Discretion on your phone

Not everyone is out everywhere, or to everyone. A screen that lights up on the table, a phone you lend for a minute, a glance over your shoulder on the bus: sometimes that is enough to out someone to their family, to people at work, or to anyone in a place where being trans is dangerous. Being outed is not a small embarrassment. It can cost a home, a job or a family's support, and in some countries much more.

T4TSpace has a few options that reduce what a quick look at your phone can reveal. This page explains what each one does, what it does not hide, and which ones exist only in the Android app. None of them makes the app invisible to someone who goes through your phone.

Why it can matter

At home. Many people are out to their friends long before they are out to their family, and some never are. A notification that says “You have a new match” on a phone left on the kitchen table says more than you chose to say.

At work, or at school. A phone on the desk during a meeting, a screen shared on a call, someone who borrows it to look something up.

Where being trans is punished. In a 2023 report, Human Rights Watch documented security forces in several countries searching the phones of LGBT people, sometimes by force, and using what they found against them. This is why the Android app is not offered in those countries: where the app is offered, and why. The options below are made for the everyday glance. They do not protect against a search.

Neutral notifications: available now

With this option, every notification says “New activity” and nothing else, whatever happened: no match, no like, no message, no number. Even without it, our notifications never contain a name, a photo or what someone wrote.

It applies to all your devices at once: the browser, and the Android app, including its current version. Turn it on under Account and data, then Discretion: in the web app now, and in the Android app from its next version. It stays off until you turn it on.

What it does not hide: on Android and on iPhone, the phone itself writes the app's name at the top of each notification, and no ordinary app can change that. In a browser, the site's address appears on the notification. To keep notifications off your lock screen altogether, use your phone's settings: most phones can hide the content of notifications, or all of them, on the lock screen.

Lock the app: coming in the next Android version

You choose a code of 4 to 8 digits, and your fingerprint or face if your phone has them. The app then asks for it each time it opens, and when you come back to it after the delay you choose: right away, after 30 seconds or after 5 minutes. The lock screen shows no name and no logo. Your code stays on your phone and is never sent to us.

On Android 13 and later, the preview of the app in your recent apps is hidden while the lock is on. Screenshots still work, on purpose: they are how you keep proof if someone harasses you.

Forgot your code? You sign out, then sign in again with your email address and password. Nothing in your account is deleted.

What it does not do: it does not hide that the app is installed, and it cannot help if someone makes you unlock it.

A discreet icon: coming in the next Android version

You can replace the T4TSpace icon and name, on your home screen and in your list of apps, with one of three neutral ones: Orbit, a circle with a dot; Leaf; or Dot. They are plain shapes in muted colours, with no letter, and they do not imitate any other app. You can go back to the T4TSpace icon at any time, from the same screen.

When you switch, the app may close: open it again from your list of apps, under its new name. Some phones also remove the old icon from the home screen, so you may have to put the new one back.

What it does not hide: the app is still called T4TSpace in your phone's settings, in the Play Store (including the list of apps you installed before) and at the top of notifications. A search in the phone's settings still finds it, and when the app opens, its logo shows for a moment. Its Google Play page keeps its real name and icon.

On iPhone, this will come later, and iPhone only lets an app change its icon, never its name.

In a browser

A website cannot ask for a code before it opens, and it cannot change its name or icon for one person. Your browser history keeps t4tspace.com, and whoever runs the network you use can often see that you visit the site.

What helps: a private window, not letting the browser save your password, signing out when you are done (in the app, Account and data, then Sign out), and not adding the site to your home screen, which puts an icon on it just like an installed app.

What your phone can do on its own

Android 15 and later has a private space. Apps inside it are hidden from your list of apps, from recent apps and from settings, and send no notifications while it is locked. Google notes that it can still show up if the phone is connected to a computer.

On iPhone, from iOS 18, you can make an app ask for Face ID before it opens, and hide most apps from the App Store: touch and hold the app's icon, then choose Require Face ID. A hidden app leaves the home screen and search. There is no T4TSpace app for iPhone yet: in Safari, what is said above about browsers applies.

What none of this hides

Our emails come from no-reply@t4tspace.com and never contain a name, a photo or what someone wrote. If someone else might read your inbox, use an address only you read, and switch off the emails you do not need in Account and data.

Your Google account keeps a list of the apps you have installed, even after you uninstall them.

None of these options protects you if someone makes you unlock your phone, or searches it. If that is your situation, read where the app is offered, and why, and our safety page.

Not the same as Quiet mode

Quiet mode, also under Account and data, takes you out of the grid of people nearby. It changes what other members see, not what your phone shows. You can use both.