Friends
Privacy Policy
- Friends is for adults aged 18 and over.
- Voice chat is live. We do not record or store your voice.
- Location is used only when you turn on Discover. Other people see a rough distance, never your exact location.
- If you sync contacts, we upload hashed phone numbers only. We never upload names, photos or addresses, and you can delete them at any time.
- We do not sell your personal data.
- You can ask us to delete your account and data at any time.
1. Who we are
Friends ("Friends", "we", "us") is a social gaming app. You can play multiplayer games with live voice chat, hang out in voice rooms, throw private parties, and discover people nearby. The app is operated by Antriksh Kumar Chaudhary, India. We are the data fiduciary for the personal data described here, under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 ("DPDP Act").
This policy covers the Friends apps for Android and iOS, our website, and invite links that open the app.
2. Information we collect
Information you give us
| Data | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Name, email address and profile picture from your Google account | When you sign in with Google | To create and secure your account |
| Phone number | During onboarding | To identify your account and to match you with contacts who already use Friends |
| Display name and "About me" | When you set up or edit your profile | To show you to other players |
| Confirmation that you are 18 or older | Before sign-in | To enforce our age requirement |
| Chat messages, taunts and room titles | When you send them | To deliver them to other users |
| Reports and blocks | When you report or block someone | To keep the community safe |
| Support messages | When you contact us | To help you |
Information collected with your permission
| Permission | What we collect | How it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone | Your live voice, while you are in a game, party or voice room with your mic on | Your voice is streamed in real time to the other people in that session through our voice provider. We do not record or store voice audio. |
| Approximate location | A coarse location area (a geohash), computed on your device, only while Discover visibility is on | To show you people nearby and to show you to them. Other users see an approximate distance band, never your exact location. On Android we ask only for approximate location. On iOS we ask only while the app is in use. |
| Contacts | Phone numbers from your address book, converted to a one-way hash (SHA-256) on your device before upload | To find contacts who already use Friends. We never upload names, photos, emails or addresses. You can disconnect contacts in the Me tab, which deletes the uploaded hashes from our servers. |
| Notifications | A push notification token | To tell you about game invites, party invites and messages |
| Bluetooth | Nothing is collected | Used only so that voice chat works with wireless headsets |
You can turn any of these permissions off in your device settings. The related feature will stop working, but the rest of the app will keep working.
Information collected automatically
- Gameplay and social activity. This covers games played, results, head-to-head records, the people you have played with, squad membership and streaks, gifts sent and received, and your coin and diamond balances and transaction history.
- Device and usage data. This covers device model, operating system, app version, language, IP address, session start and end times, and crash and error logs.
- Advertising identifiers. These are your device's advertising ID (Android) or IDFA (iOS, only if you allow tracking), used by our ad partner. See Advertising.
3. How we use your information
- To run the app. This covers matchmaking, games, voice chat, voice rooms, private parties, Discover, chat, squads and offline progress sync.
- To create your account, keep it secure, and keep you signed in.
- To process purchases, verify receipts with Google Play or the App Store, and keep your wallet balance accurate.
- To send push notifications you have allowed.
- To show ads and to give you rewards for watching optional rewarded ads.
- To keep Friends safe. This covers reviewing reports, enforcing our community guidelines, filtering offensive words and contact details in names and chat, and preventing fraud and cheating.
- To understand how the app is used, fix bugs, and improve features.
- To comply with the law and respond to lawful requests.
We process your data based on your consent (which you can withdraw at any time) and for the legitimate uses allowed under the DPDP Act, such as complying with the law.
4. What other users can see
- Your display name, profile picture, "About me", online status, and game results with them.
- Your approximate distance, if you have turned on Discover visibility.
- Your voice, when your mic is on in a shared session.
- Messages, taunts and gifts you send them.
- Contacts who use Friends may see that you are also on Friends, if either of you has synced contacts.
Other users never see your email address, phone number or exact location. Be careful about what personal information you share in voice or chat, because other users can see or hear it.
5. Who we share it with
We do not sell your personal data. We share data only with service providers that help us run Friends. They process it on our behalf and under their own privacy terms:
| Provider | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Google (Sign-In, Firebase Cloud Messaging) | Sign-in and push notifications |
| Google AdMob | Showing ads and verifying rewarded ads |
| Google Play and Apple App Store | Processing and verifying in-app purchases |
| LiveKit | Real-time voice chat delivery. Audio is not recorded. |
| Cloudflare | Delivering game downloads, sounds and images |
We may also disclose information if the law requires it. This includes lawful requests from government authorities, protecting the safety of users or the public, and a merger, acquisition or sale of assets. If a sale happens, we will notify you before your data falls under a different privacy policy.
6. Advertising
Friends is free and supported by ads from Google AdMob. This includes banner ads, a limited number of full-screen ads, and optional rewarded videos that give you coins or other rewards. AdMob may use your device's advertising ID to show and measure ads.
- Android: you can reset or delete your advertising ID, or opt out of ad personalization, in Settings › Google › Ads (or Settings › Privacy › Ads).
- iOS: we ask your permission before tracking. If you decline, you will see non-personalized ads. You can change this at any time in Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking.
Learn more about how Google uses data at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
7. Purchases
Coins and diamonds can be bought through Google Play or the App Store. Payments are handled entirely by Google or Apple, and we never see your card, UPI or bank details. We receive a purchase receipt, which we use to verify the purchase and credit your account.
Coins and diamonds are virtual items with no cash value. They cannot be withdrawn, transferred for money, or exchanged for real-world goods.
8. How long we keep it
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Voice audio | Not stored. It is streamed live only. |
| Discover location area | Only while you are visible in Discover. It is removed when you turn visibility off or go offline. |
| Undelivered messages and invites | Up to 7 days, then deleted |
| Contact hashes | Until you disconnect contacts or delete your account |
| Account, profile, game history and wallet | While your account is active |
| Purchase records | As long as tax and accounting laws require |
| Reports and safety records | As long as needed to protect users and meet legal obligations |
| Server logs | [e.g. 90 days] |
9. Your choices and rights
Under the DPDP Act and other laws that may apply, you have the right to:
- Access a summary of the personal data we hold about you and how we process it.
- Correct or update your data. You can edit your display name and profile in the app.
- Erase your data. See Deleting your account.
- Withdraw consent at any time. You can turn off location, contacts or microphone access, hide yourself from Discover, or disconnect contacts. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that happened before.
- Nominate another person to exercise your rights if you die or become incapacitated.
- Raise a grievance with us. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India.
To use any of these rights, write to akchaudhary6532@gmail.com. We will respond within 30 days.
10. Deleting your account
You can ask us to delete your account and all associated personal data:
- In the app: [Me › Settings › Delete account]
- On the web, without the app: samachaar.guru/delete-account
- By email: akchaudhary6532@gmail.com, from the email address linked to your Google sign-in
When you delete your account, we delete or anonymize your profile, phone number, contact hashes, messages, friendships, squads and wallet within [30] days. Unused coins, diamonds and purchased items are forfeited and cannot be refunded. We may keep limited records where the law requires it (for example, purchase records for tax purposes) or for safety (for example, records of accounts banned for abuse).
11. Security
We protect your data with encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS), access controls on our servers, server-side verification of purchases and rewards, and by hashing contact phone numbers before they leave your device. No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach affects you, we will notify you and the Data Protection Board of India as the law requires.
12. Age requirement
Friends is only for people aged 18 and over. We ask you to confirm your age before you can sign in, and anyone who says they are under 18 cannot use the app. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child is using Friends, report the profile in the app (choose "Child safety") or email us. We will remove the account and its data.
13. Where your data is stored
Our servers are located in India and Europe. Some of our service providers (such as Google, Apple, LiveKit and Cloudflare) may process data in other countries. When they do, we rely on their contractual safeguards, and we transfer data only as Indian law allows.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the effective date above. If the changes are significant, we will tell you in the app before they take effect.
15. Contact and grievances
For questions, requests or complaints about your privacy, please contact our Grievance Officer:
Antriksh Kumar Chaudhary
Email: akchaudhary6532@gmail.com
We aim to acknowledge complaints within 48 hours and resolve them within 30 days.