A/SIDE – Private photo sharing and encrypted messages
Private social media. Just your friends.
Photos, videos and everyday updates from the people you know. Newest first. Nobody else’s idea of what you should see.
- No ads
- No AI
- No algorithm
Start with someone you know.
Sign up with your email. No invitation needed. Share your personal invite link with a friend, accept the connection, and you’re in each other’s feed.
Help with joining and invites →
Always free.
Pro for more history.
Free covers the product, with 30 days of history. Pro unlocks the full archive for $20/year. Pro Family shares it with up to 6 people for $60/year. No monthly plans, and no ads either way. The free history window limits access; it does not automatically delete older content. Prices are in US dollars; local store prices and availability may vary.
See what's different
Free
$0 forever
Access to the most recent 30 days of feed and message history. Older content is not automatically deleted.
Pro
$20 /year
Unlimited feed and message history. For one person.
Pro Family
$60 /year
Same Pro, shared with up to 6 people in A/SIDE.
Newest first.
Your friends' posts in the order they happened. No 'suggested for you,' no 'you might like.' Just the people you said yes to.
- Reverse chronological
- Mutual follow only
- No suggested posts
- No promoted accounts
End-to-end encrypted DMs.
New direct and group conversations are end-to-end encrypted. Feed posts are shared with the approved connections in your chosen audience and stored by A/SIDE; they are not end-to-end encrypted. Older legacy conversations can contain unencrypted messages. Those messages are not encrypted retroactively.
- Encrypted direct messages
- Encrypted group chats
- Encrypted photos in messages
- Published messaging source
Your people. Your choice.
Make Lists for family, your climbing crew or your book club. Use them to filter your feed, or choose one or more Lists when sharing a post. List names stay private to you.
- Choose who sees each post
- Share with all connections or selected Lists
- Filter your feed with one tap
- List names stay private
Independent hosting
Our own corner of the internet.
A/SIDE’s core servers, database and photo/video storage run on an independent provider, outside AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. We pay for that infrastructure ourselves.
Some supporting services use other providers. Details are in our privacy policy. Privacy policy →
Open source
You can look under the hood.
The app and server code are public. You can see how the feed works, how chats are encrypted, and what happens to your data.
Questions
Common questions.
How do I join?
Download A/SIDE and create your account with your email. You can join without an invite. Share your personal invite link with a friend, or open theirs, to request a connection. Once the request is accepted, you can see each other's posts.
How much does it cost?
Free access includes the most recent 30 days of feed and message history. This is an access limit, not automatic deletion after 30 days. Pro Individual is $20/year for one account; Pro Family is $60/year for the owner plus up to five other accounts. Paid plans provide access to longer history. Prices are in US dollars; local store prices and availability may vary.
How do I add a voice caption?
In A/SIDE 1.6 or later on iPhone or Android, add a photo to your post, then tap Add voice caption. Allow microphone access and record up to one minute. You can listen back or remove the recording before sharing, or save it with your draft. Friends tap to play it; it does not autoplay. The recording follows the post’s audience and history limits.
Which content is end-to-end encrypted?
New direct and group conversations are end-to-end encrypted. Feed posts are shared with the approved connections in your chosen audience and stored by A/SIDE; they are not end-to-end encrypted. Older legacy conversations can contain unencrypted messages. Those messages are not encrypted retroactively.
How do Lists work?
Lists let you filter your feed and choose who sees a post. Share with all your approved connections, or select one or more Lists in the post composer. A List-based audience includes the connected people in those Lists when you publish; later List changes do not change that post’s audience. List names stay private to you.
Do you train AI on my content?
We do not use your content to train AI models or license it for AI training. Optional voice dictation runs on your iPhone. You can use A/SIDE without it.
Can people find me?
There are no public profiles or public user directory. Optional contact matching can show matching members their name and profile photo before a connection is approved. A personal invite link can also identify its owner. Lookup among existing mutual connections is available. A connection request still needs acceptance before feed posts are shared.