Community guidelines

These guidelines apply to everything you do on Q Chat: one-to-one chats, groups, calls, profiles, usernames, group names and invite links, private notes, and our support channels. They are part of our terms of service.

Not allowed

• Child sexual abuse and exploitation. Zero tolerance; we remove accounts and report to authorities. See child safety.
• Illegal content and activity, including selling drugs, weapons, stolen data or counterfeit goods, human trafficking, and money laundering.
• Violence and terrorism: threats of violence, incitement, and promoting or supporting terrorist or violent extremist groups.
• Harassment and bullying: repeatedly contacting someone who doesn't want it, threats, intimidation, doxxing (publishing someone's private information), and hate directed at people for who they are.
• Non-consensual intimate images, or threatening to share them (sextortion).
• Spam and scams: bulk or automated unsolicited messages, mass group invites, phishing, fake giveaways, investment and romance scams, and pyramid schemes.
• Impersonation: pretending to be another person, a brand or Q Chat support. Our only official account is @qchat, and we will never ask for your recovery words, PIN or licence keys.
• Malware and attacks on users or the service.
• Infringing other people's copyright, trademarks or privacy.
• Getting around enforcement: making new accounts to avoid a block or a suspension.

Your controls

• Message requests: people who aren't your contacts land in requests. They don't see that you've read anything until you tap Accept. You can also Delete or Block.
• Block: open a chat's menu or a contact's profile and tap Block. They can no longer message or call you, on any of your devices, and they aren't told. Manage the list in Settings → Privacy → Blocked contacts.
• Report: every chat, profile, message, message request and group has a Report option. See below.
• Leave groups you don't want to be in; group admins can remove members.
• Mute chats that are too noisy.

How to report

Because chats are end-to-end encrypted, we only learn about abuse when someone tells us. You can report from inside the app:

• A person: in a one-to-one chat, open the chat menu (⋮ on Android, the chat header menu on iPhone and on Q Chat Web) and tap Report, or open their profile and tap Report. In a group, open the member's profile and tap Report.
• A message: long-press it on Android or iPhone (on the web, open the message menu) and tap Report. That message and up to 9 earlier ones from the same person are included.
• A group: open the group chat menu and tap Report group.
• A message request: tap Report & block.

Pick a reason (spam, harassment or bullying, hate speech, sexual content, child safety, violence or threats, impersonation, or something else) and, if you like, add details (up to 1,000 characters). Two options are on by default:

• Include the last 10 messages from the person. We can't read your chats, so, as on other end-to-end encrypted messengers, your device sends us the last 10 messages from that person in that chat for review. For photos, videos and files only the file name, type and size are sent, never the file itself. Turn this off and we receive only the reason and your details.
• Also block the person, so they can no longer message or call you.

The reported person isn't told who reported them. The official @qchat account can't be reported. If you can't use the app, you can still message @qchat or e-mail support@qchat.im with the username (or group invite link), what happened and roughly when.

If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first.

What happens next

• We review every report, normally within 24 hours, and keep the reporter's identity confidential. Child safety reports are reviewed first.
• Depending on how serious it is, we may warn the account, limit it, suspend it (it can no longer send, call or upload), or remove it permanently.
• We report child sexual exploitation and credible threats to life to the authorities.
• Once a report is closed (acted on or dismissed), it is deleted after 90 days.
• If we act on your account and you think we got it wrong, write to support@qchat.im and a person will look at it again.