Starting a new messaging app usually means handing over your contact list, agreeing to a wall of permissions, and hoping for the best. Zerolog asks for almost none of that. Getting started is quick, and the whole point is that very little of you gets left behind in the process.
Here is a calm, friendly walk through your first few minutes — from install to your first whisper, a game, and a safety net.
Step one: install the app
Zerolog is free and runs on iOS 13 and later and Android 6 and later.
- Head to the download page and grab it from your device's app store.
- Open it once it finishes installing.
- The app is available in Turkish and English and will follow your device language.
That is genuinely all there is to the install. No account to buy, no trial to track.
Step two: set up your identity
When you first open Zerolog, you will verify your phone number. This is worth being clear about, because privacy people rightly ask: your phone number is used only for verification, and it is not stored. It confirms you are a real person setting up a real account, and then its job is done.
From there you shape how others see you:
- Choose a username. This is your unique handle, the name people can find and pair with.
- Set a display name. This is the friendly name shown on your card, and it can be a normal real-name style label.
- That is your identity. No profile mining, no importing your address book, no advertising ID attached to you anywhere.
Take a moment to make it recognizable to the people you actually want to reach. A clear username makes pairing smoother.
Step three: pair with your first contact
Zerolog will not let just anyone message you, and that is by design. Every connection is approval-based, which is the app's core anti-harassment idea: nobody reaches you until you both agree.
To pair with your first contact:
- Have your friend install Zerolog too and set up their username.
- Send a pairing request to their username, or accept the one they send you.
- Both sides confirm. Once you each approve, you are paired and can talk freely.
- If someone you would rather not hear from ever gets through, block and report are always within reach.
Because pairing is mutual, your first contact is someone who genuinely wanted to connect with you too. There is a quiet reassurance in that.
Step four: send your first whisper
Now the good part. Open your new conversation and send a message.
Here is what makes it a Zerolog message rather than an ordinary one:
- Your messages are end-to-end encrypted. The keys stay on your device, and Zerolog's servers never see what you write.
- Messages are ephemeral. You can set a time-to-live so a whisper fades after it has served its purpose, rather than piling up forever.
- If your friend is nearby, the message can travel directly over Bluetooth Low Energy and the local network — no internet needed at all. If they are far away, it goes end-to-end encrypted over the internet instead. Either way, it just works. You can read how this dual path works on our how it works page.
Send a simple hello and watch it arrive. That first whisper is the whole idea of the app in miniature: private, direct, and light.
Step five: try an offline game
Zerolog is not all business. Paired devices can play any of 13 local multiplayer mini-games, entirely offline, directly between the two phones.
- Open the games area with a paired friend nearby.
- Pick a game and play head-to-head over the same direct connection your messages use.
- No internet, no accounts, no ads — just two people and a quick round to pass the time.
It is a small delight, and a nice way to prove to yourself that the offline connection really is doing the work. Browse the full lineup on the games page.
Step six: set up panic wipe
Before you settle in, take a moment for the safety net. Panic wipe lets you erase everything on the app instantly — every conversation, gone in a moment.
- Find panic wipe in your settings and make sure you know how to trigger it.
- Understand that it is immediate and thorough; it is meant for the moment you truly need everything gone.
- Pair this with the app's ephemeral nature and you have two layers of forgetting: messages that fade on their own, and a single action that clears the rest.
Knowing this is there tends to make everything else feel calmer. You are never more than one step from a clean slate.
You are ready
That is the whole setup: install, verify, pair, whisper, play, and prepare your wipe. A few minutes of calm steps, and you have a messenger that gathers almost nothing about you and holds onto almost nothing you say.
Welcome to a quieter way to talk. If you have not installed it yet, start at the download page — your first whisper is only a few taps away.