Frequently asked questions.

Nuvira is a privacy-first messaging app for iPhone, built by Skysmind on two in-house frameworks — SkyCipher™ for encryption and the Nuvira Identity Framework for trust and app integrity.

Yes. Nuvira is free on the App Store. Nuvira Pro is an optional in-app purchase for cosmetic extras — it doesn't gate core messaging, encryption, or safety features.

Custom avatars using your own image, alternate app icon styles, and deeper chat customization — text, buttons, and accent colors.

Just an email address and password, or Sign in with Apple. Nuvira doesn't require a phone number to create an account.

Nuvira is iPhone-only and requires iOS 26 or later.

Not currently — Nuvira is iPhone-only for now.

SkyCipher is the encryption framework Skysmind built in-house for Nuvira. It protects direct messages, group chats, and biometric-locked conversations — not a rented third-party library.

A separate in-house framework focused on trust and app integrity. It verifies the app you're running is genuinely Nuvira, and helps make it harder for bad actors to hide behind fake or disposable identities.

You can lock individual conversations behind Face ID or Touch ID. Once unlocked, a chat stays open for about a minute before it needs to be unlocked again — enough to keep moving without constantly re-authenticating.

Key rotation (Settings → Danger Zone) generates a brand-new encryption identity for your account. Every existing message, on both sides, becomes unreadable — it was encrypted with your old key. New messages after rotation work normally. There's a 24-hour cooldown between rotations to prevent abuse. Only rotate if you understand the tradeoff — usually because you believe a key was exposed or you want a clean cryptographic slate.

Every conversation has a cryptographic fingerprint (Nuvira calls it a CIVK) derived from both people's keys. Compare it with the other person over a separate channel — a call, video chat, or in person. If it matches exactly, your conversation hasn't been intercepted or impersonated. If it doesn't match, stop and don't share anything sensitive in that chat.

Yes — a small in-chat banner lets you know when a screenshot was taken.

Only if you choose to. You can optionally save someone to your device's Contacts app, mainly so their messages can break through Focus and Do Not Disturb. That information — name, photo, and a private link back to their Nuvira account — stays on your device. Nuvira doesn't upload your Contacts data anywhere.

Yes, Nuvira shows real-time online and last-seen status to the people you're messaging.

As little as possible. Nuvira is built to need less about you, not more — no ad trackers, no behavioral profiling, and your data or attention is never sold to anyone.

No. Nuvira isn't funded by advertising or by selling access to your data.

An on-device feature that screens images for sensitive content and blurs or blocks anything flagged. It runs entirely on your device — images aren't sent anywhere to be analyzed.

Yes. Using Apple's Declared Age Range API, Nuvira can detect when an account likely belongs to someone under a set age threshold. For those accounts, Sensitive Content Guard is forced on in its strictest (block) mode, with no way to turn it off.

Yes — an in-app "Staying Safe" guide covers real warning signs (being asked to keep secrets, fast emotional attachment, isolation from friends or family, pressure or guilt tactics, being moved off-platform quickly), plus links to RAINN for understanding grooming and consent, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline to report a concern.

You can report directly through NCMEC's CyberTipline, linked from Nuvira's in-app Safety guide — the official U.S. mechanism for reporting suspected child exploitation. For anything else that feels wrong, RAINN's resources, also linked in-app, are a good place to start.

Yes, and group conversations get the same end-to-end encryption as one-on-one chats.

Custom chat backgrounds are available to everyone. Nuvira Pro unlocks deeper customization — chat text, buttons, and accent colors.

You can identify and share songs from directly inside a conversation, without ever leaving the app.

Alternate app icon styles are available with Nuvira Pro.

Skysmind, an independent software studio based in Minnesota. Nuvira is Skysmind's first release, and every feature is held to the same standard: protect by default, design against harm, and build for the people with the least power in the room.

Visit skysmindtech.com.