How to use aloo

Before you start

aloo is a mobile app for iOS and Android. Messages travel primarily directly between devices — nothing sits in the cloud and no metadata is collected.

Supported devices

• iOS 16.0 and newer
• Android 8.0 (API 26) and newer

Installation

Sign-up and first login

1. Download and open the aloo app.
2. Enter your e-mail and choose a password. The app can suggest a strong one and shows you how strong it is.
3. You'll get your own alooID — a unique identifier that others use to add you.
4. Set up biometric login (Face ID or fingerprint) so you don't have to type your password.
5. We recommend creating a backup right away (see below) — it's the only way to move your message history to a new device later.

alooID & contacts

alooID is your unique identifier in the app. It lets others add you without ever sharing your phone number or e-mail.

How to add a contact

Start a new conversation with the + button in the chat list, then pick one of these ways:

• By alooID or e-mail — enter the other person's alooID, or the e-mail they registered with.
• By QR code — scan the QR code the other side shows on their alooID tab (or vice versa). The scanner has a torch, too. It only reads QR codes generated by the aloo app.
• By link — the other side sends you a https://aloo.cz/addcontact/… link. It opens a web page with a button that launches aloo and offers the contact right away.

Your alooID

• You'll find it on the alooID tab, together with your QR code.
• Copy it with a single tap on the icon next to it.
• Share alooID opens the system share sheet, so you can send it by e-mail, text message or anywhere else. The link for adding you is included.

Messages & chat

Message types

Add attachments with the + button to the left of the text field:

• Text messages — links in the text are highlighted automatically and open with a tap.
• Voice messages (Opus codec). Recordings are automatically levelled to a comfortable volume.
• Images from your gallery or straight from the camera; you can also paste an image from the clipboard.
• Video from your gallery.
• Files — documents and other attachments.

The maximum attachment size is set by the server; if you exceed it, the app tells you and states the limit.

Working with a message

Press and hold a message (or double-tap it) to reveal the options:

• Reactions with emoji — your six most-used ones are right at hand, and the … button opens the full picker with search. It searches in English as well as your app language, and ignores accents.
• Quote — reply with a reference to a specific message.
• Forward to another chat.
• Edit a sent message — only your own messages, within 24 hours of sending, and only when everyone in the conversation has an up-to-date version of the app. An edited message shows Edited instead of the time.
• Copy text or an image to the clipboard.
• Open, save or share an attachment.
• Info — who the message reached and who has read it. In a group you get the list per member.
• Send again if sending failed.
• Delete — for yourself only, or for everyone in the chat (your own messages).

Tap the reaction row under a bubble to see who added which reaction.

Message states

For each message you can see its stage: sending → sent → delivered → read. The state is tracked separately for each recipient, so in a group Info shows you where each member stands. While an attachment is transferring, a progress ring runs on the bubble — for incoming messages too.

Message retention

For each conversation separately you decide in its settings how long messages are kept; older ones are then deleted automatically. The options are: no automatic deletion, 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month and 180 days. In a group, only the group admin can change this.

Chat appearance

You can set a custom colour scheme for each chat (four variants), making it easy to tell conversations apart. The option appears when one of the colourful styles is active in Settings.

The chat list

• Search by name or e-mail, accents ignored. It doesn't search message content — that is encrypted.
• Swipe a row for quick actions: remove chat, open, settings.
• When the other side is typing, you'll see three dots.
• A message you started writing stays in the chat even if you leave the app.

Connection status

The chat header tells you how the connection to the other side is doing: Connecting…, Connected, or Waiting for user with a countdown. If the other side can't be woken up, you'll see User unavailable and a retry icon next to it — tap it to try again. Your messages wait in the queue in the meantime.

Viewing and playback

• Images — tap to open full screen, pinch to zoom and drag to pan. To save or share them, press and hold the message.
• Video plays right in the app, seeking included. Playback does not continue in the background.
• Voice messages — tap to play, tap again to stop. Seeking and playback speed aren't available yet.

Sharing into aloo from other apps

You don't have to look for content inside aloo — you can send it straight from the app you're already in.

1. On Android, choose Share for an image, video, file or text and pick aloo. From a file manager, Open with… works too.
2. On iPhone, open the file (for example in Files or Mail) and use Open in…, then choose aloo.
3. aloo starts and offers your list of conversations — you pick where the content should go.
4. For an image or a file you'll still get a preview and can add a caption. Shared text is placed in the text field, so you can still edit it.

Notifications

A notification never contains the message text — you only learn who wrote to you. This isn't an oversight: only the app can decrypt the content after you sign in, so there is no way for it to reach the notification. Anyone glancing at your screen won't read your messages.

• For a message you'll see the sender's name, plus the group name in a group. For a reaction, you learn that someone reacted to your message.
• Tapping a notification opens that conversation. Replying straight from the notification isn't possible yet.
• Notifications are grouped per conversation, so they don't fill up your whole shade.
• When you're already in the open chat, no notification arrives — you'll just hear a short sound and feel a vibration.
• An incoming call is announced full screen, even on a locked phone, with Accept and Decline buttons. During a call a silent notification stays in the shade and can't be swiped away — tap it to return to the call screen.
• A missed call is announced by a notification; tapping it opens the Calls tab.
• Now and then a Syncing… notification briefly appears. That's fine — aloo woke up in the background to fetch a message, and it disappears on its own.

Groups

In groups you communicate with several people at once. They are just as protected as regular chats — the content is end-to-end encrypted and invitations are passed securely between devices.

Creating a group

1. In the chat list choose + and then New group.
2. Tick the people you already have a conversation with — a group is built from existing conversations, so add a new person as a contact first.
3. Optionally enter a group name, the message retention period and whether everyone may delete the chat. A group needs at least two other participants.

Managing a group

• The admin is whoever created the group. Only they change the group name and photo, the message retention period and the chat deletion setting.
• Members can be added and removed later, from the group settings.
• Membership changes (joining, leaving) are announced by system messages right in the chat.
• Other participants can leave the group — the admin can't leave, only remove it.
• As in any chat, no one outside the group's participants has access to the conversation.

Calls are currently one-to-one only — you won't find a call button in a group.

Calls

aloo supports voice calls. They run primarily directly between devices (P2P) over WebRTC with the Opus codec, so the call stays only between you and the other party. You can call from a one-to-one conversation using the handset button in the chat header.

During a call

• Mute the microphone — the other side can't hear you until you unmute.
• Switch to speakerphone.
• Hang up the call.
• An incoming call can be accepted or declined, straight from the notification too.

Call history

The Calls tab lists outgoing, incoming and missed calls with their duration and time. You can search them, tap an entry to call back, and clear the history. The tab is marked beta — we're still polishing it.

Reliability

• A call recovers after a brief outage or a network switch (Wi-Fi ↔ mobile data). aloo has about 30 seconds to recover, after which it ends the call.
• An unanswered call rings for 45 seconds and is then logged as missed for the person called.
• You have one call at a time. If someone calls you during a call, aloo tells them you're busy and logs it for you as a missed call.
• On iOS aloo integrates with CallKit — an incoming call behaves like a regular phone call, and you can call back from the system call list.

Backup & restore

Because aloo stores nothing in the cloud, a backup is the only way to move your message history to a new device or restore it after reinstalling.

What is backed up

• Your encryption key.
• Your complete message history including attachments — the backup holds a snapshot of the entire app database.

Everything is saved into a single encrypted file, .aloobak, which you keep safely (e.g. in your own storage). You create a backup in Settings → Backup.

Backup password

The backup has its own password, independent of your app login. That's what makes it work even when you sign in to aloo with biometrics. Without this password no one can open the backup — so remember it well and never store it together with the backup.

Restore on a new device

1. On the new phone, choose Restore from backup on the login or registration screen. Restoring happens before you sign in.
2. Select the .aloobak file and enter the backup password.
3. After restoring, sign in — with the backup password. Your message history and key are back.

Use restore on a fresh installation of aloo, as it overwrites data already in the app. And a backup created in a newer version of the app can't be opened by an older one — in that case update aloo first.

Moving without your history

If you have no backup, you can still get to your account: when registering with the same e-mail, aloo offers to import your key from a .p12 file. That moves your identity and alooID, but your message history won't come with it — only an .aloobak backup can restore that.

Settings & personalisation

Appearance

• Profile — name and photo. Your e-mail and alooID can't be changed.
• Theme — follow the system, light, or dark. The change takes effect after restarting the app.
• Style — seven variants that change both the colours and the typeface. Classic and Modern are colourless, Colourful gives each screen a different pastel shade, and four more are single-colour. Per-chat colour schemes are only offered in the colourful styles.
• Name format — First Last, or Last First.

Messages & data

• Sent image quality — low, medium, high, or original. It applies to every send; lower quality means faster transfers and less space used.
• Storage management — an overview of space used per conversation, largest first. Tapping a conversation takes you to its settings, from where it can be removed. You can also free space by shortening the message retention period. A separate Invalid records row cleans up data left behind by deleted messages.

Message retention is set for each conversation separately, not here — see Messages & chat.

Account & security

• Change password — with a strength meter and a strong-password generator.
• Biometric login (Face ID / fingerprint). It's there so you don't have to type your password.
• Log out in background — on by default. As soon as you leave the app, aloo logs out and you sign in again next time. Turning it off is more convenient, but your conversations stay open on the phone.
• Backup — creating the .aloobak file and the date of the last one.
• Licence — whether you're on Start or Professional, and how much of the limit you're using.

Maintenance

• Help — a link to this page. You'll also find it on the alooID tab.
• Error log — helps support resolve issues. You can view the log, clear it, send it to the developers or share it as a file.
• Log out of the app.
• Factory reset — wipes the app's data from the device. Before resetting, aloo offers to create a backup for you.
• Delete account — irreversible and needs to be confirmed twice.

App language

aloo follows your phone's language and isn't switched inside the app. Fully translated are Czech and English; on a phone set to Polish, part of the app is in Polish and the rest in English. Other languages appear in English.

Licence

The free plan is called Start — in it you can create up to 6 conversations yourself. Conversations and groups created by someone else don't count towards the limit. The Professional plan removes the limit; the subscription is managed on your web account, which you reach from Settings → Licence → Manage subscription. If you exceed the Start limit, your older conversations stay and Licence shows you who you can keep communicating with.

Security & privacy

Security comes first in aloo. No one — not even the operator — can access the content of your messages.

• End-to-end encryption — content is encrypted from sender to recipient; there's no point along the way where it could be read. It's built on modern elliptic-curve cryptography.
• Keys stay on the devices — the server has no access to them. Your key is protected by your password on the phone and held in the system's secure storage.
• No cloud, no metadata — messages are stored nowhere; your history stays only in an encrypted database on your devices.
• Transport over SSL/TLS; if a direct connection isn't possible, the server only relays the encrypted message — it neither stores nor reads it.
• Notifications without content — the message text never appears on your screen, only the sender's name.
• Biometric login — you don't have to type your password and nobody sees it.

Troubleshooting

Messages aren't sending

Check your internet connection. In offline mode messages wait in a queue and are sent automatically once the network is restored. Switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data can help.

The chat header says “User unavailable”

The other side doesn't have aloo running right now and couldn't be woken up in the background. Your messages aren't lost — they wait in the queue and are sent as soon as the other side reappears. Tap the icon next to the text to retry the connection immediately.

The app keeps logging me out

That's the Log out in background option in Settings, which is on by default — aloo logs out whenever you leave the app. If it doesn't suit you, turn it off. Enabling biometrics also makes signing back in much quicker.

I can't add another conversation

On the Start plan you can create up to 6 conversations yourself. Once the limit is used up, aloo won't let you create another. In Settings → Licence you can see how much of the limit you're using and who you can keep communicating with; the Professional plan removes the limit.

A scanned QR code or link doesn't work

The scanner in aloo only reads QR codes generated by the aloo app — you'll find yours on the alooID tab. It won't read a QR code containing a web link. With a https://aloo.cz/addcontact/… link, a web page opens first; the contact is added only after you tap the button on that page, which launches the app.

I lost my phone

No one can get into your account without your password, or your biometrics. On a new device you register again; if you have an .aloobak backup and its password, you can restore your message history from it. Without a backup, history does not transfer.

I have no backup / it's old

In Settings, create a new backup and store it safely. The app reminds you about backups when one is missing or older than 30 days.

A call won't connect

Make sure the app has microphone access. A call recovers on its own after a short network outage; during a long, unstable connection, try the call again. If aloo tells you the other person is busy, they're on another call — aloo handles one call at a time.

aloo asks for an update

At login the app checks that you're on a supported version. On an older version it offers an update; if the version is too old, it won't complete the login and you'll need to update aloo first from the App Store or Google Play.

Frequently asked questions

Contact & support

Didn't find your answer? Write to us — we're happy to help.

• Support e-mail: help@talkey.com
• Website: aloo.cz

Operator: Talkey a.s. · Reg. No. 091 01 942 · Hrušovská 3203/13a, 702 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic