Chats with the people you have actually met.

Yamsio adds someone only when you are together. One of you shows a code, the other scans it, and from then on you can message, call and share. Your chats live on your phone.

Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.

The chat list, newest at the bottom, with the faces of kens who have a new diary above the title
Aina Rahman
@aina

Valid for 15:00

Whoever scans this becomes your ken. Show it only to someone you want to talk to.

Your code in the app. It lasts 15 minutes.

How two people become kens

A ken is someone you know. Yamsio has no directory and never reads your contacts, so nobody can reach you until you have met.

  1. Meet

    Be in the same place. There is no search and no phone-book matching to do it for you.

  2. Show or scan

    Open Kens and show your code, or scan theirs. A code lasts 15 minutes.

  3. Talk

    You are kens now: message, call, share. You can remove a ken whenever you like.

What Yamsio is for

Keeping up with the people in your life: talking, sharing your days, and making a corner of the app your own. Every picture below is a real screen from the app, with invented people.

Chats

Talk the way you would in person.

One to one or with the whole trip. Photos, films, voice notes and files up to 100 MB, replies that take you back to what was said, and a reaction with any emoji.

  • Hold a message to react, reply, copy, pin, star or forward it.
  • Stickers from the tray, or make your own from a photo.
  • Ticks for sent, delivered and read, and a switch to stop sending read receipts.
  • Fix a typo for 15 minutes. Everyone sees that it was edited.
A group chat about a trip to Tioman: two beach photos with reactions, a reply to an earlier message, and a countdown
Holding a message: the page softens, and reactions and the message’s actions appear around it

Kens

A page for every person you know.

Tap a ken to see what you share: your chat, their Vuk, the photos and links between you, and one tap to message or call.

  • Call them what you call them. The name changes everywhere at once.
  • Someone who scanned your code waits until you add them back.
  • Put kens into groups of your own, to choose who sees a post.
Kens from A to Z, and someone waiting to be added back
A ken’s own page: message, call, open their Vuk, and what your chat has gathered

Your Vuk

A book for your kens, not a feed for strangers.

Post photos, films and the places you went. Comments have one level of replies, so a conversation stays easy to follow.

  • Choose who sees each post: all your kens, some of them, a group, or only you.
  • A new post is announced only to the people it is for.
  • Under a post you read the author and your own kens, never strangers.
  • Likes show a total and name only the people you know.
Home: posts from kens, with photos, likes and comments
A post with two photos and a thread of comments and replies

Your page

Arrange it like a home screen.

Hold your page and everything starts to wiggle. Drag in clocks, countdowns, notes, photo frames, stickers and shelves of your own posts, then choose a background, a font and something that moves, like bubbles or falling petals.

  • More than 200 pieces to arrange, and your own stickers too.
  • A song that plays when a ken visits.
  • A guestbook they can sign, and a visit counter that never says who came.
A page made its owner’s own: a neon sign, a countdown, a clock, a pinned photo, a spinning record, bubbles and a song
Decorating a page: every piece can be moved, resized or taken off

Diaries

Today, for a day.

A photo or a film of up to a minute for your kens, for 24 hours. Their faces wear a ring while there is something new to see.

  • Swipe from one ken to the next. A reply goes to your chat.
  • Afterwards it stays in your own archive, and the best ones become highlights on your page.
  • Choose who sees each one.
A ken’s diary: a morning dive, with a song and a row of reactions

Camera and music

Film to a song.

Tap for a photo, hold for a film. Pick a song first and it plays while you film, then goes into the film, in time with you.

  • A library of original songs, and your own music where your phone allows it.
  • Put a song on a photo, a post, a diary or your page.
  • Give each ken a message tone and a ringtone of their own.
  • Whatever you are listening to keeps playing when the camera opens.
Choosing a song from the albums in the app
Visiting a ken’s page: waves, bubbles and their song playing

Stickers and cards

Make your own stickers.

Cut a sticker out of any photo, as a circle, a heart or a star, or lift the subject straight out of the picture where your phone can. Moving emoji and the pieces from your page are in the tray too.

  • Keep a sticker someone made and sent you.
  • Send a card of live widgets: a countdown, a clock, a note.
  • Share a post, a diary or a place into a chat as a card. Each person sees only what they are allowed to.
The sticker tray open in a chat, full of moving emoji

Search

Everything, one pull away.

Pull up the bar at the bottom of any screen to find a message, a ken, a photo, a place or a setting, and land exactly where it is.

  • Your messages are searched on your phone.
  • What you have hidden stays hidden, even from search.
Search pulled up from the bottom, finding “laksa” in a post and a message

Also in Yamsio

Calls
Voice and video, encrypted end to end. Yamsio never receives the sound or the picture, and never records a call.
One trusted phone
Your phone decides the things that matter: who you meet, what disappears, which screens may join. Other screens read and chat.
Made for one hand
Titles, buttons and the newest messages sit at the bottom of the screen, where your thumb already is. The menu moves to whichever side you hold the phone.
Works offline
Your chats are on your phone, so you can read them anywhere. What you send waits, and goes when you are back online.
Hide what is private
Hide a chat, a ken or a message. It comes back only with a gesture you know.
Your language
English and Bahasa Melayu, light or dark, and text as large as you like.

A look inside

Real screens from the app. The people in them are invented.

The chat list, newest at the bottom, with the faces of kens who have a new diary above the titleA group chat about a trip to Tioman: two beach photos with reactions, a reply to an earlier message, and a countdownHolding a message: the page softens, and reactions and the message’s actions appear around itThe sticker tray open in a chat, full of moving emojiKens from A to Z, and someone waiting to be added backA ken’s own page: message, call, open their Vuk, and what your chat has gatheredHome: posts from kens, with photos, likes and commentsA post with two photos and a thread of comments and repliesA page made its owner’s own: a neon sign, a countdown, a clock, a pinned photo, a spinning record, bubbles and a songDecorating a page: every piece can be moved, resized or taken offVisiting a ken’s page: waves, bubbles and their song playingA ken’s diary: a morning dive, with a song and a row of reactionsChoosing a song from the albums in the appSearch pulled up from the bottom, finding “laksa” in a post and a message

Where your things are kept

Yamsio is built so that your phone holds your chats. This is what is kept where, including what we keep.

WhatOn your phoneWith Yamsio
Messages, photos and filesEvery chat, in an encrypted database. A backup is locked with a passphrase you choose.An encrypted copy, and a copy of the keys that open it.
Posts, comments and diariesOpened on the phones of the people each one is for.An encrypted copy, handed only to the people each one is for, and a copy of the keys that open it.
CallsThe sound and the picture, encrypted end to end between the two phones.Who called whom, when and for how long. Never the sound or the picture.
NotificationsThe words are opened here, on the phone.Sent sealed through Apple or Google. The sender’s name goes with it unless you choose to show nothing.
Your profile and groupsWhat your kens shared with you when you met.Your name, picture and bio, and group names and pictures, as you set them.

We keep a copy of the keys so that we can open a conversation when the law requires it, and only then. Each time is approved by two people and recorded. When someone reports a message, their phone sends us what they report: we do not open the chat to look.

Read the Privacy Policy