Almost every app starts by asking for your email or phone number. Strangiva doesn’t, and that’s a deliberate choice. Here’s why, how it works, and what it costs us.
The idea: talking to a stranger should feel like it
Strangiva is about meeting people you don’t know. The moment an app has your phone number, it isn’t quite a stranger you’re talking to any more: your identity is sitting on a server somewhere, tied to every conversation. We wanted the opposite. You open the app, tap once, and talk.
Less data, less risk
Data you never collect can’t leak, be sold or be misused. Strangiva never asks for your email, phone number or real name, so we don’t have them. There’s no advertising and no cross-app tracking, and Strangiva never sells anyone’s information. Your display name, About you details and chat history live on your phone.
So how do blocks and bans work?
This is the obvious question. If there are no accounts, what stops someone who’s been banned from coming straight back?
The first time Strangiva runs, the app creates a random ID and keeps it in your phone’s secure storage. Our server only keeps a salted hash of it. That hash is what blocks, Keeps, reports and bans attach to. It isn’t your name or your number, and it isn’t Apple’s advertising identifier, but it’s stable enough for the safety features to work.
When you block someone, you’re never matched with them again. When you report someone, the report is linked to their hashed ID. Nobody is banned over a single report or a bad moment: a person reviews it, and only sustained abuse, threats, harassment or spam leads to a ban.
What about your name?
You get a random display name you can change. It only reaches someone after you both tap Keep. Until then, people know you as a voice and, if you chose to share them, an age range and a broad region.
The trade-offs, honestly
- No account means no recovery. Your Kept strangers and chats live on your phone. If you delete the app, they’re gone, and we can’t bring them back because we never had them.
- Self-declared details. Age range, gender and region are what people say they are. They aren’t verified. Strangiva is only for adults aged 18 and over.
- Harder growth tricks. No email list means no “we miss you” emails. We think that’s fine.
What you still get without an account
- A random display name, which you can change whenever you like.
- Keep: if you both tap Keep after a call, you can call and message each other again, and swap view-once photos.
- Blocks that stick: you’ll never be matched again with someone you’ve blocked.
- Your choice of what to share: age range, gender and broad region are optional.
None of that needs us to know who you are. It only needs your phone to remember a random ID, and our server to remember a salted hash of it.
Why not “Sign in with Apple”?
Sign in with Apple is much better than most sign-in options, but it still creates an account tied to you. For an app built on meeting strangers, we’d rather not have one at all.
Try it
Strangiva is in a free public beta on iPhone through TestFlight. Tap the link, install TestFlight if asked, and you’re in. No forms.
Get the iPhone beta (free, TestFlight)
Strangiva is in public beta on iPhone through Apple’s TestFlight. The public App Store launch is planned for 1 January 2027, and Android is coming soon. Strangiva is only for adults aged 18 and over.