chillswitch

Create your account

You do not need an email address or phone number to use Chillswitch. Your account is created from a key your phone generates, and you choose a username and password so you can get back in later.

Step by step

  1. Install Chillswitch from the App Store or Google Play and open it.
  2. Tap "Get started." By continuing you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
  3. Add a name if you like. A first and last name are optional. If you leave them out, your contacts see your username instead.
  4. Take the short tour. The app shows what a circle is, how an alert looks to your contacts, where the distress button is, and where you check in.
  5. Choose a username and password. See below.
  6. Save your recovery code. See below.

Username

  • It does not have to be your real name. Your safety contacts see it in their list and in the alert they get.
  • Use lowercase letters and numbers, with dots or underscores in between.
  • The app checks that the name is available and suggests free alternatives.
  • You can change it for about a month after opening the account. Changing it replaces your recovery code, so the old one stops working. After that month the username is fixed.

Password

  • Choose something that is not one of the first passwords anyone guesses, is not a single repeated character, and does not contain your username.
  • There is no recovery email. Because Chillswitch is built so it cannot open your account, it also cannot email you a new password. Write it down.

Recovery code

Your recovery code is the way back into your account if you lose your phone. It is generated on your phone, shown once, and never sent to Chillswitch, so there is no copy to retrieve later.

  • Write it down or print your recovery kit, a page with a QR code holding your username and recovery code. Scanning it on a new phone fills in both for you.
  • Keep it somewhere safe, like a passport. Anyone holding it, plus your password, can open your account.
  • If you email the kit to yourself, remember anyone who can open that mailbox can reach the account.
  • If the backup cannot be saved at setup, the app tells you and lets you retry. Until a backup exists, a lost phone cannot be recovered by you or by anyone else.

You can set all of this up later from Settings > Username and password. A reminder stays at the top of Settings until you do.

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