A disappearing chat link: one link, one conversation, zero trace

What "disappearing" is supposed to mean

Most apps that call themselves "disappearing" work the same way underneath: your message is written to a server, held there, and then deleted later — after a timer runs out, after it's read, or after some retention window passes. For that stretch of time, however short, the message exists somewhere you don't control. A bug, a subpoena, a backup snapshot taken at the wrong moment, and "deleted" turns out to have meant "deleted eventually."

A disappearing chat link works from a different premise: the message is never written to a server at all. FadeChats messages travel directly between the two browsers in the conversation over an encrypted WebRTC data channel. The server that hands out the link never sees the content — it only helps the two browsers find each other, the way a switchboard connects a call without listening in. There's nothing to delete later because nothing was ever stored to begin with.

That distinction is the whole point of the link itself. Clicking it doesn't retrieve a message from a database — it opens a room and lets a live, direct connection form. What happens inside stays between the two browsers, and when the room ends, there's no record anywhere to have leaked, subpoenaed, or restored from a backup.

A link becomes a room becomes nothing

1. A link becomes a room

   The invite link doesn't point to a stored message — it points to a room that's already live. Opening it connects you directly into a session that was waiting for exactly one guest.

2. A room becomes a conversation

   Once both sides are in, a peer-to-peer channel opens between the two browsers. Messages and images travel that direct path — never through a server, never written to a disk anywhere.

3. The room becomes nothing

   Close the tab, or simply stop talking, and the room winds itself down. There's no archive to purge and no setting to double-check — the disappearing part isn't an action you take, it's just what happens by default.

What makes the link actually disappearing

• One-time invite link

  Each invite redeems exactly once. Once the second person joins, the link is spent — nobody else can use it to slip into the same room later.

• Peer-to-peer transport

  Text, images, GIFs, and stickers all move over a direct encrypted WebRTC data channel between the two browsers, bypassing any server storage entirely.

• Auto-expiring room

  A room closes itself after a stretch of inactivity, and any real activity — a message sent, a message received — extends that window. Nobody has to remember to end it.

• View-once images

  Photos are compressed in your own browser and sent the same peer-to-peer way as text. They're never uploaded anywhere for storage.

• Anti-copy UI

  Copy, cut, right-click, and text selection are disabled inside the chat feed, which cuts down on casual copy-paste — a light layer on top of the fact that there's no message history to copy from in the first place.