Group chat limits and privacy

ShareIt chat is a lightweight companion to file sharing with a per-channel choice between recommended end-to-end encryption and standard chat. It is not a full replacement for Slack or Discord.

A group of friends coordinating and sharing travel files together

Current product limits

AccessGoogle-connected ShareIt.onl accounts only. Anonymous visitors and browser-only device accounts cannot read chats.

Channel visibilityInvitation-only. There is no public directory, public join link or anonymous preview.

Privacy modeChoose end-to-end encrypted or standard chat when creating a channel. The mode cannot be changed later. Standard chat stores readable messages; E2EE stores ciphertext.

ChannelsA member can own up to 50 channels and can join additional channels by invitation.

MessagesPlain text, up to 4,000 characters per message. Up to 60 messages can be sent per minute.

Browser memoryThe newest 50 messages load when a channel opens. The page keeps at most 100 message elements on phones and constrained devices, or 200 on larger devices.

Live updatesActive conversations refresh about every 1–1.5 seconds. Idle phones back off to about four seconds, background tabs slow further, and network failures use progressive backoff.

File attachmentsUp to 10 per message. E2EE channels stream separate AES-256-GCM encrypted file copies in 4 MiB chunks; standard channels send ordinary active ShareIt links.

Encrypted-file tradeoffsThe server cannot preview, malware-scan, or build ZIP archives from chat-encrypted copies because it cannot decrypt them.

StorageEncrypted chat copies count against the sender’s storage allowance. Standard channels reuse the original active link without creating a second chat copy.

Unread overviewEach member has a separate read position. The channel rail refreshes unread badges about every 15 seconds.

Privacy boundary

Channel pages, message APIs and member lists require a signed-in channel member on every request. Responses are marked private and are never cached by a shared cache or indexed by search engines.

In E2EE channels, message text, reactions, filenames and chat attachment copies are encrypted in members’ browsers with AES-256-GCM. ShareIt stores ciphertext but does not receive the passphrase, private keys or readable contents. Standard channels deliberately store readable messages and normal ShareIt link details for synchronization.

Reporting an encrypted message requires explicit consent to disclose a decrypted snapshot. Standard messages can be reviewed from the server’s stored copy.

Attachment boundary

An E2EE attachment is a new encrypted copy available only through the channel; recipients decrypt it in their browser. The source remains a separate item in My Files.

A standard-channel attachment is the original active ShareIt link, so its normal expiry, password and transfer rules continue to apply.

Features this version does not claim to have

Voice or video calls
Threads or bots
Message editing or individual message deletion
Push or desktop notifications
Full-history search
Voice or video message attachments

Good fit for your group?

Create a private channel and keep the conversation close to the files.