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Socketchat sends any file to a room, and only the people in that room can open it. Your app locks each file with a new key made for that file alone, uploads it to the server in small locked pieces, and tells the room the key inside an encrypted message. The server holds only the locked pieces.

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Send a file

/send takes a path to a file, photo or video and sends it to the open room.

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Save a file

/save uses the name shown in the chat. Files go to your Downloads folder unless you name another folder. The status line says whose file you saved and where it went, such as “Saved Ana’s beach.jpg to ~/Downloads/beach.jpg”. When two files share a name, /save saves nothing and lists the newest few instead, each with a number, the person who sent it and when. Add the number after a colon to pick one:
Put a name with spaces in quotes. Saving never replaces a file you already have: if beach.jpg exists, the new one becomes beach (1).jpg. On macOS and Linux, a saved file can be read only by your account. A saved name never starts with a dot and never uses a name Windows keeps for a device, such as CON.

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What gets cleaned

Phone photos usually hold hidden details, called EXIF data: the place the photo was taken and the phone that took it. Before a photo leaves, Socketchat writes a new copy that keeps only what a viewer needs to draw the picture, without changing its pixels. When Socketchat asks, it names the file and what it may hold:
beach.mp4 may still hold the place it was filmed and the phone that made it. Socketchat removes this from photos but cannot remove it from videos. Send it anyway?
Press Y to send it or N to cancel. iPhones often save photos as HEIC; to send a cleaned copy, export it as JPEG first.

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Good to know

  • Receivers keep what you send. Once a file arrives, people in the room can save it, copy it or forward it. Send only what you are happy for everyone in the room to keep.
  • No take-backs. Once a file is sent, you cannot unsend it.
  • Size limit. Each server sets a largest file size, 100 MB by default. The server refuses a file that is too big before any of it is uploaded.
  • Files expire. The server deletes a file once everyone in the room has saved it, or after its retention period, 30 days by default. After that the sender has to send it again.