Chat Safety Signals
Chat safety signals provide context about the person you are messaging, including their connection country and possible VPN or proxy use. They appear in eligible direct conversations when the site's chat safety feature is enabled and the relevant information is available.
Country flags
The flag beside a person's name represents their last recorded connection country. It is not proof of their nationality, identity, or current physical location. A VPN or proxy can affect the country shown.
Select the flag or country name to open Location Information. If a safety warning is visible in the conversation, you can also select View details.
To open this guide at any time, select the book icon (Chat safety guide) in the chat header. It is available on desktop and mobile, even when no country flag or safety warning is shown.
Who can see a flag?
Visibility is checked separately for each person. Sending someone a message does not automatically reveal their country to you.
The following rules apply in order:
- If either person has blocked the other, chat safety information is hidden.
- An eligible active shared lock between the two people allows safety information to be shown. A past lock or a lock that has been ended, abandoned, archived, or released does not provide this access.
- Without an eligible shared lock, a pending, ignored, or withdrawn message request keeps safety information hidden.
- An accepted message request with a recorded requester allows safety information to be shown.
- For older or automatically accepted chats without a recorded requester, you can see the other person's safety information while at least one message they sent you has not been deleted for everyone. Your own messages do not unlock their information for you.
A country flag also requires a recorded country for that person. Meeting the conversation rules does not guarantee that location data is available.
Example: only one person has sent messages
Suppose Alex and Sam have an automatically accepted chat with no recorded message request and no active shared lock. Neither person has blocked the other, and both have recorded country information.
| What happens | What Sam can see | What Alex can see |
|---|---|---|
| Alex sends Sam a message | Alex's country flag | Sam's flag stays hidden |
| Sam reads the message without replying | Alex's country flag | Sam's flag stays hidden |
| Sam replies | Alex's country flag | Sam's country flag can appear |
Reading a message is not the same as replying or accepting a message request. This is why one person may see a flag while the other does not.
Does “accepted” mean the other person clicked Accept?
Not necessarily. Chastify can automatically mark a conversation as accepted, including when an active shared lock allows the chat. Older conversations can also have an accepted status without a recorded message request.
For these chats, the accepted status alone does not reveal location information after the shared-lock condition no longer applies. Each person's remaining messages determine what the other person can see, subject to the rules above.
What happens when I delete a message?
In older or automatically accepted chats without a recorded requester, Delete for everyone removes that message from the country-visibility check:
- If you sent several messages and delete only some of them, the other person can still see your country while at least one of your messages remains undeleted.
- If you delete all of your messages for everyone, your country and the other chat safety signals are hidden when the conversation data refreshes, unless an eligible shared lock independently allows access. The other person's own messages do not keep your flag visible.
- Delete for me only removes a message from your view. It does not withdraw the recipient's access in these chats. Clearing or hiding an older or automatically accepted conversation on your side also does not revoke their access.
For a message request that is still pending, deleting the latest request message or hiding the conversation withdraws the request. Without an eligible shared lock, pending and withdrawn requests keep safety information hidden. For an accepted request with a recorded requester, deleting messages does not undo acceptance or remove its access to safety information.
Blocking either way takes priority over these rules and prevents subsequent chat responses from including safety information. Deleting or blocking cannot undo information someone has already seen or loaded.
Understanding warnings
The Location Information panel can include:
| Signal | What it means |
|---|---|
| VPN/Proxy Detected | The last recorded connection was identified as using a VPN or proxy. |
| Possible Location Spoofing | Recorded connection history includes multiple countries and VPN or proxy use. Travel or legitimate VPN use can also explain this pattern. |
| Recently Created Account | The account is recent; the panel shows its age in hours. |
| Recent Locations | Recent recorded countries, with dates and VPN or proxy indicators when available. Consecutive records in the same country are combined. |
A VPN/proxy or possible location-spoofing signal can also display a Safety warning in the conversation. A recently created account alone does not trigger that warning card.
These signals are context, not proof that someone is dishonest. Likewise, a country flag or the absence of a warning does not establish that someone is trustworthy.
Why is a flag missing?
Check whether the conversation meets the visibility rules above. In particular, an automatically accepted chat can remain one-way for location visibility until the other person replies. A missing recorded country, a block, or the site's chat safety feature being disabled can also prevent a flag from appearing.
These rules describe direct chats between people. Group chats, AI and bot conversations, support conversations, and system broadcasts do not use this direct-chat flag display.
If the behavior still seems incorrect, contact Support with the affected conversation and what you expected to see. For payment-related concerns and reporting guidance, see Financial Domination (Findom).