Either Party Can Seal
You or your contact can initiate a seal at any time. One side locking the channel locks it for both — no consent required from the other party.
Channel Seal
Disappear.On Your Schedule.
Temporarily lock entire chat channels so they vanish for both parties — silently, server-enforced, until the timer expires. No early unlock. No alert to the other side.
In the App
Seal From Any Channel
Long-press a conversation, open the chat menu, or use Travel Seal and Emergency Seal from Settings. Pick channels, set a duration, confirm with biometrics.
Core Capabilities
Timed Mutual Invisibility
Channel Seal is not a pause button. It is a timed lock that makes conversations inaccessible to everyone until the clock runs out.
Timed Lock, No Override
Choose 1 hour to 7 days or a custom date. There is no early unlock, no back door, and no support override — the seal expires on schedule.
Three Seal Modes
Quick Seal from a long-press, Travel Seal for selected channels, or Emergency Seal All to hide every active conversation at once.
Biometric Confirmation
Sealing requires face or fingerprint verification plus typing "I understand" — a deliberate action that prevents accidental locks.
Process
How Channel Seal Works
Four steps from selection to silent disappearance.
Select Channels
Choose one channel via long-press, multiple via Travel Seal, or everything via Emergency Seal All.
Set Duration
Pick a preset — 1 hour, 6 hours, 24 hours, 3 days, or 7 days — or choose a custom date and time.
Confirm & Authenticate
Type "I understand" and verify with biometrics. The seal is sent to the server and local chat data is purged from your device.
Channels Vanish
Sealed channels disappear from both inboxes instantly. They reappear automatically when the timer expires — messages intact, history preserved.
Applications
When to Use Channel Seal
Any time you need conversations to stop existing — temporarily — for everyone involved.
Border Crossings
Seal sensitive channels before airport or border inspections. Nothing to open, nothing to explain — chats simply aren't there.
Device Seizure Risk
If your phone might be taken, Emergency Seal All makes every channel invisible before it leaves your hands.
Travel & Layovers
Travel Seal hides selected work or personal channels for the duration of a trip without deleting history.
Shared Device Moments
Hand your phone to someone? Quick Seal on private channels ensures they won't appear in your inbox during that window.
Journalist Source Protection
Sources and reporters can seal channels during high-risk periods without alerting the other party or destroying the thread.
Compliance Cool-Down
Executives seal deal channels during blackout periods. Conversations resume automatically when the restriction lifts.
🛡 Threat Model
What We Enforce
Channel Seal is server-enforced mutual invisibility — not a local hide toggle.
Enforced by Architecture
- Seal applies to both parties equally
- Server blocks messages, typing, attachments, and reads on sealed pairs
- Push notifications suppressed for sealed channels
- Local encrypted cache purged when seal is placed
- Automatic unseal when timer expires
- Audit log retained server-side (no message content)
Never Allowed
- No early unlock or override
- No notification to the other party
- No partial seal — both sides lose access
- No message deletion — history returns after expiry
- No seal bypass through API or support
No system is invulnerable. Stating what we defend against — and where our boundaries are — is more credible than claiming absolute security. Learn More →
Platform
Learn More
Try Channel Seal
Download City of Hats on Android, iOS, or Web — and seal your first channel in under a minute.