Porchlight
How Porchlight works

Private by design

  1. 1Only your group can read itYour group's chat, reflections (memories and prayer requests) and photos are end-to-end encrypted. They're locked on your phone before they're sent, and only the phones and computers of people in your group hold the key to unlock them.
  2. 2Not even PorchlightOur servers only ever store scrambled data. Nobody at Porchlight, and nobody who got hold of our database, can read what your group writes or see its photos.
  3. 3Nothing to set upJoin with your group's invite link and everything unlocks right away: the key travels in the link, in a part that's never sent to any server.
  4. 4Your other devicesSign in on a new phone or computer and it unlocks by itself as soon as one of your other devices, or anyone in the group, opens Porchlight. Usually that takes a moment.
  5. 5When someone joins or leavesSomeone new sees the chat from when they joined; Porchlight doesn't send them anything older. When someone leaves, the group switches to a new key: they can't read anything written after they left.

What's protected, and what isn't

  • Locked: every chat message, every reflection's words, and every photo and video.
  • Not locked: who's in the group, the schedule, RSVPs, menus and jobs (Porchlight needs these to send reminders), and who wrote a message and when, who they @mentioned (so we can tell them), and who reacted. Emergency contacts and medical notes aren't end-to-end encrypted either; only the leaders of your trips and retreats can see them.
  • Photos also lose where they were taken (and the phone's details) before they leave your device. Videos go as they are, so they may still say where they were filmed (only your group can open them).
  • Your keys are kept in the browser on each device. If you clear its data or sign out, that device simply unlocks again the next time.

Getting help from support

  • Porchlight support can help leaders with a group's schedule and people, but can't read the chat or reflections, or see photos.
  • If a leader needs help with them, the leader can choose Need a hand? Ask support in Manage, which shares the key with support. Everyone in the group then sees a note that support has access.
  • A leader can stop sharing any time. Support loses access, and the group switches to a new key support never gets. Reflections marked Just me and the leaders are never shown to support.