What does Peer-to-Peer mean for me?

Spacious is a unique app that runs on a peer-to-peer data structure. This may sound super technical, but it’s actually much more like real life sharing since there’s no corporate server tracking you and using your data.

Peer-to-peer means that there is no centralized server that manages Spacious, there are no “accounts” stored, and Spacious developers may not even know you’re using the app!

But what does peer-to-peer mean for your day-to-day experience using Spacious?

1. When you create a Space in Spacious, no one else knows about it until other people join. Not even the developers of Spacious can see it!
2. When a person joins your Space in Spacious, they will not see any Conversations until you add them to the Conversation. Their device doesn’t even know the other Conversations exist. So as soon as the person joins your Space, you will want to add them to Conversations so they don’t feel like there’s nothing happening in the Space.
3. When you send a message in a Conversation, the message will transmit to the other people in the Conversation when they use the app.
4. We offer a Standby Server to keep messages for you until you connect. The Standby Server can not decrypt the messages, so only people added to the conversation have access to the message content. The only metadata the Standby Server can ‘see’ is the Space Name, the Conversation Name, and who sent the message.
5. Your “identity” is tied to the device you’re using to talk on Spacious. You can use whatever name you want. You don’t need a password because you are not “logging in” anywhere – there’s no “account” on someone else’s server.
6. When you change things in your Spaces or profile, it may not immediately be reflected on other people’s devices since it requires syncing.
7. When you delete content in Spacious, the deleting may not happen immediately on other members’ devices. Please keep this in mind!
8. No one except the people you can see in the Space or Conversation has access to the content. Be sure when you share the Space Secret that the person you are sharing it with is someone you can trust. We recommend sharing in person or through an encrypted channel like Signal if you want to be certain that it’s kept private.