Is Tera Chat safe? Where your messages go, what it can access, and the real risks

Tera Chat is safe in the ways that matter most for an app that holds your chats: your messages, contacts and relationship stats stay in a local database on your Mac and are never uploaded to a Tera Chat server, the app reports usage counts such as how often each feature is used (never what’s in your chats, and you can turn it off), and the download is signed and notarized so macOS can check it before it runs. The risks are real but specific: AI features send the conversations they work on to the AI provider you choose, and Tera Chat’s unofficial connections to WhatsApp, Instagram, Tinder and Hinge may break those services’ terms, which could put those accounts at risk.

We make Tera Chat, so this is the maker’s account. We’ve tried to write the page we’d want to read before installing an app like this: what it stores and where, what it can access, what the AI sees, how it updates, the risks we can’t remove, and how to delete every trace of it. Product details describe version 1.1.2 as of 20 October 2026, and claims about other companies link to their own pages.

Which Tera Chat is this?

Tera Chat (two words) is a Mac app made by Tera Labs (legal name TERA LABS USA LLC). It launched in October 2026 and puts iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and Tinder in one inbox, with AI that drafts replies in your own texting style. The app and the inbox are free with no time limit. It runs only on Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or newer) and macOS 15 Sequoia or later; there’s no Windows, iPhone or Android version.

Several unrelated companies use almost the same name, which is why a search for “is Terachat a scam” turns up confusing results. Here’s who’s who (checked 20 October 2026):

Name	Website	What it is	Same company as Tera Chat?
Tera Chat	terachat.co	Free Mac app for your personal chats, made by Tera Labs	This is us
Terachat	terachat.com.br	Brazilian platform for WhatsApp automation and customer-service chatbots	No
Terachat	terachat.net	Indonesian live-chat and one-time-password gateway for businesses on WhatsApp	No
Tera	terachat.org	Text chat for communities, in the browser	No
(other owner)	terachat.com	Not Tera Chat’s website, so scam-checker pages about this domain aren’t about the Mac app	No

To be sure you have the real app, download it only from terachat.co/download. It’s a disk image signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized, which means Apple checked it for malicious software and none was detected, and macOS checks the signature before it opens.

Where does Tera Chat keep your data?

On your Mac, with two exceptions you control: some settings and AI insights sync through your own iCloud account, and AI features send the text they work on to your AI provider.

What	Where it’s kept	Does Tera Labs get it?
Messages, contacts, conversation history, health scores	A local database on your Mac	No. Never uploaded to a Tera Chat server
Search index	macOS Spotlight, on your Mac	No
Your AI keys, and the sign-in for your Tera Chat account	The macOS Keychain	No (account details are in the last row)
Sign-ins to WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and Tinder	Tera Chat’s own storage on your Mac (Tinder and Telegram use an isolated browser profile that only Tera Chat uses)	No
Settings, AI insights (facts learned about people, life events, digests), drafts and dating personas	Synced between your Macs through your own iCloud account (Apple’s CloudKit private database)	No. It sits in your Apple account
The text an AI feature works on	Sent to the AI provider you picked	Only with a Tera Chat AI plan, and then it passes through without being kept
An optional Tera Chat account	Tera Chat’s server	Your email, your plan and some app settings, never messages, contacts or chat accounts

Because there’s no Tera Chat server holding a copy of your inbox, there’s no copy of your messages on our side to leak, sell or be ordered to hand over.

One honest footnote on iCloud: AI insights and drafts are made from your chats, so some details from your conversations (a friend’s birthday, a new job, a reply you haven’t sent yet) do reach your iCloud account in that form. They sync only between your own Macs, through your Apple account, and Apple says third-party app data in iCloud is encrypted in transit and on its servers.

What can Tera Chat access on your Mac?

Only what you grant, one permission at a time. Tera Chat syncs an app only once you connect it (for iMessage, once you turn on Full Disk Access), and it sends nothing on its own: you send each message yourself, and Autopilot stays off until you turn it on.

Permission	What it’s for	Do you need it?
Full Disk Access	To read your iMessage history, which macOS keeps in a protected database on your Mac	Only for iMessage
Automation (control Messages)	To send iMessages through the Messages app; macOS asks once, on your first send	Only to send iMessages
Contacts	To show names instead of phone numbers and emails for iMessage contacts	Optional
Notifications	For fading chats, life events, the weekly digest and reminders	Optional
Calendar	When you add a life event or date idea to your calendar	Optional
Microphone, Speech Recognition, Camera	Recording a voice note, transcribing a voice draft on your Mac, and WhatsApp or Instagram calls	Only for those features
Location	So Tinder or Hinge can show people near you; Tera Chat asks only when you use a dating app inside it	Only for dating apps
Touch ID or your Mac password	To open the private browser window that holds your Tinder sign-in	Each time that window opens
Touch ID or your Mac password	To open Tera Chat when its Touch ID lock is on	Optional

Tera Chat doesn’t ask for Accessibility access, the permission that lets an app control your Mac and other apps; its ⌘⇧M shortcut works without it.

Tinder and Telegram sign-ins happen in a private browser window that Tera Chat opens using Google Chrome, Brave or Microsoft Edge (one of them must be installed), with an isolated profile that only Tera Chat uses, kept apart from your everyday browsing.

Full Disk Access deserves a plain warning. macOS can’t limit it to Messages: Apple describes it as letting an app access “all files on your computer, including data from other apps”, such as Mail and Safari. Tera Chat uses it to read the Messages database and keeps what it reads on your Mac, but granting it means trusting the app with more than your texts. On 2 October 2026 Apple said it will add controls so that granting this access takes “very explicit user action”, with no date yet. Our Full Disk Access explainer covers what that means. If you don’t need iMessage in Tera Chat, don’t grant it: everything else works without it, and you can turn it off any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access.

What does the AI see, and when?

AI sees the conversations it works on. That includes the features you trigger and, once AI is set up, a few that run in the background.

• When you ask: Summarize (⇧⌘S), Draft reply (⌥⌘D), Ask about this chat, and voice drafts (the voice message is transcribed on your Mac first; the transcript then goes to AI to draft your reply).
• In the background, once AI is set up: for example, a summary after every 10 new messages in a conversation, a daily check for life events, and the weekly digest on Sunday morning. You can pause background processing in Settings → Pipelines.
• Computed on your Mac, without AI: missed cues, fading chats, circles and goals, introductions, red-flag radar and the health score’s math. Voice transcription happens on your Mac too. (The health score’s small tone component uses AI sentiment only if AI is set up.)

If you never set up AI, the inbox, search and those on-Mac insights still work, and no conversation goes to an AI provider. Where the text goes depends on which AI you use:

Your AI setup	Where the text goes	Whose rules apply
Your ChatGPT account through OpenAI’s Codex app or command-line tool	OpenAI, under your own ChatGPT account (Tera Chat stores no OpenAI key)	OpenAI’s. On personal plans, ChatGPT’s “Improve the model for everyone” setting also covers Codex tasks
Your own Claude (Anthropic) or Grok (xAI) API key	Straight to Anthropic or xAI	That provider’s API terms. You pay them, and a daily spend cap (default $5) limits it
A Tera Chat AI plan (Plus, Pro or Max)	Through Tera Chat’s server to Anthropic’s Claude	Tera Chat’s server passes the text on and doesn’t keep it

For a deeper look at the trade-offs between these setups, and between on-device and cloud AI generally, see is it safe to let AI read your messages.

Is the app itself trustworthy?

Here’s what you can check, and what you have to take on trust.

• Signed and notarized. The download is a signed, notarized disk image, so macOS verifies it before it runs.
• Signed updates. Tera Chat checks for updates on its own, downloads them in the background and installs them when you’re not in the middle of something, or when you quit. Every update is signed. You can also choose Check for Updates… in the app menu.
• Counts, never content. The app tells Tera Chat how often each feature is used and which networks are connected, never message text, contacts or names, and there are no ad or analytics SDKs in it. You can turn the counts off in Settings → General → Share usage counts. The terachat.co website sets no tracking cookies and loads no third-party scripts.
• No account required. You can use the app without signing in. If you do sign in (with Apple, Google or a 6-digit email code, no password), the account holds your AI plan and some settings, never your messages, contacts or chat accounts.
• What you take on trust. Tera Chat launched in October 2026, so it doesn’t have years of history behind it. Judge it by what it does on your Mac, and email hello@terachat.co with any question.

Can Tera Chat send messages on its own?

Not unless you turn that on, and by default even then it waits for you. Out of the box you read and send every message yourself. Autopilot is off until you turn it on for a platform or for a single chat, and by default it only writes replies ready to send: they wait in Pending drafts for you to edit, dismiss or send with one click.

Sending automatically is a separate per-chat switch marked Beta, with a warning that Tinder’s and Hinge’s terms don’t allow third-party AI tools and that it could get the account banned. We don’t recommend turning it on. Quiet hours (10 pm to 8 am by default, though not on Tinder), rate limits and an emergency stop (Disable all autopilot) stay in place either way, and Autopilot isn’t available for iMessage at all. The Autopilot guide explains each control.

What are the real risks?

None of these is hidden in fine print; they come with how Tera Chat connects to your accounts.

1. WhatsApp, Instagram, Tinder and Hinge don’t officially support it

Tera Chat connects to these services the way an unofficial app does, and their terms say so plainly:

• WhatsApp. Tera Chat pairs with your phone as a linked device using a QR code, the same way WhatsApp Web does. WhatsApp’s Terms of Service forbid using the service in unauthorized ways and creating “software or APIs that function substantially the same as our Services.” WhatsApp is also testing a warning that tells people linking an unofficial web client to switch to the official one (seen in Android beta 2.26.35.1, reported 1 September 2026); that warning hadn’t launched when we checked. WhatsApp has also launched a per-chat setting, Restricted chat: in a one-to-one chat either person can turn it on, in a group only admins can, and once it’s on, people in the chat can’t use linked devices for it, which WhatsApp says helps keep out unofficial clients and AI agents (About restricted chat). Tera Chat is a linked device, so expect a chat with Restricted chat on not to come through to it.
• Instagram. Tera Chat signs in on Instagram’s own login page inside the app. Instagram’s Terms of Use forbid accessing or collecting information in unauthorized ways, including automated collection without Meta’s permission.
• Tinder and Hinge. Tinder’s Terms of Use (effective 5 March 2026, section 2c) and Hinge’s terms ban third-party apps that directly interact with the service without written consent, “including but not limited to artificial intelligence or machine learning systems,” and Tinder can extend a ban to its sister apps. Tera Chat connects to your Tinder account (and to Hinge, in a read-only beta), so it is the kind of tool those terms cover. Our guide to whether using AI breaks Tinder’s rules quotes the clauses.
• Telegram. Telegram’s API terms openly welcome third-party apps. Tera Chat signs in through Telegram’s own website in a private browser window.
• iMessage. Tera Chat reads the Messages database on your own Mac and sends through the Messages app; it doesn’t sign in to your Apple Account itself. Apple’s planned Full Disk Access changes could alter how this works.

What this means in practice: we can’t promise that WhatsApp, Instagram, Tinder or Hinge won’t warn, restrict or ban an account connected through Tera Chat. If an account matters for your work, or you couldn’t bear to lose it, keep it on its official app. The same risk applies to every app built this way, which we cover in are all-in-one messaging apps safe.

2. Full Disk Access is broad

As above: it opens far more than Messages, and macOS can’t narrow it. Grant it only if you want iMessage in Tera Chat, and turn it off if you stop using the app.

3. Your AI provider keeps its own records

Once text reaches OpenAI, Anthropic or xAI, their policies apply, not ours. Check your provider’s data settings. With a Tera Chat AI plan, our server passes text to Anthropic’s Claude without keeping it, and Anthropic’s commercial terms then apply: by default it doesn’t train on that data and deletes it within 30 days, with exceptions such as enforcing its usage policy.

4. Your Mac is the vault

Because everything lives on your Mac, anyone who can use your Mac while you’re logged in can open Tera Chat, unless you turn on Lock Tera Chat with Touch ID in Settings → General. With it on, Tera Chat locks when it opens, when your Mac sleeps, when you close its window and after 5 minutes without use, and opens again with Touch ID or your Mac password. While the lock is on, Tera Chat also takes your chats and contacts out of Spotlight. It locks the app’s windows; it doesn’t encrypt anything on your disk. Locking a single conversation is different: it hides that chat from view, but it isn’t a password. Our guide to hiding or locking chats on a Mac covers what Messages, WhatsApp and Telegram offer. Use a strong login password, lock your screen when you step away, and turn on FileVault (System Settings → Privacy & Security → FileVault).

How do you remove Tera Chat completely?

Deleting the app isn’t enough on its own, because your sign-ins and data stay in their folders. Do these in order (folder names describe version 1.1.2; Tera Chat’s folders still use its internal code name, Mercury, and its app ID, com.ace.mercury):

1. End your plan and account, if you have them. In Tera Chat, cancel any AI plan in Settings → Tera Chat AI → Manage subscription, then choose Settings → Account → Delete account… and confirm with the code we email you.
2. Disconnect your services. On your phone, open WhatsApp’s Settings → Linked Devices, tap the device Tera Chat added and log it out. In Telegram’s Settings → Devices, end the session Tera Chat used. In Instagram’s Accounts Center, check where you’re logged in and log out any session you don’t want.
3. Quit Tera Chat from its menu bar icon or the app menu.
4. Turn off its permissions in System Settings → Privacy & Security: Full Disk Access, Automation, Contacts, Calendars, and any others where Tera Chat is listed.
5. Delete the app: drag Tera Chat from Applications to the Trash.
6. Delete its data. In Finder, choose Go → Go to Folder (⇧⌘G) and remove:
   • ~/Library/Application Support/Mercury (your local database, drafts, voice notes and the Tinder and Telegram browser profiles)
   • Inside ~/Library/Application Support/com.ace: the files whose names start with whatsmeow and the media folder (your WhatsApp connection, downloaded WhatsApp media and Instagram profile pictures)
   • ~/Library/WebKit/com.ace.mercury (your Instagram sign-ins, and WhatsApp Web if you used it for calls)
   • Anything named com.ace.mercury in ~/Library/Preferences, ~/Library/Caches and ~/Library/HTTPStorages (app settings and cached web data)
   • mercury-snapshot.json inside ~/Library/Group Containers/group.ace.os
   • If you set up the Hinge beta: the ~/.mercury folder, and the dating_hinge_play.avd folder and dating_hinge_play.ini file inside ~/.android/avd (its emulated phone)
7. Remove its Keychain items. Open Keychain Access (find it with Spotlight), search for com.ace.mercury, and delete what it finds.
8. Remove synced data from iCloud. After Tera Chat is off every Mac you use, open System Settings, click your name at the top of the sidebar, click iCloud, then Manage. If Tera Chat is listed, select it and delete its data.
9. Check Spotlight. Tera Chat adds your messages to Spotlight search. If they still show up after these steps, follow Apple’s steps to rebuild the Spotlight index.

The verdict

Tera Chat is a reasonable choice if you want your chats in one place on your Mac, you’re comfortable with an app reading them locally, and you like choosing your own AI provider or none at all. Think twice, or connect less, if a WhatsApp, Instagram or Tinder account is one you can’t risk, if your Mac is managed by an employer with its own rules, or if you’d rather not grant Full Disk Access (then simply leave iMessage out).

If you try it, connect one network at a time and set up AI only when you want it. Our getting started guide walks through each step, and the privacy page has the full policy.