Support
Listen, Read, Connect. A way is here.
What A Way is
A Way is a peer connection network for people.
If you are looking for a way
If you have just stopped
It may be here.
A Way, more than just stopping.
We count no days or steps. It has no accounts and no server that knows you. You connect with people you have met, in person or with a code. You whisper to the people you've connected with, and listen to what they whisper back. On Read you see what they post and shout.
When you whisper, your phone seals the message so only your connection's phone can open it, then leaves it in an anonymous drop box on the relay, which we run. Your connection's phone collects it within a week, and the relay deletes it. The relay cannot open an envelope and never sees a name or a number; the privacy page says exactly what it can see.
How to connect
Open You, then Connect. Both of you need the Connect screen open.
- Together. Hold your phones together and keep them close until you see Connected. The app uses your phone's short-range radio, only while this screen is open, and never your location. On an iPhone, if holding the phones together does nothing, tap Try tapping instead.
- With a code, in person. One of you taps Show a code. The other taps Scan a code and points the camera at it. It works once.
- With a code, apart. One of you taps Get a code and tells the other the four digits, by voice or message. The other taps Enter a code. The code works once and for a short while; after that, get a new one.
After a code connection both phones show the same two words. If they differ, tap Remove and start again.
If something isn't working
- Connecting doesn't finish. Check that both of you have the Connect screen open and that your phone allows A Way to use Bluetooth. Move the phones closer. Trying again does no harm.
- "Can't reach servers". Your phone could not reach the relay on its last try. What you wrote is not lost: it waits on your phone and goes when the connection is back. A whisper that cannot be delivered within a week is dropped.
- You were away for more than a week. The relay keeps a whisper for a week, so anything whispered to you during a longer gap is gone. The app says so once.
- A new phone, or the app reinstalled. Your identity is the backup phrase under You › Backup. With those words, you are the same person to your connections. Without them, a new install is a new identity, and every connection has to be made again. We cannot restore anything, because we hold nothing.
- Someone is a problem. On any whisper, whisper back or Read item from them, the same three choices. Quiet sets everything from that connection aside until tomorrow, at the bottom of Listen and of Read, and tapping Quiet again brings it back. Silence ends the connection; they see only that it ended. Report does the same and keeps a private note on your phone. Nothing is sent to anyone for any of the three.
If you're in crisis
A Way is not a crisis service. No one reads what you write, and no one is watching the app for people in trouble. If you are in danger, or thinking about harming yourself, reach a crisis line now.
- In the United States: call or text 988, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, any time. 988lifeline.org
- Elsewhere: findahelpline.com lists crisis lines by country.
In the app, help is one tap away at the top of Read. You › Crisis line region sets which line the app shows.
Contact
Write to lookingfor@a-way.us for help with the app. It is technical support only: no one there can read a message, reach a connection, or help in a crisis. For a crisis, see above.
That is the only way to reach us, on purpose. There is no form, no chat and no account, and nothing on this site collects anything. Email shows us your address and what you put in the message, so use an address you're comfortable with and say only what you need. We keep no list of who wrote.
What we can't do: see, restore or delete your connections, whispers or posts. They exist only on your phone and on your connections' phones.