Privacy and safety

Choose whether people can discover you, block people you don’t want to hear from, report messages to the DonutChat team, and delete your account when you’re done.

Choose who can find you

Show me in suggestions controls whether you appear in the Suggested list in Search. It’s on by default.

iPhone, Android and web app: go to Profile > Account & privacy and turn Show me in suggestions on or off.
Desktop app: go to Settings > Profile, turn Appear in suggested people on or off, and click Save profile.

When it’s off, you don’t appear in Suggested, and people who don’t follow you need your exact username to find you in search. People who follow you can still find you by name. Changes to Suggested can take a few minutes to show.

Your profile shows your name, @username, photo, introduction, join date, and follower and following counts. Other people can’t see your email address.

Anyone on DonutChat can start a direct chat with you; there’s no setting to limit who can message you. To stop someone, block them.

Block someone

When you block someone, you can’t send each other direct messages, see each other in search or follow each other. Blocking also removes any follow between you.

Open the person’s profile.
Select More (…), then Block User.
Select Block to confirm.

In the desktop app, open the person’s menu or profile, click Block…, then Block.

A direct chat with someone you’ve blocked shows Blocked in your chat list, and neither of you can send messages in it. Blocking doesn’t affect groups: in a group you’re both in, you can still see each other’s messages.

To unblock someone, open their profile and select Unblock User, or go to Profile > Account & privacy > Blocked Users, select Unblock User next to the person and confirm with Unblock. In the desktop app, go to People > Blocked and click Unblock. Unblocking doesn’t restore follows, but either of you can follow the other again.

Report a message

Reports go to the DonutChat team for review. The sender isn’t told who reported them.

Long-press the message and select Report.
Choose a reason: Spam, Hate Speech, Harassment, Inappropriate Content, Scam / Phishing or Other.
Optionally, describe the problem in Add details (optional).
Select Submit Report.

In the desktop app, hover over the message, click ⋯ > Report message…, answer Why are you reporting this?, add Details (optional) if you like, and click Submit report.

You can report other people’s messages in the main conversation. You can’t report your own messages or thread replies.
There’s no option to report a profile. Report the person’s messages and block them.
To follow up on your reports, go to Profile > Help & feedback > Report History, which shows each report as Pending, Under Review, Resolved or Dismissed. In the desktop app, go to Settings > Moderation reports.

Report an article

Reporting an article in Discover removes it from your feed right away.

iPhone, Android and web app: select … under the article to open Personalize feed, then select Report article.
Desktop app: open the article card’s More options menu, choose Report…, then Report.

To stop seeing every article from a website, use Hide source in the same menu. In the desktop app, you can also report a comment on an article: choose Report… on the comment, then Confirm, and the comment is hidden for you. See Discover.

Delete your account

When you delete your account, DonutChat schedules the deletion for 30 days later. On that date:

Your profile is removed: your name, username, email address, photo and introduction.
You can no longer sign in to the account, and every device is signed out.
Your follows and followers are removed.
Messages you sent stay in their chats, shown as from Deleted User. To remove a message everywhere, delete it before the deletion date.

Until then, your account keeps working. Devices where you’re signed in stay signed in, and you can sign in again.

In the iPhone, Android or web app

Go to Profile > Account & privacy > Delete Account.
Select Delete My Account to confirm, or Keep Account to stop.

The app confirms Your account has been scheduled for deletion. and signs you out of that account on this device. You also get an email with the deletion date.

In the desktop app

Go to Settings > Account & security.
Under Delete account, click Request account deletion.
Type the confirmation text shown in the dialog, then click Confirm security change.

The page then shows Deletion status with the scheduled date. The desktop app keeps you signed in.

Without the app

Go to donutchat.com/account/delete.
Enter your account’s email address in Email Address and click Request Account Deletion.
Open the email titled “Confirm Account Deletion - DonutChat” and click Confirm Deletion within 24 hours.

The Deletion Scheduled page shows the deletion date. If no email arrives, check that you entered the email address of your DonutChat account. No email is sent if the account already has a deletion request, for example one made in the app. To cancel that deletion, see Cancel a scheduled deletion.

Cancel a scheduled deletion

Desktop app: go to Settings > Account & security, click Cancel deletion request, then Confirm security change. This works however you requested the deletion.
If you requested deletion on donutchat.com: click cancel the request in the confirmation email.

If you can’t use either option, email help@donutchat.com before the deletion date.

Privacy policy

Read the privacy policy in the app at Profile > About & legal > Privacy Policy (select View Full Policy for the full text), or at donutchat.com/privacy. To request a copy of your data or use the other privacy rights described in the policy, email help@donutchat.com.

More privacy controls

Hide message text in notifications with Show preview. See Notifications.
See and sign out the devices where you’re signed in. See Accounts and sign-in.
Turn off Usage analytics on a device (error and crash reports are still sent). See Settings.