How Held works

Choose what you want to share

Use Message for a read-only note, a set of files, or a voice recording. Its text and attachment descriptions are fixed when you create the link. Use Group chat when everyone needs to reply: up to 16 participants can exchange text, files, and voice recordings in one room.

For a file-only handoff, open File transfer and choose Send files or Receive files. Optical transfer moves a file or plain text from one device’s screen to another device’s camera.

1. Open Message or Group chat and prepare what you want to share.
2. Create the link and send the complete secret link to the people you want to invite.
3. Keep the necessary browsers connected while people join, read, or receive files.

The complete link grants access

The part of an invitation after # contains the secret needed to read the room. That fragment is not sent as part of the ordinary page request to Held’s server. Share the complete link through a channel you trust; anyone who obtains it may be able to join while the room remains available.

The coordination server arranges membership and browser connections. Message text, chat posts, attachment contents, and filenames travel between browsers with end-to-end encryption. The server still handles connection metadata, and direct connections do not hide participants’ network addresses.

End-to-end encryption keeps the content between you

In messages, chats, and File transfer, your browser locks the content and filenames before sending them. The invited browsers unlock that content using the secret in the complete link. This is called end-to-end encryption: Held’s coordination server and any connection relay cannot read the content they help deliver.

Encryption does not hide who is connecting, stop someone sharing the link, or erase a recipient’s saved copy. It also depends on trustworthy devices, browsers, and the application code delivered to them.

Direct connections let browsers exchange content

A peer is another participant’s browser. For messages, chats, and File transfer, Held uses a browser feature called WebRTC to let peers exchange encrypted content directly. Held’s coordination server helps the browsers find each other and join the room, but does not store a copy of the message or files for later delivery.

Some networks block direct connections. An optional connection relay can provide another route for the same encrypted content. Direct connections are still preferred when the relay option is on, so enabling it does not guarantee that your network address will be hidden from other participants.

Availability follows the people holding it

A holder is a connected browser that keeps a message or room available to others. Held has no server inbox that can take over when the necessary holders leave. File transfers through nearby browsers or secret links also need connected browsers with the required file pieces.

A default creator-held message ends when its original creator session leaves, reloads, disconnects, or expires. A carried message stays available while at least one admitted holder remains. Its original connected creator can also end it, but loses that authority after disconnecting.

A group chat ends when its final participant leaves or expires. Groups have no owner-controlled End action. These are live-session rules, not a read-once setting or a scheduled destruction timer. A silent connection loss can take time to be detected.

An optional relay for difficult networks

A connection relay is an extra server that passes encrypted traffic between browsers when they cannot connect directly. You can allow one in Connection settings before creating a message or group. It is off by default and applies to everyone joining through that link. Direct connections are still preferred. A relay can improve reliability on restrictive networks, but cannot guarantee a connection.

The privacy trade-off is that, when the relay is used, an additional provider can observe participants’ IP addresses, connection timing, and how much data passes through it. Message, chat, and file content stays end-to-end encrypted. Held does not guarantee anonymity with the relay off either, and turning it on does not guarantee that peers cannot learn your network address.

A relay adds no offline mailbox: the required holder and file sources must stay connected. If the option is unavailable, you can still create a link using direct connections. The separate code and QR device-pairing step still needs a direct connection.

Offline file sharing: from a screen to a camera

Optical transfer at held.cat/qr sends a file or plain text through animated color patterns. Each transfer can contain up to 16 MiB; for text, the limit counts UTF-8 bytes. The receiving camera reads the content itself, without a room, nearby discovery, or a network connection between the devices. This experimental mode is separate from QR device pairing, which shares an invitation to a network transfer.

Password protection is optional and off by default for both files and text. Enable Protect with a password to encrypt the content and its file name, then share a strong password of at least 6 characters separately. Without it, any camera that records enough of the patterns can recover what you send.

After setup, the same /qr page reopens offline in this browser. No separate offline page or installation is needed. Speed depends on the screens, camera, lighting, and focus; no fixed transfer speed is guaranteed.

1. While connected, open Optical transfer on both devices and wait for Available offline before disconnecting.
2. On the sending device, choose Send, then File to select a file or Text to type or paste text. Set optional password protection and choose Show transfer patterns.
3. On the receiving device, choose Receive and Start camera, then keep the full pattern in view.
4. When reception finishes, enter the password if one was set. Download a verified file, or read the received text and choose Copy text or Download text to save a .txt file.

URL shortening with no account needed

Use Held’s URL shortener to turn a long web address into a short link without signing up. Paste the destination, choose Traditional or Encrypted, select an expiry, and copy the result. Neither option adds click tracking.

These temporary short links expire after 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, or 30 days. They keep working until their expiry even if you close your browser; opening a link does not extend its lifetime. Expiry stops the short link working but does not delete the destination page or copies someone kept.

Understand what remains

Held has no server mailbox from which an ended message or chat can be recovered. Recipients can still copy text, take screenshots, or save files. Ending a room cannot erase those copies.

The separate Short link tool offers Traditional and Encrypted links. Traditional is the default and gives you the shortest link; Held can read its destination until expiry. Encrypted makes a slightly longer link and keeps the destination private from Held through browser encryption. Share the complete encrypted link, including everything after #. Secret Held invitations must still be shared directly.