Binbox Frequently Asked Questions

This does happen rarely. We are still figuring out why this occurs. In the meantime, there is a kludgy workaround: Close the app entirely and relaunch it. That seems to fix the issue. Hate the solution? Well, we do too! Once we fix it, we will release an update.

Yes - this is because our app is hot. All kidding aside, our app does a lot more work to process messages so that makes the hardware in your phone chug away a lot more! We plan to focus on this in the future to make our message processing code more efficient. Our hot app then will hopefully become cool - pun intended :-)

When you get messages or someone sends you an invitation or your invitation is accepted, we send you a push notification to alert you of this. We think this is efficient and forces you from having to keep opening our app to check if something happened. (Don't get us wrong - we'd love you to keep opening our app.)

Make sure that you've allowed Binbox permissions to show notifications. When you installed the app, you were asked to approve this permission. If you declined to give our app permission to send you notifications, you will not get any notifications from us. If you would like to enable notifications again, use the appropriate device settings on your phone to re-enable permissions for notifications for Binbox.

We have seen this occur when you have lots of device contacts. If you have more than 3000 device contacts, Binbox becomes sluggish and sometimes can even crash. We are working to improve this. Until then, please bear with us.

OK. Good question. We use your phone number for the following reasons only. First, to reduce fraudulent accounts we require a valid phone number which we verify by sending a one-time verification code (OTP). Second, requiring a valid phone number from our users allows us to weed out spam invitations.

Don't you just hate being asked to share your phone number to one and all? With Binbox you don't have to. Here's how this works. Check out our video.

Tap on the share icon in the top right section of the 'Contacts' screen. Tap 'Next' and you will see a QR code. Show this QR code to your acquaintance, friend or business partner. Once they scan it, both of you can message each other. Best of all, no phone numbers are exchanged.

Great question. Both mechanisms are used to exchange secure Binbox IDs with those you wish to communicate with. Use invitations with those with whom you already have a relationship with: You know their phone number and you are in their phone contacts.

Use the share mechanism when you are physically near with whom you wish to message. Here are a few examples of where you may find 'share' useful:

• You are at a networking event and meet people who you want to continue to exchange messages with.
• You are at a social gathering (a bar, a club, etc.) and you meet people who you'd like to message. Or, perhaps, they'd like to message you.

First make sure that the person who you want to share your Binbox contact information already has Binbox installed. If they don't ask them to install Binbox by searching for 'Arnexa Binbox Messenger' at their app store.

Go to Contacts tab and tap the Share icon towards the top right of the screen. Ask your contact to scan this QR code. That's it!

No.

QR codes that you share expire in 3 minutes. If your friend tries to scan the QR code after that, they will get this 'Expired' message. We intentionally set the expiration time to be very short because we do not want you to exchange these QR codes via email or text or other messaging apps. Remember, these 'share' QR codes are intended to be used when you are next to someone who you wish to message within Binbox.

Super easy. Go to the Contacts screen and tap on the name of the person you wish to invite and tap 'Invite.' That's it! Check out our video by clicking this link.

To successfully complete an invitation with another Binbox user, the following conditions must be met. We do this to avoid Binbox users being spammed by invitations.

• You must know the phone number of the person you are inviting;
• That person must have your phone number in their phone contacts; and
• The person you are inviting must accept your invitation;

Ask your friend to tap on the 'Pending invitations' icon (the icon at the top-right of the 'Contacts' screen). They should be able to see your invitation. If they are still not seeing the invitation, there are two possibilities:

• Your friend registered for their Binbox account using a different phone number than the one you invited them on.
• They have not added your phone number (the one you used to create your Binbox account) to their device contacts.

To be battery efficient our app only checks on the status of existing invitations (the ones you send or have received) periodically and that too only when you are using the app. Our recommendation is to periodically open the app to check on the status of your various invitations. This will give our app a chance to check on the progress of your invitations and complete any needed actions.

Our app asks for 'Contacts' permission to read the contacts from your phone in order to make the invitation process easy and secure. But it is important to note that your contacts remain on your device and are never transmitted to our servers. Binbox servers never never know your contacts.

Binbox only uses the phone contacts in order to make it easy for you to invite others and to ensure that spurious invitations from spammers are never seen by you. Your phone contacts are never transmitted to our servers. Period. Our app uses the phone contacts as follows:

• We display the contacts in the Binbox app and make it easy for you invite others by simply tapping on the contact.
• We further ensure that only invitations from those in your contact list will be displayed to you.

The minimum age is 18. However, the minimum age to use Binbox without parental consent may be higher in your country.

No. Binbox is currently available only in the United States, Canada, India and a few select countries. We will be rolling to other countries soon.

Binbox requires you to enter a telephone number which we then verify by using the standard one-time-password (OTP) process that is very common these days. We do this in order to reduce the number of fraudulent accounts that may be created.

This is super easy. Go to the 'Settings' screen in your app. Tap on 'Delete Account' and follow the instructions. Once your data has been deleted, it can no longer be retrieved. Furthermore, please delete the Binbox app from all your devices.

This is ONLY possible if you have saved away your credentials. You were prompted to do so when you created the account. Getting signed back on is super simple. First, install the app on your device. Second, tap on 'Transfer account'. Then, tap 'Next' and tap on 'Manual Transfer'. Paste the credentials you have saved into the box. Then tap 'Start Transfer.'

Send us a request by filling out this form. You must provide your phone number that you used to register your account. We will verify that this phone number does in fact belong to you and then commence the account deletion process at our end.

Send us a request by filling out this form. You must provide your phone number that you used to register your account. We will verify that this phone number does in fact belong to you and delete your old account so that you can create a new account.

If you have WhatsApp installed, you can select 'WhatsApp' as an option to receive your one-time-password. If not, unfortunately, there is little that we can do. We are reliant on carriers to deliver the text messages to you.

No. We do not support using Binbox on multiple devices at the same time. But you can transfer your Binbox account from one device to another (for example, when your purchase a new phone). This is super simple. On your old device tap on 'Settings' and then 'Transfer To New Device' and then follow the steps specified. You should have your new device with you to complete the tranfer.

We are focused now on simple messages with attachments - the kind we all send/receive in email.

10 MB.

Binbox messages are not synced across your other devices. You can always use Apple iCloud or Google Drive to back up your Binbox data.

Yes, all messages have an expiration date chosen by the sender. Once messages expire, they are deleted from our servers and cannot be delivered.

Indeed, you can. Those are excellent messaging apps with rich feature sets. But while their focus is on privacy and encryption, our focus is on trying to prevent spammers and fraudsters from reaching your inbox! In our view this is the more pressing problem facing people today: just one wrong click or response to a malicious sender can wreak havoc on the individual's life.

In addition, Binbox has a few features that other apps don't have.

• No one can message you just by knowing your phone number.
• We have two super convenient mechanisms for you to share Binbox IDs to communicate with friends and associates: invitations and the 'share' mechanism. Use the latter when you are physically near the person you wish to communicate with.
• No other messaging app supports the lost-found feature. Simply affix Binbox Tags to items you own and get messaged when someone finds them.

This is a common question we get. For now, you need to find a printer (or, a friend with a printer) :-)

We also offer Binbox Tags for sale (see link). Simply order the Binbox Tags and affix them to your valuables.

This service is available only in the United States.

Tags come in different form factors and sizes. They are available as credit-card sized tags and key tags made of plastic. They are also available as stickers. Sizes of the various tags are provided (see here). Please read the specs carefully to make sure they meet your needs.

QR stickers have a clear protective laminate on top to protect the printing so that text/color do not fade. The stickers have a strong adhesive and work well on smooth and textured surfaces. Be cautious about using these stickers on rubber and paper surfaces - they may be hard to peel off! Moreover, because stickers have a strong adhesive when peeling off they may leave a residue that can be usually wiped off with a damp cloth. So please be cautious about the surfaces you apply these stickers on.

Finally, if you are unsure about whether to use our tags, we recommend that you can always print your own. For free. Simply open your app, tap on the item, view the QR code, save it to your device and then print it. This puts you fully in control!

Only when you mark an item lost are any messages from finders delivered to you. We do this because we want to ensure that spammers do not worm their way into your inbox by falsely claiming to have found items that belong to you.

Good question. Once you affix the QR code to your phone, make sure that you go to the 'Settings' and tap on 'Transfer to new device'. Follow the instructions until you see the QR code. Don't worry - you are not trasferring anything. This basically syncs the QR data with Binbox servers. The Binbox app should do this automatically and spare you the added step - we will fix this in a future app update.

Then, if you lose your phone, you should be able to use your saved credentials to login to your Binbox account on a new phone. To do this follow the steps by tapping on 'Transfer Account to new Device' on the home screen, and then 'Manual transfer.' Paste the Binbox credentials you have previously saved. Once you are signed in, you should see your QR items under the 'Lost-Found' tab. Find the QR item corresponding to your phone. Mark it as 'Lost' and then wait until - hopefully - someone finds it!

This is also a good time to remind you to copy-and-save your Binbox credentials, if you have not already done so. You can do this by tapping on 'Settings' and 'Account Settings' and then 'Copy Credentials'. Paste your credentials somewhere safe. IMPORTANT: If you do not do this, you will not be able to receive messages from someone who finds your lost phone!

Sadly, you will need to purchase new tags and register them anew. Then, remove your old tags from your valuables and affix the new tags to them!

Binbox Tags are affordable, more versatile (available as key tags, card tags and stickers), works on both Android and iPhone. In addition, Binbox tags can be stuck on your valuables like passports, etc.

Oh - and one more thing - Binbox Tags contain no embedded chips and electronics - your location cannot be tracked and there are no creepy security issues associated with them!

No. If you do give some of your tags to a friend then when your friend is messaged about their lost item being found you will be messaged! If your friend does want tags, they can place an order here. (We currently only ship to locations in the United States.)

If you give someone your phone number and they start creeping you out by calling you all the time, or worse yet, they give out to others and now your spam calls increase, you're stuck: It's not easy to change your phone number. And it's hard to keep adding numbers to "spam"/"block" lists. With Binbox it is much easier. Give each of your contacts different Binbox IDs. Then, if a particular contact goes rogue, simply delete the IDs you gave them. Boom! Their messages to you never make it. How easy is that? :-)

Binbox uses industry-standard encryption to ensure that all communication from/to your device to/from our servers is encrypted. In addition, all data is stored encrypted on our servers. Finally, all messages are end-to-end encrypted which means that they are encrypted at your device before being sent and decrypted at the recipient device. Message data cannot be read by Arnexa. Period.

Yes! Binbox is not instant messaging. Our app checks for new messages periodically - usually every 15 minutes or so (though,in some cases, it may be sooner).

We want to foster relaxed messaging. A few messages. Legitimate messages. Deal with them and move on with your life.

We ask for the following permissions:

Permission to access your files/media folder. This is so that we can download attachments in messages you receive.

Permission to access your camera. This is so that you can scan QR codes displayed by the Binbox app. This occurs, for example, when you want to sign in to a new device, or a friend shares their contact information with you, etc.

Permission to access your device contacts. This is so that you can invite others easily. More importantly, only invitations from those in your contact list are displayed to you. This weeds out spam invitations.

Here's the scoop on encryption of your data:

First, Binbox data stored on your device is not encrypted. In geek speak these data are not encrypted at rest. We will be adding support for encrypting this in a later release. If data being stored encrypted on your device is important to you, sadly Binbox cannot meet your needs currently. Consider other excellent messaging apps.

All data stored on Binbox servers are encrypted. In geek speak these data are encrypted at rest.

All messages you send are end-to-end encrypted. This means that the message is encrypted at the sender's device before being sent. This can only be decrypted by the Binbox app on the recipient's device. Even Binbox servers cannot view the message contents.

All communication between your device and Binbox servers are encrypted using industry-standard encryption protocols.

No. Binbox is currently available just on Apple and Android devices. We may add support for other platforms as demand dictates.

Sadly, no!

Binbox QR codes intentionally do not have any links. They can only be scanned by cameras within the Binbox app. If you receive a QR code purporting to be a Binbox QR code, do NOT scan them with your phone's camera. Instead, scan this QR code only in the Binbox app.