Radar: Scan & Chat
Anonymous text to begin. Voice, images, and live camera unlock only through sustained, reciprocal conversation — verified by the same deterministic program running on both phones simultaneously. Neither side can fake it.
App Preview
Every screen from first open to Clear rung — the same ornamental frame, the same dark palette, the same gold and cyan throughout.
The problem with the category
A live camera pointed at a stranger selects hard for exhibitionists, drives away everyone looking for actual conversation, makes moderation impossible at any price, and eventually produces the litigation that ended it in November 2023.
The category's failure was architectural. Radar's answer: the scarcity people actually want is not anonymity — it is earned access. The ladder below is how that changes the outcome. Competitors can copy a rung ladder in a sprint. They cannot copy a ladder nobody can forge without building a deterministic verifiable execution engine first.
The Trust Ladder
Named in shortwave vernacular — talking to strangers at distance is what shortwave is. Each rung is structurally harder to reach than the one above it.
Two hundred messages sent into silence counts as zero. Spray-and-pray is structurally impossible, not just against the rules.
A session only counts after the conversation has gone quiet and both people came back. You cannot grind it in an afternoon. You have to sleep on it.
A report or mute stops the climb with no decay path and no forgiveness timer. The program does not negotiate.
Built-in Games
Games are how strangers become something more. They earn Sparks, advance conversation depth, and unlock Hoods. Every game is gated at the appropriate rung — you have to know someone before you play voice games with them.
Video games require Duplex rung — 90 reciprocal turns, 3 sessions, 48 hours, mutual consent.
The Mechanism
The progression check does not run on a server you have to trust. It runs on both phones simultaneously, using the same deterministic program. Both results must agree — on the verdict and on every step of the reasoning that produced it.
Device A Device B
DVEE Pulse VM DVEE Pulse VM
rung_gate.ual rung_gate.ual
┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ verdict + SHA-256 trace H(A) verdict + SHA-256 trace H(B) │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘
| |
ProgressionLedger ← H(A)/H(B) → ProgressionLedger
constant-time ratify constant-time ratify
| |
SessionCrypto SessionCrypto
signed-ECDH P-256 signed-ECDH P-256
AES-256-GCM + rung AAD AES-256-GCM + rung AAD
└────────────────────────┘
|
RELAY
sees: rotating tag + ciphertext
knows: nothing
Privacy Model
Content and metadata are two different questions with two different answers. Not distinguishing them is the most common mistake in this category.
Honest Status
Commitment
The ladder itself — every rung from Skip to Clear, with every capability it unlocks — stays free, permanently. That is a public commitment, not a current promotion.
Monetisation happens in adjacent features that improve experience without touching the trust model or the safety story:
Scan filters — language, region, active hours. Improves match quality, touches nothing about capability.
Multiple concurrent scans — hold several conversations climbing at once.
Ledger keepsakes — an exportable signed artefact of a Clear-rung conversation. Cosmetic, meaningful, cryptographically real.
Named handles — reserve one instead of drawing from the pool.
Relay self-hosting — a licensed build for communities that want their own. Sells to the people who most believe in the decentralisation story.
Rung skips are not for sale. A purchasable unlock destroys both the product thesis and the safety statement. "Camera access is earned over 48 hours" stops being true the moment it can be bought.
Effective: 1 October 2026 · Radar: Scan & Chat · radar-chat.com
Radar: Scan & Chat is developed and operated by PhonkAlphabet, Croatia. Contact us through the in-app report mechanism.
Message content: Nothing. All content is end-to-end encrypted on your device before leaving it. The relay receives and forwards ciphertext only; it never holds, reads, or processes plaintext.
Identity: Radar generates a device-local cryptographic identity stored in Android Keystore, behind your device unlock. Your public key fingerprint and a generated callsign are registered with the relay. No phone number, email, or real name is collected.
Contact graph: When two users mutually confirm as contacts (Clear rung), a record linking their public key fingerprints is stored on the relay. This is a social graph. It is durable.
Hood membership: Joining or creating a Hood associates your fingerprint with that Hood's relay record.
Outbox: For confirmed contacts, the relay queues ciphertext with a 20-minute TTL. After delivery or expiry it is discarded.
Age assurance: At the Duplex boundary a Play Age Signals check is performed. The result is a gate signal; no date of birth reaches our relay.
Relay logs: Timestamp, method, host, path, and status only. Client IP, headers, and TLS metadata are deleted before any log entry is written.
Contact graph and Hood membership records exist to enable the features they represent. They are not used for advertising, recommendation, or analytics. We have no advertising business.
A compelled production of the relay database would yield: the confirmed-contact graph; Hood membership; and — for up to 20 minutes — which confirmed contacts had queued outbox entries. No message content, ever. Unconfirmed scan matches leave no durable record.
Account and contact deletion is challenge-authenticated. Identities inactive for 180 days with no remaining active references are cleaned up automatically. Encrypted operator backups may retain deleted metadata for the published rotation window.
Request deletion via the in-app account deletion flow. Identity verification uses the same device-held cryptographic key that created the account — no email or phone number required.
Radar is not directed at users under 18. The Duplex rung includes an age assurance gate via Play Age Signals. Users who do not pass the gate cannot access camera features.
The app ships with no advertising SDK, no analytics SDK, and no crash reporting service. The interface is localized to 9 languages, and the gift catalogue is fully localized in each of them. Android Keystore holds your identity key; it is not transmitted anywhere.
Material changes will be reflected in an updated effective date.
Effective: 1 October 2026 · Radar: Scan & Chat · radar-chat.com
By installing Radar or using any Radar service you agree to these terms.
You must be at least 18 years old. The Duplex rung requires age assurance via Play Age Signals.
An end-to-end encrypted messaging application for Android with cryptographically enforced capability progression. The relay is a transport service; it does not read or moderate content.
You are solely responsible for all content you send. You agree not to: send unlawful, harmful, or harassing content; distribute malware or attempt to compromise the relay or other users' devices; impersonate another person; circumvent the progression system through any technical or social means.
The rung ladder is cryptographically enforced. Rungs cannot be purchased, skipped, or granted externally. Attempting to manipulate the progression system is a terms violation and may result in friction-freeze of your account's progression.
Radar does not proactively monitor message content. On-device reporting and blocking tools are available at every rung. Reports are signed by your device key; the relay does not receive the report package.
Radar is proprietary software. All rights reserved. You may not decompile, disassemble, reverse-engineer, or create derivative works. The ladder stays free; the code remains proprietary.
Radar is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not warrant uninterrupted or error-free service.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of Radar.
These terms are governed by the laws of Croatia. Disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of Croatian courts.
Material changes will be reflected in the effective date above. Continued use constitutes acceptance.