Privacy guide
Protect your history
Give your stored conversations their own lock. Choose whether the phone's unlock, your current biometrics, an Auris passphrase, or both can release the history key.
Choose what unlocks your history
| Mode | What releases the history key | Phone passcode alone? | If you lose the factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Device unlock | The phone being unlocked | Yes | Depends on access to the device |
| Face ID only | Current Face ID enrolment, no passcode fallback | No | Re-enrolling Face ID makes history unreadable |
| Auris passphrase | A passphrase known only to you | No | A forgotten passphrase makes history unrecoverable |
| Face ID + passphrase | Both | No | Either factor missing makes history unrecoverable |
Select history protection separately in Settings. The privacy preset's app screen lock is a different control.
Before choosing a protected mode
Keep access to every factor you choose. A forgotten Auris passphrase, or changed biometric enrollment in a biometric-bound mode, can make history unrecoverable. Auris has no recovery copy of that key. Erase inaccessible history deletes the inaccessible history after confirmation; it does not recover it.
Choose a memorable, strong passphrase. Spelling and capitalization matter. Knowing the phone passcode alone does not release the history key in the three protected modes.
What goes behind the history key
- Protected history
- Messages, replies, edits, reactions, receipts, attachment keys and content, contact notes, and who appears in the call log.
- Available for background operation
- Identity and session keys, contact names and settings, call times and durations, and push routing. These use a separate device-bound operational key.
This separation supports receiving and ringing while history is locked. It protects stored history under the selected factors; a device under ongoing attacker control has a broader exposure.
When history locks
Auris clears its loaded transcripts, drafts, decoded photos and temporary media on the relevant lock paths. New messages on the locked-vault admission path wait as ciphertext until you unlock. They can still expire under the sender/receiver delivery rules.
Open the vault when prompted to read protected history again. Cache clearing and local deletion are not promises about every operating-system memory copy or storage snapshot.
How the key is protected
In passphrase modes, Argon2id derives a wrapping key to protect a random history key. Changing modes re-wraps that key. Biometric modes additionally bind key access to the current enrollment.
Released beta · Reviewed · Review scope and versions