Every question, answered

Yes. Everything you need to talk with people is free: text channels, DMs and group chats, servers and communities, voice and video calls, screen sharing, threads, events and moderation tools. You do not need a card to sign up.

No. We will never take something that is free today and make you pay for it. Paid plans only add extras on top of the free product. If we ever break that promise, everyone it affects is entitled to compensation from us, and can take us to court over it.

Through optional plans (Spark, Premium, Aurora, Supernova and their group versions) and server boosts. Plans add things like more storage, bigger uploads, longer messages and a supporter badge; boosts unlock server extras such as a banner or a vanity invite link. Venoly shows no ads of its own, and we do not sell data.

See the plans

No. Venoly shows no ads of its own, there are no tracking pixels, third-party ad SDKs or analytics that follow you across the web, and we never sell personal data. One exception: when a YouTube video plays in a Watch Together or Listening Party you open, YouTube's player loads from Google (we use its privacy-enhanced mode), and YouTube may show its own ads in it.

Privacy Policy

Profile cosmetics are free on every plan: themes, fonts, nameplate colours, avatar frames, message accents, profile banners and backgrounds, and the badges you earn. Paid plans add capacity (storage, uploads, longer bios and messages), a few extras like more clip slots, and an Aura supporter badge next to your name. A server banner, an invite background and a vanity invite link come with server boost levels: Level 1 for the banner and invite background, Level 3 for the vanity link (see What are server boosts?).

Venoly is a place to talk with your friends and communities: text channels, DMs, voice and video calls, all organised into servers. It is built security-first and runs from the Netherlands.

Go to the sign-up page, choose a username and password (or continue with Google or Discord), enter your date of birth, and confirm your email address with the link we send. You need to confirm your email before you can use your account.

At least 13. Venoly checks age only by the date of birth you enter. A sign-up under 13 is refused, or deleted straight away if it came through Google or Discord. An existing account that gives an age under 13 is suspended while a person at Venoly reviews it. If you think a child under 13 has an account, email privacy@venoly.nl.

Terms of Service

A server is a community space with its own channels, roles and members. You can create one for your friends, a club, a game or a project, and invite people with a link.

Open an invite link someone sent you, or browse public communities on the Discover page. Joining asks you to solve a quick captcha, which keeps raid bots out.

Discover communities

Open the Friends tab and add someone by their username. They get a friend request they can accept or ignore. Some people only take friend requests through their add link (Friends → Add friend → Show my add link). A request by username to them stays pending and never reaches them, and nothing tells you this, so if you're not sure, ask them for their link. You can choose who may send you friend requests in Settings → Privacy & Safety.

Creating a server, joining one and sending friend requests ask for a captcha. It stops automated accounts from flooding servers and inboxes. If one is hard to read, ask for a new one.

For the first 10 minutes after sign-up, an account can send plain text only: no links, images or @everyone. This blunts drive-by spam and raids from throwaway accounts. After 10 minutes everything works normally.

With your email or username and password, with Google or Discord, or with a passkey you added in Settings. Signing in with a password also takes a second step: the 6-digit code from your authenticator app if you turned on two-factor authentication, otherwise a 6-digit code we email you. Tick "Trust this device for 30 days" on that step to skip it on that device. With Google, Discord or a passkey you only enter a code if two-factor authentication is on.

Use "Forgot password" on the sign-in page. We email you a link to choose a new one. Changing your password signs out your other devices.

After several wrong passwords we pause sign-in attempts for a short while, growing longer if the attempts continue. Wait for the time shown, then try again. The pause applies even with the right password. If you've forgotten your password, reset it instead of guessing again, but a reset won't end a pause that has already started. If someone else keeps guessing your password from somewhere else, sign-ins from an internet connection (network address) you have signed in from in the last 90 days are not held up. A familiar device on a new network, such as mobile data or while travelling, can still be asked to wait.

In Settings → My Account, under Two-Factor Authentication, set up an authenticator app (such as Google Authenticator, Aegis or 1Password) by scanning the QR code, then save your backup codes somewhere safe. The Set up button in Settings → Security takes you there too. From then on, signing in with a password asks for the 6-digit code from your app instead of the code we email you.

A passkey lets you sign in with your device (fingerprint, face or PIN) or a hardware security key instead of a password. Add one in Settings → My Account, under Passkeys. You can keep your password as a backup.

Use one of the backup codes you saved when you set up two-factor authentication. Each code works once. If you have none left, contact support from your account email.

Contact support

Yes, in Settings → My Account. Some names are reserved. Changing your email asks you to confirm the new address.

Settings → Login Activity shows your sessions and recent sign-ins. You can sign out a single device or every other device there. To have devices you have not used for a while signed out automatically, go to Settings → Security → Idle devices and pick 7, 30 or 90 days.

A second address for getting back into your account. Once it is confirmed, every password-reset link is also sent there, and when signing in asks for a code from your email, you can have that code sent there instead of your main email. Add it in Settings → My Account: we ask for your password (or, for an account that signs in with Google or Discord only, a recent sign-in), then send a code to the new address to confirm it is yours.

In Settings → My Account, choose Delete Account and confirm with the code we email you. Your account is deactivated straight away and permanently purged within 30 days.

Yes. In Settings → My Account → Data Export, choose Request Data and confirm it with the code we email you. You get a copy of your account data to keep.

Venoly runs on servers in the Netherlands. A few service providers we rely on (for example our network edge, website hosting, email and, when you use them, AI features) operate outside the EU. The Subprocessors page lists every one and what it receives.

Subprocessors

Yes, in transit (TLS) and at rest: message content and other sensitive fields are encrypted in our database with keys kept outside it. Venoly is not end-to-end encrypted, on purpose: moderators and our safety team must be able to act on reports of abuse, grooming and illegal content.

Security

Staff do not browse messages. A message is looked at when someone reports it, when the law requires it, or to investigate abuse, and that access is logged.

Until you or a moderator deletes them, or the conversation has a disappearing-messages timer. A one-to-one conversation, your messages included, is also removed when the other person's account is permanently deleted, for example about 30 days after they ask us to delete it. You can also schedule your own messages to delete themselves.

You choose in Settings → Privacy & Safety: everyone, friends, people in your servers, or nobody. You can also set your status to Invisible, which shows you as offline to everyone else.

You choose in Settings → Privacy & Safety: everyone, friends only, people in your servers, or nobody. The setting applies to every message, not just to starting a conversation. You can separately choose who may call you and who may add you to group chats.

They cannot message or call you, add you to group chats, send you friend requests, or react to or edit messages in your conversations, and you will not see them typing. Blocking is private; they are not told.

Only cookies the service needs to work: two sign-in cookies, a cookie that remembers a device if you tick "Trust this device for 30 days" when you sign in (it lasts 30 days), and short-lived cookies during Google or Discord sign-in that protect the redirect (gone within 10 minutes). All are first-party and cannot be read by scripts. Your cookie choice, theme, layout and unsent drafts are kept in your browser's storage, not in cookies. There are no advertising, analytics or cross-site tracking cookies.

Privacy Policy

Yes, to detect ban evasion and people running several accounts. When you sign in or register we keep a one-way hash of your browser's device signals (canvas and WebGL rendering, hardware, languages, screen and timezone), or a device hash in the desktop app. That hash is kept whatever you choose, so an existing ban still holds, for up to 2 years after the device was last seen. The raw signals, and in the desktop app the hardware identifiers (MAC addresses, hardware UUID, machine ID and hostname), are stored only if you accept the disclosure shown at sign-in. You can object at any time, at that disclosure or by emailing us, and we then keep only the hash. The Privacy Policy has the details.

Privacy Policy

No. Your email is never shown on your profile. If you signed up with Google, the Google connection on your profile is hidden by default and never shows your address.

To report a message or a person, right-click (or long-press) the message or their name and choose Report. To report a server, click the server's name at the top of the channel list and choose Report Server. Pick the reason that fits best. Reports go to our trust and safety team; child safety reports are handled first.

Yes. The notice form under Legal → Report content lets anyone report illegal content, as the EU Digital Services Act requires.

Report content

A person at Venoly reviews it and decides what to do. If we act against an account, its owner receives a statement of reasons explaining the decision and how to appeal.

Yes, within 6 months. Settings → My Account → Account standing (at the top) lists your warnings and restrictions; choose Appeal this decision on the one you want reviewed. A person reviews every appeal and you are told the outcome and the reasons. Each decision can be appealed once, and that includes a timeout from the Venoly team. A timeout a server's moderators gave you ends on its own.

Appeal a decision

Sign in as usual: the sign-in screen offers "Appeal this decision". Or go to venoly.nl/appeal, enter the email address on your account, and use the code we send you. If neither works, email appeals@venoly.nl.

Appeal a decision

Yes, if that server takes appeals. Server bans and warnings are decided by that server's own moderators, not by Venoly, and they can switch appeals off. Appeal from Settings → My Account → Account standing.

Uploaded files are scanned for malware as soon as they arrive. Our scanner checks files up to 25 MB, which is also the limit for attaching in chat. A file found infected is moved out of reach and our team is alerted. We don't yet match uploads against the industry's lists of known abuse images. We don't run AI moderation or content classifiers over your messages. If a server owner sets up AI auto-responders (AI Automations), messages in that server may be sent to our AI provider, Groq, to check them against the owner's rules. AI characters and the AI features you use yourself also send text to Groq; see Subprocessors.

Subprocessors

Roles and permissions, private channels, slow mode, timeouts, kicks and bans, warnings that can escalate, AutoMod (blocked words, patterns and links), verification levels, raid protection and an audit log of changes.

Server owners and admins can set words, patterns and link rules that AutoMod checks every new and edited message against, with an action: delete, warn or a short timeout. Admins and managers are exempt.

Moderators can warn members. Warnings in a server escalate automatically, and server owners cannot change or turn this off: from the 3rd warning within 30 days the member gets a 10-minute timeout, from the 5th a 1-hour timeout, and from the 7th they are kicked. An escalation only happens if the moderator who gave the warning could do it themselves (Moderate Members for a timeout, Kick Members for a kick). Otherwise the warning is just recorded.

Captchas on joins and friend requests, limits on new accounts, rate limits, raid protection and lockdown modes for servers, and our own security layers that watch for floods and automated traffic.

Email security@venoly.nl or use our responsible-disclosure programme, which includes safe-harbour terms.

Bug bounty

Click the plus button in the server list, choose Create, give it a name and solve the captcha. You can start from scratch or from a starter template (Gaming, Study Group, Creative or Programming), which comes with its own channels, categories and roles.

Text channels, announcement channels, forums, voice channels, stage channels for talks and events, and categories to group them. Voice hubs can create a temporary room for each person who joins.

In the channel's settings, turn on Private. Only people and roles you allow can see it. Permission overrides let you fine-tune who can see, post or join.

Every member has the @everyone role plus any roles you give them. Each role carries permissions, and channels can override them for a role or a member. People can only manage roles below their own highest role and can never grant permissions they do not have themselves.

No. @everyone is the base role every member has; you can change its permissions but not its name, and no other role may be called @everyone.

The owner, and anyone with a permission that one of the settings tabs needs, such as Manage Server, Manage Roles, Manage Channels or moderation permissions. Each person sees only the tabs they may use.

Use Invite People in the server menu to create a link. You can set how long it lasts and how many times it can be used.

Open Server Settings → Discovery, turn on Discovery and save. Our team reviews every request before the server is listed. You can apply at any time; reviewers look for a description of at least 50 characters, a server icon and at least 10 members.

Yes. Server Settings keeps a history of configuration snapshots (channels, roles, permissions and settings). The owner can preview a snapshot and restore it; a snapshot of the current state is saved first.

The owner can clone a server and choose what comes along: channels, roles, permissions and settings. Members and messages are not copied.

Events, polls, threads, forums, a wiki, Kanban boards, forms, decision records, a starboard, soundboards, welcome screens and onboarding questions, server badges and a server theme.

Owners can schedule a maintenance window. During it only people with Manage Server can post, and everyone sees a banner saying when it ends.

In server channels, up to 4,000 characters on the free plan, 6,000 on Aurora and 8,000 on Supernova; a channel can set a lower limit. Direct messages and group chats are capped at 4,000 characters on every plan.

Your plan's per-file limit is 10 MB on the free plan, 25 MB on Spark, 50 MB on Aurora and 95 MB on Supernova. For now, a file you attach in chat can be at most 25 MB on every plan, because that is the largest file our virus scanner can check. Images larger than 50 megapixels are refused.

250 MB on the free plan, 3 GB on Spark, 10 GB on Aurora and 25 GB on Supernova.

Yes. Edited messages are marked as edited, and edits go through the same checks as new messages. Moderators with Manage Messages can delete other people's messages in their server.

In a DM conversation you can set a timer, after which new messages delete themselves for everyone. You can also schedule one of your own messages to delete later.

Start a group DM with up to 20 people. Anyone in it can add more people, as long as those people allow it in their privacy settings and nobody has blocked anyone.

Any emoji, or a custom emoji from the server. A message can carry up to 20 different reactions.

Yes, in server channels. You can have up to 50 scheduled messages at a time, up to a year ahead. They go out with the same checks as a message you send yourself.

In a server channel, open search to look up words, and narrow it down with from: (a person), before: or after: (a date), or has: (an image, file, link or video). To search all your servers at once, open Search (Ctrl+K or ⌘K) and choose Search everything. Bookmark a channel message to keep it in Saved messages. Direct messages can't be searched or bookmarked. We don't build a search index of what you write in DMs, so scroll back in the conversation instead.

Yes, per message: the author or a moderator can hide a link's preview. Our servers fetch the page's title and description, but the preview image, and any image you link directly, loads from the site that hosts it, so that site can see the reader's address.

Yes. Use Translate on a message, or translate your own draft before sending. Translation uses an AI service, so the text is sent to it when you use the feature.

Yes, from the GIF picker in the composer (GIPHY and KLIPY), plus meme templates.

Join a voice channel in a server, or press the call button in a DM or group chat. Calls support voice, video and screen sharing.

Anyone with the Connect permission can join; speaking needs Speak, and camera and screen sharing need Stream. If a moderator changes your roles during a call, your microphone and camera follow the change straight away.

A channel for talks and events: speakers talk, the audience listens and can raise a hand or ask questions in the Q&A. Hosts invite people on stage and move them back to the audience.

A host can split a voice channel into smaller rooms and bring everyone back afterwards. The same speaking permissions apply in every room.

A "join to create" hub makes a personal voice room when you join it, and the room disappears once it is empty. It keeps the hub's permissions, so a private hub makes private rooms.

Venoly does not record calls. Live captions are per person: only while you have captions on, short clips of your own microphone are sent to Groq, a hosted AI speech service, and the text is shown live to the people in the call who have captions on. Caption text is not stored. Someone else turning captions on never sends your voice, and on a stage a listener who shows captions sends nothing. Translating a caption line sends that line's text to Groq.

Check that your browser or the app has permission to use the microphone, pick the right input in Settings → Voice & Video, and make sure you are not muted, timed out or missing the Speak permission in that channel.

Free, plus four optional plans per month: Spark (€0.99), Premium (€2.99), Aurora (€4.99) and Supernova (€9.99). Each also comes as a group plan for up to five people: Spark Group (€2.99), Premium Group (€8.99), Aurora Group (€14.99) and Supernova Group (€29.99).

Pricing

More storage and bigger uploads (Spark, Aurora and Supernova), longer messages in server channels (6,000 characters on Aurora, 8,000 on Supernova; direct messages stay at 4,000), longer bios, more clip slots, and server boosts included with Aurora (2) and Supernova (4). Premium is mainly a way to support Venoly, with extra customisation.

Not yet. Online checkout is not open; until it is, plans are only given by Venoly. Prices are always shown before you pay.

The person who holds the group plan opens Settings → Aura and, under Family and friends, names the group (Family or Friends). Then they invite up to four others by username. Each person accepts the invite there and is covered by the plan. Anyone can leave, and the holder can remove people.

Boosts raise a server's level, which unlocks extras for everyone in it. At 2 boosts a server reaches Level 1 (a server banner, an invite background and 100 emoji slots instead of 50), at 7 Level 2 (150 emoji slots) and at 14 Level 3 (a vanity invite link and 250 emoji slots). Aurora and Supernova include boosts you can place on servers, and servers can also be boosted directly. A boost can be moved to another server a day after placing it.

See the refund policy. Because a plan starts as soon as you buy it, EU law asks you to agree that the 14-day withdrawal right ends once it starts; we ask for that agreement before checkout.

Refund policy

Your plan stays until the end of the period you paid for, then your account goes back to the free plan. Nothing you made is deleted; extras like boosts are released.

In Settings → Profile: avatar (animated ones too), banner, pronouns, bio, profile song, prompts, social links and who can see them, and a showcase of links and projects. You can preview how others see it. Your display name is in Settings → My Account, and Settings → Connections is where you link other accounts and choose which ones show on your profile.

Yes. A server profile lets you set a nickname and avatar for that server only.

Pick one of the built-in themes in Settings → Appearance, make your own colours, or install a theme from the Marketplace. You can also set a background image, GIF or video and a font. A server can have its own theme too.

Online, Idle, Busy, Away, Do Not Disturb and Invisible, plus a custom status with text and emoji that you can schedule.

Some badges you earn (for example your first server or first messages), some are given by Venoly (such as Founding Member or Bug Hunter), and Verified Creator comes with verified Marketplace work. Servers can also give their own server badges.

Add the website as a connection, then prove you own it with a DNS TXT record or a file on the site. Verified sites get a check mark on your profile.

Yes. Link Discord, Spotify, YouTube, Twitch, Patreon or websites in Settings → Connections and choose which ones to show.

A place to share and install themes, server templates, emoji and soundboard packs, role packs, profile packs and AI personas made by the community and by Venoly. You can also share and preview security policies; Venoly activates those, because a policy currently applies to every server.

Open the Marketplace

Public items are reviewed before they are listed, and an edit to a public item goes back to review. Every version is signed, so you can check that what you install is what was reviewed. Media in packs must be uploaded to Venoly, so it is scanned like any upload.

The server owner. Role packs and templates never create roles with Administrator.

Publish good work on the Marketplace. Our team can verify creators, which adds a Verified Creator badge to your profile.

Yes. Turn on developer access in Settings → Developer, create an application, and use its bot token with our REST API and gateway, or with the venoly.js library.

Developer docs

Read and send messages in channels of servers it is installed in, and read the server's channels, members and roles — within the permissions it was given there. Bots cannot add reactions yet. A bot token works only on the bot API: it can't open your DMs, settings or sessions. But the messages it sends currently appear under your own account (your name and avatar), and they count toward your own sending limits.

Open the bot's invite link, pick a server where you have Manage Server, and review the permissions it asks for. You cannot give a bot more than you have yourself.

Yes. Accept the developer terms, add a privacy policy link and submit it for review. Once approved, anyone with Manage Server can add it, up to 15 servers in total. To go beyond that, request more servers from your application page in the developer portal; an approved upgrade raises the limit and lists the bot in discovery. Changing an approved bot's name, description, icon, permissions or privacy policy link sends it back to review.

Developer terms

Regenerate it in the developer portal straight away; the old token stops working.

Any modern browser at venoly.nl, the desktop app for Windows and Linux, and the Android app, which you download from the Download page (it is not on Google Play yet). On iPhone, iPad and Mac, use Venoly in your browser.

Download

Open venoly.nl/download on your phone and tap Download for Android. Chrome may warn that the file comes from outside Google Play: choose Download anyway, open the file, allow Chrome to install apps when Android asks, then tap Install. It needs Android 7.0 or newer. The app always loads the current Venoly, so you only download it again when the Download page lists a newer app version.

Download the Android app

Not yet. On a Mac, use Venoly in Safari or any other browser. On iPhone and iPad it runs in Safari too. To get notifications there while Venoly is closed, add it to your Home Screen (Share, then Add to Home Screen), open it from there and turn on Settings → Notifications → Desktop notifications. Screen sharing needs a computer.

An installer and a portable version for Windows, and an AppImage and a .deb package for Linux.

Allow notifications when your browser or the app asks. In a browser, also turn on Settings → Notifications → Desktop notifications to get alerts while Venoly is closed; the Android app does this when you allow notifications. You can mute servers and channels, set quiet hours, choose sounds, and turn on Do Not Disturb to silence everything.

We build for keyboard and screen-reader use and keep improving it. Settings → Accessibility has reduced motion, animation speed, saturation, reduced transparency and more. Tell us where something does not work.

Catch-up summaries of what you missed, smart reply suggestions, translation, image descriptions, the support assistant and AI characters that can chat in servers that add them.

In a few cases, and then the text goes to our AI provider, Groq. When you, or someone else in the conversation, uses an AI feature such as translation, smart replies or a catch-up or thread summary, it gets the text that feature needs. AI characters are on by default in servers they are members of: they reply when someone mentions them and, now and then, on their own, and when one replies, the last 15 messages of that channel go to Groq to write the reply. A server's owner, or anyone with Manage Server, can switch characters off in Server Settings. A server owner can also run FAQ auto-capture on a channel, which sends its recent messages to draft FAQ answers. If a server's owner has set up AI Automations (automatic replies), messages sent in that server can go to Groq to check whether one of those replies fits. Opening Home or the catch-up page sends nothing until you press Catch me up. Venoly does not train AI models on your messages.

Characters such as Kai, Mira, Rex, Nova, Sage and Zara that appear as members and can join conversations. They are always marked as AI.

Check your spam and promotions folders, then use "Resend" on the confirmation screen. Make sure the address you typed is correct.

Reload the page. After we release an update, an open tab may need one reload to pick it up; it does that by itself in most cases. If it keeps happening, use Report a bug in the bottom-left corner of the app.

Check the size limit for your plan, that the file type is allowed, and that images are not larger than 50 megapixels. Profile pictures, banners, server icons, emoji, profile songs, notification sounds and clips are scanned for malware before they are saved, and a flagged file is refused. Message attachments are scanned just after they upload, and a flagged one is removed, so its link stops working. If a send fails with "no longer available", this may be why.

The channel may be read-only for your roles, in slow mode, or in a maintenance window, or you may be timed out. New accounts can send only text for their first 10 minutes.

Check the status page for current incidents.

Status

Use the Report a bug button in the bottom-left corner of the app, next to the settings gear. Tell us what you did and what you expected.

Open a support ticket. You can follow it and reply in the app.

Support

Venoly is an independent platform run from Emmen, in the Netherlands.

Team

It has the familiar shape (servers, channels, roles, voice), but it is built differently: security-first, with our own security policy language (Venilator), layered defences against abuse, encryption at rest and an honest privacy policy.

Settings → What's New lists every change that affects you, newest first.

Updates

For legal and privacy questions use the contact page; for help with your account open a support ticket.

ContactSupport