TapYap

Elements Technologies

About this app

TapYap is the chat app where the only way to add someone is to tap phones in real life.

No usernames. No phone numbers. No "what's your handle." You meet, you tap, you can chat. It's the smallest social network you'll ever join — and that's the whole point.

🤝 WHO IT'S FOR

• Families who want a private group chat without handing out phone numbers

• Sports teams, ski groups, book clubs, neighborhood crews

• School carpools, workplace lunch crews, festival friends

• Anyone tired of contact-list scraping, "people you may know," and DMs from strangers

📱 HOW IT WORKS

1. Open TapYap on both phones and hold them together. NFC does the handshake in under a second.

2. You're connected. Their face shows up in your Tapped tab — no codes, no QR scans, no "what's your number."

3. Anyone they've already tapped becomes a friend-of-a-friend you can message too — with a clear "via Astrid" label so you know who introduced you.

That two-degree network is the whole graph. No further. No randos. No bots. The same way introductions worked before phone numbers were a thing — just digital.

🔒 PRIVACY BY DESIGN

• Your TapYap identity is generated on your phone, never tied to a phone number, email, or Big Tech account.

• No contact-list import. No friend suggestions. No "people you may know."

• Messages are end-to-end encrypted (TYSPv1, hybrid post-quantum). The server stores ciphertext only.

• Made a tap you regret? "Forget Person" wipes the connection from your phone. No mutual block lists, no public unfollow.

• Strangers can't message anyone in your circle — the only way in is a phone someone you trust actually held.

💬 EVERYTHING A CHAT APP NEEDS

• Direct chats and group chats

• Photos, voice notes, videos, GIFs (Giphy via your keyboard)

• Disappearing messages with custom timers

• Reactions, replies, message edits, stars, forwards

• Read receipts (turn off any time)

• Per-conversation mute, archive, pin

• Notifications with the sender's avatar

• Block / forget any contact in two taps

📡 WORKS WITHOUT INTERNET, TOO

When the cell signal drops out — festival crowd, basement venue, plane mode, locked-down WiFi — TapYap quietly switches to a local Bluetooth mesh. Messages hop phone to phone through nearby friends until they reach the recipient. No data cost. No tutorial. Chat just keeps working.

🎯 WHY YOU'LL LIKE IT

• Set up in 30 seconds — no SMS code, no email confirmation

• Ad-free, tracker-free, and free

• Tiny social graph that mirrors your actual life

• Made for the people right in front of you

Built for tight, local groups: families, small clubs, sports teams, classmates, festival friends, road-trip crews. The people you know in real life, just routed through a phone.

Free to download. Free to use. Privacy and connection, in that order.

Questions or feedback? [e-mail]

Privacy & data: [e-mail]

What’s new

Fixes an issue where messages from a contact could intermittently show as "Encrypted message" and fail to decrypt. End-to-end encrypted delivery is now more reliable.