How to share a secret note that self-destructs

Some things don't belong in a chat history: the WiFi password, a door code, the login you swore you'd only share once. Send them over text or email and they sit there forever — on your device, on theirs, and on whatever servers carried the message along the way.

Secret notes are our answer to that. You write the note, your browser encrypts it before anything leaves your device, and you get a single link to share. The recipient opens the link, reads the note once, and it destroys itself. We never see what you wrote — the decryption key travels inside the link and is never sent to our servers.

Here's the whole flow, start to finish.

1. Write your note

Go to Secret Note (it's in the navigation bar, next to Home). Type whatever you need to share — up to 100,000 characters, so a whole config file fits too.

The secret note form with a note typed in and self-destruct options below — Nothing is sent anywhere while you type. Encryption happens in your browser when you hit the button.

2. Decide when it should self-destruct

Every note destroys itself — you just pick the trigger:

After reading — the classic. The note is destroyed the moment it's first opened. Best for passwords and codes.
After a timer — the note lives for 1, 3, 7, or 30 days and can be read as many times as needed until then. Good when you're not sure exactly when they'll get to it.
On a date — pick an exact date and time for it to disappear. Handy for "this code works until Friday" situations.

There are two optional extras below the timer settings:

Protect with a password — the recipient needs a passphrase on top of the link. Share it through a different channel than the link itself (link over email, passphrase over text, for example). Even someone who intercepts the link gets nothing.
Email me when it is read — a read receipt. You'll get one email the moment the note is opened.

3. Copy your secret link

Hit Create secret link and you'll get the one and only copy of your link:

The created screen showing the secret link with a copy button and a warning that it is shown only once — Copy it now — this screen is shown exactly once, and we can't recover the link afterwards.

That warning is not us being dramatic. The part of the link after the # is the decryption key, and it never reaches our servers — so if you lose the link, nobody can get the note back, including us. That's the point.

Send the link however you like: chat, email, carrier pigeon with a QR code. Speaking of which — Or show a QR code instead renders the link as a QR code, so you can hand someone a secret phone-to-phone without the link ever transiting a network.

What the other person sees

The recipient doesn't need an account or an app. Opening the link shows a gate first, so the note can't be burned by an accidental click or a link-preview bot:

The gate screen asking the recipient to confirm before the note is shown and destroyed — Nothing is revealed — or destroyed — until they press the button.

Once they confirm, the note decrypts right there in their browser:

The revealed note with a copy button and a banner explaining it has been destroyed — For a burn-after-reading note, this is the one and only viewing.

And then it's gone

Anyone who opens the link afterwards — including the recipient hitting refresh — gets this:

The destroyed screen showing the note is gone, when it was opened, and when it was destroyed — The tombstone tells you if the note was opened, and when it was destroyed.

Those little chips are useful: if you shared a burn-after-reading note and the tombstone says Opened once, you know your recipient got it. If it says the note expired without ever being read, you know they didn't.

Good to know

Zero knowledge, for real. Encryption and decryption happen entirely in the browser. Our servers only ever store ciphertext they cannot read.
Sent it to the wrong person? Use Destroy this note on the created screen before they open it, and it's gone.
Nothing lingers. Notes that are never opened are deleted automatically after 30 days, timer or not.
It's not your savr. Secret notes are separate from the text and files you sync on the home page — they're for one-off secrets, not everyday syncing.

That's it. Next time someone asks you to "just text me the password" — don't. Send them a link that forgets.