Chat experience

Once a conversation is open, Orbit feels like a modern messaging app, with every message kept private from end to end.

  • Typing indicators show when someone on the other end is writing.
  • Read receipts tell you when your message has been seen.
  • Each phone is its own. If someone has an iPhone and an iPad, each one keeps its own private keys. A lost phone doesn't put the others at risk.
  • Delivery when offline. Locked-up messages wait on our server until the other phone comes back online.
  • Signing out wipes the phone clean. Sign in again and you start fresh: no leftover messages, no old keys (unless you've set up message backup, which can bring your history back, encrypted, when you sign in again).

Cross-family chat: external contacts

Children want to chat with friends in other families, and Orbit supports that without ever merging the two families into one. You connect to the other family as an external contact: both Orbits stay their own separate, private space. The grown-ups on each side can message each other directly, and the children can chat only through links a parent on both sides has approved. (This is different from a family member, who joins your own Orbit and becomes part of your family's shared space.) It runs through a deliberate, family-to-family flow:

  • Connect the two families. One parent shares an invite code; a parent in the other family accepts. The connection sits between the two families: every grown-up on both sides can see it, and any adults who join later inherit it automatically.
  • Chat requests, child by child. Even once the families are connected, no child can chat with another child until both sides sign off on that specific pairing. A parent picks one of their children and sends a request; a parent in the other family reviews it and picks which of their children, if any, sits at the other end.
  • Conversation created. Only after both sides approve does Orbit open a conversation between the two children.

Nothing about this flow is one-sided. Every cross-family chat has both families' approval behind it. Any parent in either family can close a specific child-to-child pairing at any time, and the family account owner on either side can end the whole connection, which stops any new chats or requests between the two families from that moment on.

"I don't like this message": your child can ask for help, quietly

Filters catch a lot, but the person who knows a message felt wrong is the child reading it. So every child on Orbit has a way to raise a hand that doesn't cost them anything socially:

  • Press and hold, tap, done. Your child presses and holds a message they've received, taps "I don't like this message", picks a reason (Spam, Harassment, Hate speech, Inappropriate content, or Other), and can add a few words about why. That's the whole flow.
  • The report comes to you. You (and any other parent) get an alert with the message, the reason your child picked, and their note, sealed on your child's phone so it can only be opened on yours. Our servers pass it along without ever being able to read it.
  • The friend never knows. The sender isn't notified, isn't blocked, and sees nothing change in the chat. The other family isn't involved at all. Your child can tell you about an awkward message from a friend without it becoming a thing between the two of them, or the two of you.
  • It always gets through. A report reaches you whatever your filter settings are, even if you've switched Mack's filtering off entirely. A deliberate ask for help is never filtered out.

What happens next is up to your family: a chat over dinner, a tweak to a setting, or, if something serious is going on, the backstops below. The point is that your child's first move can just be telling you.

Chat protection: when something goes wrong

If something does cross a line, Orbit has two backstops beyond what an individual parent can do:

  • Conversation under review. If a chat is reported, our safety team can place that single conversation under review while they investigate. Both sides see the same neutral "Chat under review" label in place of the composer, and neither party is told who reported what or why. Other conversations carry on as normal. Once the review ends, the chat resumes and any messages held in the meantime are delivered.
  • Account suspension. An account that violates our community rules can be suspended for a fixed window or permanently. The account is kept intact, including chat history, family links, and settings, so a mistaken suspension can be lifted with no data loss. Parents can see "Suspended" status on their own children at a glance.

Avatars & themes

Two small things that make the app feel like home:

  • Avatars. Anyone can set a profile photo. Parents can also set one on a child's behalf. Two per-child toggles let you decide whether your child can swap their own photo, and whether they see other people's (initials shown instead). When a child does change their photo, every linked parent gets an alert. No quiet swaps.
  • Themes. Five built-in colour palettes (Default, Ocean, Blossom, Ember, Forest), picked from the Appearance row in Profile. Available to parents and children; the choice is per device.