Vero docs

#What is Vero?

A private messenger from Vyoma Group for chats, calls, groups and more — where messages are encrypted on your device before they’re sent.

Vero works like the messengers you already know: one-to-one chats, groups, voice and video calls, photos, voice notes, stories and channels. The difference is what happens underneath. Every message is encrypted on your phone before it leaves, and the keys that unlock it never leave your devices.

Its core idea is simple: the server can deliver your messages, but it should not be able to read them. Vero is also honest about what its servers can see — read What Vero’s servers can see.

#Install Vero

Use it in your browser, install the Android or Windows app, or add it to your iPhone’s Home Screen.

Android

1. Open atherhost.online/downloads on your phone and tap Download APK.
2. Open the file when it finishes. If Android asks, allow installs from your browser (Install unknown apps).
3. Tap Install. From then on, Vero offers updates itself.

Windows

Download the installer for Windows 10 and 11 from the same page. It updates itself in the background.

Web, and iPhone

Open atherhost.online in Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. Your browser can install it as an app (look for Install in the address bar). On iPhone, open it in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.

#Create your account

Sign up with an email and password, or with Google. Your encryption keys are made right there, on your device.

1. Open Vero and tap Create an account.
2. Enter a display name (what people see) and a username (how they find you).
3. Add your email and a password, then confirm it — or tap Continue with Google.
4. Tap Create account. Vero generates your keys on this device.

Good to know

Your keys are created on this device and never leave it. Vero can’t recover your password, so keep it somewhere safe — and turn on an encrypted backup.

#Sign in

Three ways in: email and password, Google, or linking a new device with a QR code.

Forgot your password? Type your email on the sign-in screen first, then tap Forgot password?. Vero sends a reset link to that address.

#Try the demo

Look around Vero before signing up. The demo uses sample chats stored only on your device.

Tap Try the demo on the sign-in screen. You’ll get three sample contacts and a group so you can explore chats, menus, settings and the safety-number screen.

• Nothing in the demo leaves your device — there’s no server behind it.
• Features that need a server — stories, channels, communities, bots, backups and linked devices — tell you they need a real account.
• Tap Leave demo at the bottom of Settings to go back to the sign-in screen.

#Find your way around

Four tabs at the bottom: Chats, Calls, Contacts and Settings.

Tab	What’s there
Chats	All your conversations, with filters for All, Unread, Groups and Direct. Search chats and messages from the top.
Calls	Your call history (All or Missed), stored only on this device.
Contacts	People you chat with, plus New group and Invite a friend.
Settings	Theme, language, privacy, security, payments, bots, storage, updates and downloads.

On a computer the chat list and the open chat sit side by side.

#Start a chat

Find someone by username, from your contacts, or with their QR code or invite link.

1. Tap New chat on the Chats tab.
2. Search the directory by name or username (type at least 2 characters).
3. Tap the person to open an end-to-end encrypted chat.

You can also open someone’s profile link (atherhost.online/u/username) or scan their personal QR code (My QR code). Finding friends from your phone contacts is opt-in — see Find friends.

#Reply, react, forward and more

Long-press (or right-click) any message to see what you can do with it.

Action	What it does
❤️ 😂 👍 🔥 😮 🙏	React with one tap.
Reply	Quote the message in your answer.
Forward	Send it to another chat — re-encrypted for that chat’s devices.
Star	Save it to Starred messages.
Copy text / Select	Copy one message, or select several.
Delete for me	Removes it from this device only.
Delete for everyone	Removes it for everyone in the chat.

#Edit a message

Fix a typo after sending — for up to 15 minutes.

Long-press a message you sent and choose Edit. Edited messages show a small edited label so everyone knows it changed. After 15 minutes, a message can no longer be edited — delete it and send a new one instead.

#Photos, files and more

Tap the paperclip to share almost anything — every file is encrypted on your device before it’s sent.

Option	Sends
Gallery / Camera	Photos and videos
Document	Any file
Audio	Audio files
Location	Where you are
Contact	Someone’s contact card
Poll	A question with options people vote on
Event	A plan with a date and time

Every file gets its own random key before upload, so storage only ever holds ciphertext.

#Voice notes

Hold the mic to record, or tap it for hands-free recording.

In any chat, hold the microphone button and speak; let go to send. For longer notes, tap it once to record hands-free, then tap send. Voice notes are encrypted like every other message.

#Stickers and GIFs

Tap the sticker button next to the message box.

The panel has three tabs: Stickers, GIF and Pay ₹ (see Payments). Stickers you send show up there for next time.

#Search, star, pin, archive and mute

Keep busy chats under control. Open a chat and tap ⋯ for its options.

• Search — search all chats and messages from the Chats tab, or Search in chat inside one.
• Starred — long-press → Star; find them all under Starred messages.
• Pin a chat to keep it at the top.
• Archive a chat (or long-press it in the list). Archived chats stay archived when new messages arrive.
• Mute for 8 hours, 1 week or always. Muted chats never send push notifications — messages still arrive.
• Clear chat on this device removes its history here only.

#Disappearing messages

Make new messages delete themselves for everyone after 1 hour, 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days.

For one chat: open it, tap ⋯ → Disappearing messages, and pick a timer. New messages are deleted for everyone after that time.

For every new chat: go to Settings → Privacy → Default message timer. New chats you start get that timer automatically.

#Create a group

Groups are end-to-end encrypted: every member’s devices get their own key slot.

1. Go to Contacts → New group.
2. Give it a name (up to 50 characters).
3. Add at least one person, then tap Create.

When someone is removed, new messages are simply no longer encrypted for their devices — they can’t read anything sent after that.

To let people join with a link, share the group’s invite link (atherhost.online/join/…).

#Communities

Bring related groups together under one roof — a school, a team, a building.

Go to Channels and communities → New community, give it a name and description, and tap Create community. You get an announcements group where only admins can post. Then add your existing groups or create new ones inside it.

Group and community messages are end-to-end encrypted. Their names, descriptions and member lists are visible to Vero’s servers.

#Channels

Broadcast updates to followers. Channels are public posts — they are not end-to-end encrypted.

1. Go to Channels and communities → New channel.
2. Pick a name and a handle: 3–32 lowercase letters, digits or _.
3. Add a description. Turn on Private channel to hide it from search — people then follow it with an invite link.
4. Tap Create channel.

Honest note

Channel updates aren’t end-to-end encrypted, so Vero’s servers can read them. Followers can’t see who runs the channel or who else follows it.

#Voice and video calls

Tap the phone or camera icon at the top of any chat. Calls are end-to-end encrypted.

One-to-one calls, group calls and screen sharing are all end-to-end encrypted. Your call history lives in the Calls tab and is stored only on that device.

#Share a story

Share photos and videos that your chosen people can see — encrypted for each of them.

Open the stories tray at the top of your chats and add a photo or video (up to 49 MB). Each story is encrypted separately for every person you share it with.

Who can see your stories

Setting	Shares with
My contacts	Everyone you have a direct chat with
My contacts except…	Your contacts, minus the people you pick
Only share with…	Only the contacts you pick

Changes apply to your next story, not ones you already shared. The server can see who a story is shared with — never its content. To mute someone’s stories, long-press them in the tray.

#How Vero’s encryption works

In plain English: your phone locks each message for each device that should read it.

• When you sign up or link a device, that device creates its own keys. The private half stays in the platform keystore (Keychain / Keystore).
• Each message is encrypted on your device for every recipient device, using X25519 key exchange and XChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption (libsodium).
• Vero’s servers store and deliver only ciphertext.
• Attachments get their own random key and are encrypted before upload.
• Row-level security and private realtime channels keep metadata limited to conversation members.

New to all this? Our plain-English guide explains what end-to-end encryption actually means.

#Verify a safety number

Make sure nobody swapped a key in the middle — compare a number with your contact once.

1. Open the chat and tap ⋯ → Verify safety number.
2. Compare the number with your friend — in person is best, or on a call where you recognise their voice.
3. If it matches, you’re talking to the right devices.

The number is derived (iterated BLAKE2b) from the public identity keys of every active device on both accounts. So it changes when either of you links or removes a device — that’s expected. Vero also pins device keys: an unexpected key change is rejected.

More: What are safety numbers, and why should you check them?

#What Vero’s servers can see

No working messenger can store nothing at all. Here is exactly what is protected, and what isn’t.

#What isn’t built yet

Vero tells you plainly where it’s still growing.

You can read this at any time in the app under Settings → How Vero protects you.

#Privacy settings

Control read receipts, typing indicators, last seen, online status and notifications.

Setting	Options
Read receipts	Off: others only see “delivered”, and you won’t see when they read yours.
Typing indicators	Off: nobody sees when you’re typing.
Last seen	Everyone, My contacts or Nobody. Choose Nobody and you won’t see others’ either.
Online	Only people you chat with can see it. Off: you won’t see others online either.
Notifications	Notifications never include message text. Turn off Show sender name and they only say “New message”.

Find them under Settings → Privacy.

#App lock

Put a lock screen in front of Vero on your phone.

Turn it on in Settings → App lock. App lock is available in the iOS and Android apps — browsers can’t lock a web page the same way, so on a computer, lock your computer instead.

#Find friends & who can find you

Finding friends by phone number is opt-in, hashed and rate-limited.

Open Find friends to check which of your contacts use Vero. Lookups use hashes and are rate-limited, and nothing about your contacts is stored. Under Who can find me you choose whether people can find you this way.

#Link a computer

Use Vero on your computer by scanning a QR code with your phone.

1. On the computer, open atherhost.online (or the Windows app) and choose Link with QR.
2. On your phone, open Devices & transfer and scan the code.
3. Approve the new device. It creates its own keys and gets your recent chats.

Note

Private keys never leave a device. Because the computer registers new keys, your contacts will see that your safety number changed — that’s expected.

Vero · desktop

#See and unlink devices

Every device that can read your messages is listed in Settings.

Go to Settings → Linked devices to see every device on your account. Unlink any you don’t recognise or no longer use — new messages stop being encrypted for it straight away.

#Move chats to a new phone

Transfer your chat history directly, phone to phone.

1. On the new phone, sign in and start a transfer — it shows a code.
2. On the old phone, open Devices & transfer → Transfer chats and scan that code.
3. Keep both phones open until it finishes.

Very large histories may be too big to move in one go — use an encrypted backup instead.

#Encrypted backups

Back up your chats so you can restore them later — locked with a passphrase, a recovery key, or both.

Go to Settings → Chat backup. Choose how to unlock it:

Then choose where it lives: Vero cloud (private, end-to-end encrypted storage, up to 50 MB) or your Google Drive. Turn on daily backups, or tap Back up now.

#Restore a backup

Bring your chats back on a new device.

After signing in on a new device, Vero offers to restore. Enter your passphrase or recovery key. Decrypting can take a little while, because the passphrase check is deliberately slow.

If it says “This recovery key has a typo”, check each group of four characters. If the backup was made with only one method, Vero tells you which one to use.

#Payments (UPI)

Request and pay money inside a chat, using your own UPI app.

1. Go to Settings → Payments and save your UPI ID.
2. In a chat, tap the sticker button → Pay ₹ to request or pay.
3. Your UPI app opens to complete the payment.

Your UPI ID is stored only in this device’s secure keystore and shared only inside end-to-end encrypted payment requests.

Honest note

Vero can’t see or reverse transactions. A card marked “paid” is what a member reported — unless it says “verified”.

#Bots and mini-apps

Chat with bots from the directory, or build your own.

Browse bots under Settings → Bots. Messages to a bot are end-to-end encrypted to the bot’s device — but the bot’s owner can read them, so don’t send a bot anything private.

Build a bot

1. Go to Bots → New bot.
2. Pick a name and a username that ends in bot.
3. Add a description and commands, one per line: command - description.
4. Optionally add a mini-app URL (https) and list it in the directory.
5. Tap Create bot. You get a token once — copy it and run the bot with the Vero bot SDK on your own server.

#Theme and language

Light, dark or match your device — in six languages.

Theme: System, Light or Dark.

Language: English, हिन्दी (Hindi), বাংলা (Bengali), தமிழ் (Tamil), తెలుగు (Telugu) and मराठी (Marathi). System default follows your device.

#Storage and erasing a device

Free up space, or wipe Vero from a device completely.

#Updates

Installed apps keep themselves up to date.

Go to Settings → App updates → Check for a new version. The Android app downloads updates inside the app; the Windows app updates in the background; the web app is always the latest. All downloads are listed on the download page.

#“Your safety number changed”

Usually harmless — but worth a check.

It changes when a contact gets a new phone, reinstalls Vero, or links or unlinks a device. If you didn’t expect it and you’re about to share something sensitive, verify again first.

#The APK won’t install

Android blocks apps from outside the Play Store until you allow it.

When Android asks, allow your browser to Install unknown apps, then tap the file again. You need Android 7 or newer. If the download stopped part-way, delete it and download again.

#“This call is full”

Group calls are limited to 8 people.

In groups with more than 8 members, the first 8 to join can take part. Try again when someone leaves.

#Google Drive backup errors

If Drive access was removed or can’t be reached.

Go to Settings → Chat backup and connect Google Drive again. If Drive can’t be reached, wait and try later — or switch the destination to Vero cloud.

#I lost my password and my recovery key

What can — and can’t — be recovered.