Private social media. Just your friends.

A/SIDE is a private photo, video, and text sharing app for iPhone and Android. Its feed shows posts from approved connections in chronological order. There are no ads, no public profiles or public user directory, and no AI training on your content.

Signal works well for private conversations and also offers encrypted Stories that expire after 24 hours. A/SIDE is built around a chronological feed you can return to, with comments on each post and Lists for choosing who sees a post or filtering what you read. Free accounts can access 30 days of feed and message history; Pro gives access to longer history. A/SIDE’s feed is not end-to-end encrypted; new direct and group conversations are. If Signal already works for your circle, you may not need another app. Signal’s guide to Stories.

Telegram combines messaging, groups and broadcast channels. Its regular private and group chats are Cloud Chats, which are not end-to-end encrypted; one-to-one Secret Chats are. A/SIDE centers on a chronological feed of posts from approved connections, with comments and Lists to choose an audience or filter the feed. New direct and group conversations on A/SIDE are end-to-end encrypted. Feed posts are not. Telegram’s FAQ.

Retro organizes photos into a weekly journal and offers shared albums, recaps and group messaging. A/SIDE puts individual photo, video and text posts into a newest-first feed, with Lists to choose an audience or filter what you read. A/SIDE also publishes its server and app source code, independently hosts its core servers, and offers end-to-end encryption for new direct and group conversations. Its feed posts are not end-to-end encrypted. Retro’s app description.

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.

Find your personal link in Settings → Invite Friends. If you open a link before installing, return to the original link after installing. During account creation, you can also paste it into the optional invite field. If a link no longer works, ask your friend for their current link.

Newest posts first, from your approved connections. There is no engagement-based ranking, suggested-post feed, or trending tab.

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.

A/SIDE stores account and service data, including connection records, content records, sessions, push tokens, and the last time you viewed your feed. Operators use counts from those records to understand aggregate activity. The underlying records are linked to accounts; they are not anonymous. The website does not use an analytics SDK. See the privacy policy for service providers and operational data flows.

A/SIDE’s core servers 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.

Photos and videos are stored on DigitalOcean. Feed content is stored by A/SIDE and is not end-to-end encrypted. Photos sent in encrypted conversations are encrypted before upload. See the privacy policy for storage and provider details.

Yes. The backend server and Flutter mobile client are published at github.com/A-SIDE-Social/aside under AGPL-3.0. Published source lets people inspect the implementation; publication is not an independent security audit.

Yes. The public repository documents how to run your own instance and configure the services it needs. The hosted A/SIDE service remains the network at a-side.social.

No. Publishing source code does not publish account data or user content. Production credentials and signing material are separate from the public source.

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.

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.

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.

A screenshot reminder cannot prevent someone from saving, photographing, or sharing what they can see. Share with people you trust, and ask before forwarding someone else's content.

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.

A/SIDE is available on iPhone and Android. The App Store lists iOS 15 or later and iPadOS 15 or later. Check Google Play for compatibility with your Android device. Optional on-device voice dictation requires an iPhone with iOS 26 or later; that is not the minimum for the app.

Use Settings → Delete Account, or contact [email protected]. See the privacy policy for deletion and retention details. Removing your account cannot recall copies that recipients have saved outside A/SIDE.