — just tap and it goes.
Read receipts — no icon means not received (contact is offline, in Ghost Mode, or has no signal). A single open circle ○ means sent. A single filled circle ● in blue means they've read it. That's it — three states, one circle. Pro users can hide their read receipts in Settings → Privacy.
Long press any message to star it. Starred messages are saved and can be viewed anytime from a contact's profile under "View Starred Messages".
If a contact is offline, the input bar shows a banner telling you the message will be delivered when they're back. You can still send — it'll arrive the moment they open the app.
The Ping is pike;'s nod to MSN Messenger's legendary nudge. It does one thing: gets someone's attention.
Tap the 👋 Ping button in any chat header. The recipient's screen physically shakes, their phone vibrates, and the ping sound plays — even if they're in another app. It's impossible to miss.
You can turn off ping vibration globally in Settings → Notifications → Ping Vibration. Or mute it just for one person in their contact profile.
The ping sound is the same for everyone — it's part of what makes it recognisable. It cannot be changed or muted individually.
You can mute ping vibration specifically for one contact — for example if your mum pings you constantly — without turning it off for everyone. Open their profile and toggle Mute Ping Vibration.
Every contact in pike; has a profile you can view anytime. Tap their name in the chat header, or long press them in your circle and tap Full Profile.
The profile shows their display name, user code, when they joined, and their current mood or activity status.
In any chat, swipe up from the chat header to open a quick profile panel without leaving the conversation. This is where all per-contact settings live.
Turn off all notifications from this person — useful if a group chat is noisy or someone's messaging you non-stop.
Their pings won't vibrate your phone, but pings from everyone else still will.
Long press any message in a chat to star it. Open that contact's profile and tap "View Starred Messages" to see everything you've saved from that conversation.
They'll see your written mood instead of what you're listening to. Useful if you don't want everyone knowing your playlist.
They won't see when you're in a game. Your written mood shows instead. Good for when you want to play without anyone knowing.
Wipes the chat history with this contact and starts fresh. Your messages disappear from your phone — they don't disappear from theirs. Useful when you want a clean slate without removing them from your circle.
Tap Full Profile from the quick panel to see everything in one place — shared media (every photo, video, and file you've sent each other), starred messages (saved highlights), and the option to export your chat as a backup file you can save or share.
pike; can show what you're listening to or what you're playing — automatically, in real time. Your circle sees it in your status line without you having to type anything.
Connect Spotify or Apple Music in Settings → Music Status. While a track is playing, your status shows "🎵 Artist — Song" instead of your mood text. When the music stops, your mood comes back.
Connect Steam, Riot Games in Settings → Gaming Presence. While you're in a game, your status shows "🎮 Playing [game]". When you quit, your mood returns.
Priority order: gaming status always shows first, then music, then your written mood. If you're playing a game and listening to Spotify at the same time, your circle sees the game.
You can hide music or gaming status from specific contacts individually. Open their profile and use the Hide Activity toggles — they'll see your written mood instead, and never know those features are on.
pike; was designed with privacy as a starting point, not an afterthought. Here's what's always on, and what you can control.
Every message is encrypted on your device before it leaves. We cannot read your messages. This is on by default, always, for everyone.
You add people by user code only. No one ever sees your phone number or email — not even the people you message.
pike; has no advertising. We don't sell your data to anyone. We charge a one-time fee for Pro extras — that's our entire business model.
Pro users can hide read receipts globally — you can read every message without anyone seeing the double tick. Enable in Settings → Privacy.
Pro is a one-time payment of $5.99. No subscription. No recurring charge. You pay once and it's yours forever.
Appear offline while receiving every message in real time.
Read without anyone knowing. No double ticks for your contacts.
Set your own away and offline timers instead of the defaults.
Connect Spotify or Apple Music for live now-playing status.
Connect Steam, Riot Games for live game status.
Switch the entire app colour — Blue, Pink, Lavender, Navy, and more.
Organise your circle into custom folders — Close Friends, Work, Family.
Free pike; includes unlimited messaging, voice and video calls, Ping, coloured names, stickers, group chats, dark mode, and the default Blue theme. Pro is for people who want the extras.
No. Ghost Mode suppresses your read receipts. They see their message as delivered but not read — even if you've read it five times.
They're held on our servers and delivered the moment you come back online. The sender sees no receipt icon at all until you're back — then it switches to ○ sent, and ● once you've read it.
No. User codes are globally unique — like a username. If someone already has @alaina21, you'll need to choose something else.
No. Your code is permanent by design — it's how your contacts find you and how your identity persists. Choose carefully.
No. We only fetch and share the name of the game you're currently playing — nothing else. No friend lists, no hours played, no account details.
Yes. $5.99 once. All current Pro features plus any new Pro features we add in the future. No subscriptions.
Yes. pike; has a native desktop app for macOS and Windows. Same account, same messages, all synced. Native notifications for messages, pings, and friend requests.
Tap the + button in your circle to create a group. Add at least 2 people from your contacts, give the group a name, and start chatting. Groups appear in their own Groups section at the bottom of your circle — separate from the Online / Away / Busy / Offline sections. This section is collapsible just like the others. Each group row shows small status dots for the members so you can see at a glance who's active without opening the chat. All the same features work in groups — Ping, stickers, presence, everything.