Questions about Skalara

A communication platform built for people in Iran. You can send messages, share photos, video and voice notes, make voice and video calls, share your screen, and talk in groups. It runs in a browser, in Persian or English.

No. Messaging, calls, groups and screen sharing are free. There is a paid Premium tier for extras, and nothing about the core product is behind it.

Yes. Your phone number identifies the account and is how we send you a sign-in code. It is not how people find you — that is your username, and your number is never shown to anyone else.

Not yet. Skalara runs in your browser today, and that is the full product rather than a preview. Windows, macOS and Linux apps are in build; iPhone and Android are planned after them. Nothing is downloadable from anywhere else, and an installer claiming to be Skalara is not from us.

That is what it was built for. Messaging works on a poor connection. Calls are the harder case, because most Iranian mobile users sit behind carrier-grade NAT which a direct connection cannot cross — so Skalara runs a relay for those calls rather than leaving you with one that connects and carries no sound.

No, and we would rather say so than let the word "encrypted" do work it has not earned. Your messages and files are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before they are stored, so a stolen database or backup yields ciphertext and nothing readable. But the keys are derived from a secret on our servers, which means our servers can decrypt them — that is what makes searching your own history possible, and it means a lawful court order for message content is something we could technically comply with.

Technically yes, as above. In practice no routine process at Skalara puts message content in front of a person. The exceptions are narrow and stated: a message somebody reports, which a moderator reviews, and a lawful order from an authority with jurisdiction.

Its content is destroyed, including the encrypted bytes of any attached file. There is no hidden copy and nothing we can restore for you afterwards.

Yes, from Settings, and it takes effect immediately. Your profile, settings and credentials are removed and your name is detached from what you sent. A minimal record that the account existed stays only where the law requires it — for example so a payment record remains reconcilable.

Four providers, each doing one job: Liara hosts the service, ArvanCloud carries the traffic and protects against attacks, SMS.ir delivers your verification codes, and ZarinPal takes payment if you buy Premium. None of them may use your data for their own purposes, and all four are Iranian.

No. There is no advertising, no profiling, and no third-party analytics or tracker anywhere on the site or in the app.

This is what backup codes are for — generate a set from Settings while you still have access, and keep them somewhere that is not the phone. A passkey on another device or an authenticator app also gets you back in. If SMS is your only method and the number is gone, so is the account, which is exactly why we push the other three.

Because SMS alone is not enough on a mobile network. A code can be intercepted and a SIM can be swapped, and either one hands over an account that only needs a code. The password is the second thing an attacker would also have to have.

A credential that lives on your device — your phone, your laptop, or a hardware key — and proves who you are with a fingerprint, a face or a PIN. The private half never leaves the device and never gets sent, so there is nothing for anyone to intercept or phish. Yes, use one.

No. People add you by username, and your number is never shown or searchable. Account numbers are random rather than sequential, so nobody can find accounts by counting either.

Yes. Settings lists your active sessions with the browser and system each one reported, and you can end all the others at once. It takes effect on open connections within about a minute, not at the next sign-in.

Yes, one to one, with screen sharing. Group calls need different infrastructure and are planned rather than built.

The same as a one-to-one conversation — add people and give the group a name. When someone joins or leaves, the message recording it keeps the names as they were at the time, so the history still reads correctly later.

Yes. Messages from people you have not spoken to arrive under Message Requests rather than your inbox, and you can turn off messages from non-friends entirely in Settings.

Yes — the interface, dates in the Jalali calendar with Persian numerals, and right-to-left layout throughout. The Persian typeface is served from Skalara rather than a third party, because a font from an unreachable host silently falls back to one that draws Persian letters in their Arabic forms.

Yes. Communities are servers with text channels, categories, roles and per-channel permissions, invite links, a member list, moderation and an audit log. Voice channels are the one part still to come — they need a media server, which is separate infrastructure.