Getting Started

Most apps begin by asking for an email, a password, and a small fraction of your soul. Vauchi begins by asking for a name — the one you'd actually like people to call you. That's nearly the whole setup. The rest of this page is mostly reassurance.

Create your identity

When you first open Vauchi:

  1. Enter your display name — how contacts will see you. It needn't be your legal name; it needs to be the name you'd recognise being waved at across a room.
  2. Tap "Create Identity" — Vauchi generates your cryptographic identity on the spot.

Behind that single tap, your device mints:

  • A unique public ID — a fingerprint for you, not a username someone else could have grabbed first
  • The cryptographic keys that keep your exchanges private
  • Your display name

Important

There is no account, no server, no "forgot password" email. Your identity lives only on your device. Your device is your account. That is the point — and the responsibility. Which is why the very next thing you should do is make a backup.

The home screen, briefly

After setup you'll see three things worth knowing by name:

  • Your Card — the details you've chosen to share
  • Fields — the individual pieces (an email, a phone number, a birthday)
  • Navigation — Contacts, Exchange, and Settings

That's the entire map. You won't get lost.

Add your details

A field is one fact about you that you're willing to hand out. You add them one at a time, and — this is the unusual part — you get to decide later who each one is for.

  1. Tap the + button on the home screen
  2. Choose a field type:
    • Email
    • Phone
    • Website
    • Address
    • Birthday
    • Social — profiles on other networks
    • Custom — anything else
  3. Add a label (e.g. "Work", "Personal") — this is how you'll aim it at the right people
  4. Enter the value (e.g. john@example.com)
  5. Tap Add

You don't have to add everything now. A card with one good number beats a card with twelve fields you'll never maintain.

Your first exchange

Here's the short version. You'll do it for real in under a minute:

  1. Meet someone — the genuinely in-person kind
  2. Open the Exchange tab
  3. Show them your QR code
  4. Scan theirs
  5. Done. You're connected, encrypted, and you'll both stay current.

That QR handshake is the simplest of several ways to exchange; the others (a tap, a bump, a shared link) live in the Exchange Contacts guide. Start with QR — it works everywhere.

What to do next

You're set up. Three small habits make Vauchi genuinely useful rather than merely installed:

  • Make a backup now — five minutes today saves a very bad afternoon later
  • Decide who sees what — keep your home address for friends, not for the person you met at a trade show
  • Add a second device — a phone and a tablet means losing one is an inconvenience, not a catastrophe

A few honest tips

On security. Make the backup. Use a passphrase you could tell a friend over the phone but a stranger would never guess — four unrelated words beats P@ssw0rd! every time. For the contacts that truly matter, take ten seconds to verify them in person; it's the one check no attacker can fake.

On privacy. Each time you add a field, glance at who can see it. The default is sensible, but your sense of "private" is the only one that counts. Every so often, look at your card the way a new contact would.

On staying tidy. Label things like you'll need to find them in a hurry ("Work Email", "Personal Cell"), and fix wrong details the moment you notice — because now, when you fix yours, you fix everyone's.

Need help?