Tex is an app for leaving things in real places, chatting privately and sending coins with just an @username. It is run by Hal-PA Inc, the company behind HAL. This page says what Tex keeps about you, who can see it, which other companies touch it, and how to delete it. It describes what the app does today, checked against its code.
Last updated: October 1, 2026
Your account
An @username. You don't need a phone number or an email to sign up.
A password, if you set one. We only keep a scrambled version of it (scrypt with a random salt), so nobody at Tex can read it.
A recovery email, only if you add one. It is used to send you a link to reset your password, which expires after 30 minutes, and for nothing else.
Your profile color, your status and your settings.
You stay signed in on your device for 30 days. Your internet address is used to limit repeated sign-in attempts and to block connections that keep failing.
What you create
Photos, moments, drops, masks, stations, comments, likes, reposts, your status, voice notes and messages. We store them so Tex can show them to you and to the people you choose.
Files (photos, voice notes, masks) are stored at long, random web addresses. Anyone who has the exact address of a file can open it, so don't pass those addresses around if you don't want the file seen.
A private photo in Me can be encrypted on your device before it is uploaded. If you later share it or make it visible to friends, a normal copy is uploaded and the encrypted one is deleted.
Location
Tex only reads your location when you use a feature that needs it, and your phone asks for your permission first.
Radar: while it is on, your position is sent every 20 seconds and we keep the latest one until you turn Radar off. Other people never get your coordinates: they see that you are nearby and about how far (to 0.1 km), and only if your position is less than 15 minutes old and within 100 km.
Drops (MATRIX): a drop is saved with the exact place where you left it. In the app, other people only see how far it is and in which direction. If you share a drop's link, its page shows the place on a map to anyone with the link, because that is how they find it.
Stations: saved with their exact place. Other people see how far a station is, not its coordinates.
Place moments: saved with the place you chose. People who can see the moment see the place name; the coordinates are shown only to you. If you send a place moment into a chat, it includes a map link to that spot.
When you pick up a drop, we store how far you were from it, not where you were.
When someone sees your posts, we store their rough area (about 11 km) and show it only to you.
When someone opens your profile, we note their country and city from their internet connection. You see counts by country, never who it was.
Messages
Text and photos in chats are end-to-end encrypted. Each chat has its own key, and the keys stay on your devices, so we can't read them.
We can see who is in a chat, who sent each message and when, what kind of message it is, and whether it was opened.
Not end-to-end encrypted: voice notes and walkie-talkie audio, the note on a coin payment, group names and photos, and chats with someone who doesn't have encryption set up yet.
If you lose your device you lose its key, and old encrypted messages can't be read anymore.
Disappearing messages: by default, a message that was opened and not saved is deleted when the chat is closed, or 12 hours after it was opened (24 hours if the chat uses that setting). A message nobody opened is deleted after 30 days. A view-once message is deleted after it is opened. When a message is deleted, its photo or audio file is deleted with it.
Who sees what
Each photo and moment is Private (only you), Close friends, or Friends. New posts follow the default you pick.
A post visible to friends or close friends can also be opened by anyone you send its link to. A private post never opens from a link.
Drops are public: anyone near one can find it.
Masks you create are public by default, so other people can use them in video calls.
Your @username, profile color and status can be seen by other Tex users.
Other companies involved
We don't sell your data, we don't show ads, and Tex doesn't use analytics or tracking tools. These services handle parts of Tex:
Supabase stores the database and the files. Vercel hosts the app.
Anthropic (Claude) receives what you write when you talk to HAL inside Tex (your message, the last 20 messages of that chat and your @username), when you set a status, and when you ask for moment or music suggestions.
OpenAI receives the description you write when you ask AI to make a mask.
GIPHY receives what you search for when you look for a GIF.
Resend sends the password reset email.
Map tiles come from CARTO and OpenStreetMap, and the map code from unpkg.
Face filters run on your device with a model downloaded from Google through jsDelivr. Your camera image is not sent anywhere for that.
api.qrserver.com draws the QR code of your profile link, so it receives that link.
Calls connect directly between devices when they can. Google's STUN servers help them find each other, and the public Open Relay server relays the call when a direct connection isn't possible; the call itself is encrypted by your browser. Video rooms use Jitsi Meet.
Anthropic and OpenAI say in their API terms that they don't train their models on data sent through their API. That is their commitment, not something we can check.
Storage nodes (optional)
If you turn on storage node, your device keeps encrypted copies of other people's files, which it can't read, up to 2 GB, and your daily coin claim doubles. If you don't turn it on, nothing of anyone else's is kept on your device. When the original is deleted, its copies are marked to be removed from those devices.
Coins
Coins only exist inside Tex. They can't be bought with money and can't be cashed out. Each transfer is recorded for both people, with the other person's @username.
Reports and blocking
Blocking someone hides you from each other and removes the friendship. Reporting someone blocks them by default and sends the report to the Tex team, who review it and can close accounts that break our terms.
How long we keep things
Your account and what you create stay until you delete them or delete your account.
Deleting a photo, drop, mask or message deletes it and its file, unless someone else saved a copy of a photo they found in a drop: that copy is theirs.
Disappearing messages follow the rules above.
Records of failed sign-ins and blocked connections, which include an internet address, are deleted after 90 days.
Notifications stay until you delete your account.
Deleting your account
In Tex: Me → Wallet → Who can reach you → Delete account. Type your @username (and your password, if you set one). We delete your files, posts, drops, masks, stations, coins, the messages you sent and everything else in your account right away. It can't be undone.
What stays: messages other people sent, the chats you were in (they keep working for the others), and the other person's record of coins you exchanged, which shows your old @username. More at tex.fyi/delete-account.
Children
Tex is not meant for children under 13. If you think a child under 13 has an account, write to us and we will delete it.
Changes and contact
If we change this policy, we will update this page and its date. For questions or requests, write to hello@gethal.com.