Questions and answers

An app for staying close to people you have actually met. A connection is only born when you meet in person, and is then kept up through updates, messages, moments, and plans to meet again.

The way two people connect on Patepang when they meet in person. One phone shows a code, the other phone scans it, then you shake both phones together for two seconds. The next time you meet, just scan the code again.

First tempel guide

Patepang only connects people who have met in person. Connections are born from a tempel, not from a search, so Patepang is not a place to look for new people.

Now. Patepang is in the App Store and Google Play, for ages 18 and over. Your first connection is born when you do a tempel with the next person you meet.

Patepang's first launch is in Indonesia, for iPhone and Android. The app is in Indonesian; English is not yet available in the app. Patepang's websites are in Indonesian and English. For the legal documents, the Indonesian version is the one that applies.

18. When you create an account, you tick I am 18 or older. Your actual age is not asked and not kept. The server never receives anyone's date of birth or age; birthdays in the app are optional, day and month only.

Who may use Patepang

No. Your account is made on your phone, without an email address or phone number, and is born at your first tempel. If there is no tempel within 30 days, the account is deleted. For those who do not know anyone on Patepang yet, there are birthplaces: open meetings where people do their first tempel. Their schedule is in the app, under Birthplaces.

From the keys on your phone, not from a name, a number or an email address. Patepang never asks for an account id, a PIN or a code by email or phone, and does not act on an account because of an email or a phone call.

Your PIN is not stored anywhere, not even on your phone, and is never sent, so no one can send it back to you. Five wrong tries cause a 30-second pause, then a longer one each time you get it wrong again, up to one hour. Nothing is deleted.

If you have really forgotten it, and your account has two guardians who have accepted and Dead lock is not on: delete Patepang from your phone, install it again, then choose Recover account on the Welcome screen. Your two guardians do a tempel with that phone, and your account moves to it 48 hours later at the earliest; an active backup comes back with it. Without that, the old account cannot be opened again.

Backup and recovery guide

An account that has been inactive for 12 months is deleted. If you allow notifications, Patepang reminds you by notification in the 11th month.

Guardians are three people who have done a tempel with you and whom you choose to look after your account; each person you choose can accept or decline. Two of them are enough to recover your account through a tempel on a new phone. Recovery has a 48-hour waiting period, during which it can be cancelled from your old phone.

Two of your guardians acting together, with a modified app, can open your account backup without a recovery and without you knowing. Choose guardians you really trust.

Guardians guide

Recover your account on a new phone through two of your guardians: on the new phone, open Patepang and choose Recover account, then your two guardians do a tempel with that phone. Your account moves 48 hours later at the earliest, and the old phone is signed out. People who have done a tempel with you are told that your account is being recovered. Recovery needs at least two guardians who have accepted, and Dead lock turned off.

If your backup is on, the people you have met, your conversations, updates and moments come back with it. Photos and groups are not part of the backup.

Without guardians, your account cannot be recovered: we do not know who you are and do not hold your keys. The account is deleted on its own after 12 months of inactivity, or earlier with a deletion code you saved.

Move your account through recovery, as when a phone is lost: on the new phone, choose Recover account, then your two guardians do a tempel with that phone. During the 48-hour waiting period, the old phone sees the recovery when Patepang is opened on it, and can cancel it. Once your account has moved, the old phone is signed out. Without two guardians who have accepted, your account cannot be moved to a new phone.

Photos and groups are not part of the backup. To keep a copy of your conversations and photos, make an export file before you move: it can be read with its six words, but it is not merged into your account. Linking a new phone to the same account without a recovery is not yet available.

See the backup and recovery guide and the export guide.

A connection fades a year after your last meeting, and Patepang marks it from the 11th month. Once it has faded, your updates no longer reach each other, but the conversation stays. Meeting and doing a tempel again refreshes it.

Yes. A group holds at most 50 people. A group's admins add members from the people they have done a tempel with, so a group can include people you have never met; in the member list, the app marks them Never met.

A group's name, photo and messages are end-to-end encrypted. But the server keeps who the group's members are, their roles (admin or member), who added whom, and the date they joined.

Not yet. Voice and video calls are not yet available in the Patepang app for phones.

The Patepang server cannot read them. Messages, updates, photos and files are locked on the phone before they are sent. Their content can only be read by others if the recipient reports it (moderators read the reported copy) or saves it as evidence. The server still knows some things, for example which account has done a tempel with which account, and when.

What the server knows

The server never receives a name, email address, phone number, password, date of birth or photo in a form it can read. But it still keeps some data about your account: public keys, which account has done a tempel with which account and when, group memberships, your guardians, subscription status, the media space you use, and the date you were last active.

The server does not keep IP addresses, sign-in logs or app usage history. Cloudflare, the network in front of the server, sees every request except the encrypted content, including IP addresses, account ids and message recipients.

The details are in the Privacy policy, and the limits of Patepang's protection on the Security page.

No. The app contains no ads or analytics tools, and we do not sell data or share it for advertising or marketing.

All features are free. A subscription, Rp49.000 per month or Rp499.000 per year, only adds media space on the server and file size, with a 14-day free trial for new subscribers. Payment goes through the App Store or Google Play.

Subscription details

Stop the subscription in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings, on a phone that uses the same store account. The subscription stays in effect until the end of the period already paid for, then ends. Refunds are also requested from the store, under its own policy.

Subscription guide

In the app, open Settings, choose Delete account, then press Delete account and confirm with Schedule deletion. Your account is deleted after a 7-day grace period; until then you can cancel it with Cancel deletion.

Deleting your account does not stop a subscription in the store. Stop the subscription first, then delete your account.

Deleting your account and data

Yes, if you saved a deletion code. You make the code in the app beforehand (Settings, Delete account, Deletion code) and keep it as a file. Choose that file on the Delete a Patepang account without the app page. Your account is deleted 7 days later, unless the deletion is cancelled from a phone or computer that still holds your account.

Without a code, first recover your account onto a new phone through two of your guardians and delete it there, or wait for the account to be deleted on its own after 12 months without use. Patepang does not act on an account because of an email or a phone call.