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 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.
Friend lists — Custom folders to organize your friends list. No one can see this but you.
Adding a friend — Tap the + for quick add, or from the people page. Just 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 the status picker.
You're active in the app. Your contacts see a green dot next to your name.
You haven't used the app for a while. Messages still arrive but your friends see that you're away from pike; right now. The default away timer is 30 minutes of inactivity. Pro users can change this.
You're not connected. You get to go Offline and not be instantly accessible. 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 — it's like an invisibility cloak! Enable it by tapping your status at the top of your circle and selecting Ghost.
Mood bar — Tap the mood bar under your display name to edit it, like "Iced matcha life 🍵" or your favourite lyrics — make it extra angsty.
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. 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.
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.
Tap any sticker in the picker to send it instantly. Tap received stickers to add them to your list.
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 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't turn off ping vibration globally — it's our star feature! You can mute the ping individually for each 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.
This is also where all per-contact settings live.
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.
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 in Settings. 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 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. If you don't want anyone to see your music or gaming status — do not connect it.
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. You don't get contact suggestions either!
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 $9.99. 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 your music for live now-playing status.
Connect Steam 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. $9.99 once. All current Pro features plus any new Pro features we add in the future. No subscriptions.
Maybe 👀
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 / 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.
Visit getpike.chat and tap Freeze Account in the footer. Enter your recovery phrase — the one you created when you set up your account — and your account will be locked immediately. Nobody can access it until you unfreeze it with the same phrase. Write your recovery phrase down somewhere safe. It's also used to delete your account and recover access. Losing it may result in losing your account history.
Go to Settings → Delete Account. You'll need to enter your user code and recovery phrase to confirm. After that, you have a 30-day grace period to change your mind — just sign back in and cancel the deletion. After 30 days, everything is permanently purged. (And honestly? You'll miss it. People always come back.)
Muting silences notifications from that person — you still receive their messages, you just won't be notified. Blocking removes them from your circle entirely and prevents any contact. They won't know they've been blocked.
Your account and all your messages stay on our servers. When you reinstall and sign back in, everything is exactly where you left it. Deleting the app is not the same as deleting your account.
pike; enforces one active device at a time. When you sign in on a new device, your existing device gets a notification asking to approve the login. Approve it from the old device — or use your recovery phrase if you don't have access to it anymore.
No. pike; has an approval-only inbox. You only receive messages from people you've accepted as friends. Nobody can cold-message you.
You're removed from the group and stop receiving messages. The rest of the group continues normally. Your previous messages remain visible to the other members.