Frequently asked questions

What happens if I forget to check in?

Your signal begins to fade, and WillSignal sends reminder emails to the address on your account before it goes out. Each reminder says how much time is left and asks you to check in. It never names a message or a receiver.

If the countdown still reaches zero, your signal goes out and delivery starts. The messages you have ready reach their receivers inside the app.

If it happened by mistake, the delivery is recoverable as described below.

Does WillSignal verify that I died?

No.

WillSignal does not claim to detect or verify death. A signal going out means exactly one thing: its owner stopped checking in.

That is the entire mechanism, and we would rather you rely on it for what it actually is.

Can a message be stopped once the countdown reaches zero?

Do not count on it.

Your signal goes out shortly after the countdown reaches zero, and delivery is part of that moment. There is no review or confirmation step in between.

The protections sit on either side of delivery: reminders beforehand and pull-back afterward.

I triggered it by accident. Can I recover?

Yes.

You can pull back any delivered message. Pulling it back removes it from the receiver’s inbox, although it cannot undo anything the receiver has already opened and seen.

You can then restart your signal when you are ready.

Restarting after an accidental delivery carries a real lock: one month, growing to three and then six if it keeps happening. The lock is measured from the moment your signal went out, not from when you restart. If your signal went out with nothing actually delivered — no receiver attached to any message that was ready — no lock is applied.

Why is there a penalty for restarting?

A signal that repeatedly goes out and returns stops meaning anything, both to its owner and to the people waiting on it.

The restart lock keeps a signal going out as serious as it sounds.

The lock applies only to the signal itself. You can continue writing, editing, and pulling back messages while the lock is active.

What if WillSignal itself goes down while my signal is running?

Every fail-safe here is built to lean one direction: late rather than early.

When the service stops running, that gap is measured and every running countdown is credited forward by at least the time it was down. The time you could not have used is given back.

We also run a continuous check on whether check-ins are getting through. While that check says they are not, delivery is held rather than allowed to proceed. It is a safeguard we operate, not a property of the system, and it can only act on a failure it detects.

So a failure on our side should postpone delivery, not cause one. That is the design and how we operate it, rather than a guarantee that it cannot happen.

How long can my signal run?

You can choose a cycle between one and thirty days. The default is three days.

Whatever duration you choose, WillSignal sends reminder emails to the address on your account before your signal goes out, spaced according to that cycle.

What’s the difference between pausing and the restart lock?

Pausing is something you choose.

You can pause your signal for a set period or indefinitely. While paused, it does not drain and cannot go out.

The restart lock is not chosen. It follows a signal that went out by mistake and was then restarted, and it lifts automatically when its duration ends. When it lifts, your signal is simply off again, waiting for you to start it.

Neither state affects your messages. Pausing or entering the restart lock does not prevent you from writing or editing them.

Does the receiver need an account?

Yes. Delivery only ever lands inside a WillSignal account, and message content is never sent through email or text message.

You can address someone by email before they have an account. Once they register and verify that address, your message binds to their account.

Delivery happens at the moment your signal goes out and only reaches receivers who have joined by then. That is why sending the invitation early can matter.

What if my receiver never registers?

Nothing is delivered to them.

The message is not lost or exposed. It remains with your account, unread by anyone, and you can address it to someone else whenever you choose.

What if my receiver changes their email address?

Once a message is bound to the receiver’s account, delivery targets the person rather than the address. Changing the email address later does not affect that binding.

The address matters only before the message is bound. If the receiver never verifies the address you entered, the message does not bind to their account, and you can re-address it.

How many receivers can I have?

You have five delivery slots shared across all your messages.

Each receiver bound to each individual message occupies one slot, ordered by when that receiver joined the message. The same person bound to two separate messages therefore occupies two slots.

Someone addressed only by email does not occupy a slot until they join and the message binds to their account.

You can stage more than five receivers. When your signal goes out, delivery occurs only for the five occupied slots. The rest stay staged until you free a slot: removing a receiver from any message frees theirs, and a receiver on a message that already went out can only be removed once you pull that message back. They are then included the next time your signal goes out.

Will receivers know a message is waiting for them?

Yes, but that is all they can see.

Before your signal goes out, a receiver sees only a count of sealed messages. They cannot see the words, who wrote them, or when the messages may arrive.

Why show them anything at all?

That is a deliberate product choice.

Knowing that someone has left a message for you can itself be part of what the message means. WillSignal therefore makes that fact visible while keeping everything else sealed.

There is no option to hide the count.

Will they know it’s from me?

Only if you choose to reveal that.

Every message begins anonymous. Revealing your identity is decided separately for each receiver.

On the same message, you can sign your name for one person and remain unknown to another. When you reveal your identity, the receiver sees your username.

What if I get messages I don’t want?

You can block a sender. Blocking is invisible to the blocked person, and their application continues to look and behave exactly as it did before.

You can also report a message to WillSignal. Blocking and reporting both sit on the message itself, and a person can be reported or blocked from your friends list as well.

Can WillSignal read my messages?

For Standard messages, technically, yes. That is the trade Standard mode makes, and WillSignal states it plainly.

For Locked messages, no, within the specific limits described on the Security page. Locked messages are encrypted on your device and opened only on a receiver’s device.

What does “end-to-end encrypted” mean here?

A Locked message’s title and body are encrypted before they leave your device and decrypted only on the receiver’s device.

They use mailbox keys protected by inbox passphrases that never reach WillSignal.

What reaches WillSignal’s servers is a sealed envelope the service cannot open, within the limits explained on the Security page.

What if I forget my inbox passphrase?

Your recovery code restores access to your mailbox key and allows you to set a new passphrase. Nothing becomes unreadable.

Losing both the inbox passphrase and the recovery code is different. The old mailbox key becomes unrecoverable by design. There is no override and no master key.

The full consequences are explained on the Security page.

Is WillSignal a legal will?

No.

WillSignal delivers personal messages: words, not legal instruments. It has no legal effect on your estate or assets, and it should not be the only place where anything urgent or legally binding is stored.

Create a formal will through the appropriate legal process and seek professional advice where you live.

What happens if I delete my account?

Your signal freezes immediately and remains frozen throughout the 30-day account-closing window. An account that is closing can never deliver anything.

During those thirty days, you can sign back in and recover the account. Recovery never restarts a countdown automatically.

After the closing window ends, deletion becomes permanent. Messages you previously delivered are also removed from receivers’ inboxes.

What does WillSignal cost?

WillSignal is free to use today.

Where does WillSignal run?

WillSignal runs in your browser on a phone or desktop, with no installation required.

An Android app is in closed testing and will follow.