Questions about Roost

Roost is a slow messaging app where every message is carried by a virtual bird, snail or turtle that flies across a real map in real time. It's free on the App Store and Google Play.

You write to friends, to group chats called Nests, or to pen pals, pick who carries your message, and watch it travel. A message across town can arrive in minutes; a letter to a pen pal overseas can take days. Along the way you collect couriers from more than 1,000 species.

In the stores, the app is listed as Roost Social. Roost is made by Good Egg LLC and has been covered by The New York Times, USA Today and TechCrunch. Read more about slow messaging.

You write a message, choose a bird to carry it, and Roost shows how long the trip will take. The bird then flies across a real map in real time, and you get a notification when it arrives.

1. Sign in with Apple or Google and enter your birthday.
2. Connect with someone. Add friends by username (they accept first), or opt in to Pen Pals to write to someone new.
3. Write and pick a courier. Every message is carried by a bird, snail or turtle. Before you send, Roost shows the trip time.
4. Watch it fly, or don't. Follow the flight live on the Map tab, or close the app and wait for the notification.

Delivery time depends on the distance and the speed of your courier. That wait is the point of Roost: it's a slow messaging app.

Yes. Roost is free on the App Store and Google Play, and its core social features stay free. Optional in-app purchases and an optional subscription, Roost Supporter, are available.

Sending messages, adding friends, writing to pen pals and sending photos are free for everyone. Purchases are extras, like new birds and packs in the Shop, Nest looks and extra Nest slots. Roost Supporter adds perks such as more Egg Energy, more pen pal requests, a monthly bird, an exclusive flight trail, a badge and no sponsored GIFs.

Prices are set by each store and shown in the app before you buy. See Is there a Roost subscription?

No. The birds in Roost are virtual. Their flights follow real distances on a real map, so your message takes real time to arrive.

They aren't all pigeons, either. Roost has more than 1,000 species of couriers, including snails, turtles, tortoises and bats, and even Cher Ami, the famous World War I homing pigeon. Curious about the real thing? Read our guide to carrier pigeons.

Yes. Roost is on Google Play for Android phones and on the App Store for iPhone. It's free on both.

Roost launched on iPhone in April 2026, and the Android version followed. In both stores, look for Roost Social, or use our download page.

Slow messaging means a message takes real time to arrive instead of landing instantly. On Roost, delivery time depends on the distance and the speed of the bird carrying it.

Roost has no endless public feed and no pressure to reply right now. Read more on our slow messaging page.

Slow tech is technology designed to fit around your life instead of competing for your attention. Roost applies the idea to messaging: every message takes real time to arrive.

You don't need to keep Roost open while your bird flies, because the app tells you when it lands. Founder Logan Mendelsohn described Roost to TechCrunch as "kind of a break from the instant." Read more on our slow tech page.

On Roost, every message is a flight you can watch: a bird, snail or turtle carries it across a real map in real time, and you see the trip time before you send.

Roost works with friends you already know, with group chats called Nests, and with pen pals. It also has:

• More than 1,000 species of collectible couriers, each with real field-guide facts in the Codex.
• A Passport that collects stamps from the countries your birds reach.
• Live flights on the Map, with a notification when your message lands.
• Pen pals matched only within their own age group.

Roost is made by Good Egg LLC and was created by its founder, Logan Mendelsohn.

The idea began as a joke while he was backpacking through Europe with college friends: an app to send carrier pigeons to friends back home that would take a very long time to get there. He started building it in May 2025, as USA Today reported. Roost has since been covered by The New York Times, USA Today, TechCrunch and others. See our press page.

The Roost app is available in more than 20 languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Indonesian.

Roost can also translate messages on your device, so you can write to friends and pen pals who speak another language. See Can Roost translate messages?

Roost has safety protections built in: only friends you've accepted can message you one-to-one, only a friend can add you to a Nest, pen pals are matched only within their age group, and automated moderation plus human review covers messages, profiles, pen pal letters and photos.

• Real sign-in. You sign in with Apple or Google; there are no anonymous accounts. Everyone enters and confirms their birthday.
• You choose who can reach you. Friends must accept a request before they can message, and pen pal letters start only when both people accept.
• Pen pals by age group. Ages 13 to 15, 16 to 17 and adults are matched only within their own group. Minors are never matched with adults.
• Moderated letters. Pen pal letters are moderated before delivery and can't include photos or contact info.
• Your city, not your address. Your profile shows only your city, and friends see only your city unless you make them a Close Friend.
• Block and report. Block or report anyone from their profile. They aren't told.
• Image safety. Known child sexual abuse images are detected by hash matching and reported to NCMEC, and the account is disabled.

Read our Child Safety Standards, or email safety@roostsocial.app.

You must be at least 13 to use Roost, or older where local law sets a higher minimum age. Users aged 13 to 15 must confirm that a parent or guardian has given permission before they can finish signing up.

• Under 13: can't create an account.
• 13 to 15: confirm that a parent or guardian has given permission.
• 16 to 17: sign up on their own, with protections for minors. For example, pen pals are matched only within their age group, and sponsored GIFs are never shown.
• 18 and over: the Artist Program, art challenges and sponsored giveaways are for adults only.

Everyone enters a birthday at sign-up, and on supported devices it's checked against the device's age range. Birthdays are never shown to other users. See our Child Safety Standards.

No. On Roost, only friends you've accepted can message you directly, and pen pal letters start only when both people accept the match. In a Nest, you may also get messages from other members the owner added, and only a friend can add you to a Nest.

If someone you don't know sends a friend request, deny it from the Flock tab; they aren't notified. People can find you by your exact username, by name only while your profile is public, and by phone number only if you turned that on.

Yes. Roost matches pen pals only within the same age group: 13 to 15, 16 to 17 and adults. Minors are never matched with adults.

People whose age isn't known aren't matched at all. Learn more about Roost Pen Pals.

Open the person's profile and choose Block or Report. You can also report from the menu on any message or conversation. They aren't told that you blocked or reported them.

• Blocking stops them from messaging you or sending you friend requests. Undo it anytime in Settings → Blocked Users.
• Reporting sends the profile, message or conversation to our moderators. Pick the reason that fits; "Child safety" is one of them.

You can also email safety@roostsocial.app.

It's safe to deny the request. Open the Flock tab, find the request and tap the red ✕. They won't be notified.

A stranger can find you by searching your exact username, or after matching with you as pen pals. Only accept requests from people you know. If it keeps happening, block them from their profile.

Not by default. Your profile shows only your city, and friends see only your city until you make them a Close Friend. Pen pals only ever see your general city area.

Roost does need your location to deliver messages: it uses it to work out each flight path and trip time. You control who sees what in Settings → Location Privacy:

• Close Friends: choose which friends can see your precise location.
• Allow precise location with Close Friends: when it's off, every friend, Close Friends included, sees only your Home or city area.
• Show flights to friends: when it's off, your flights stop appearing on friends' maps and in their feeds.
• Home: set a Home location that friends see instead of your live location. By default, Close Friends can still see your live location, and you can turn that off. You can change your Home once every 7 days.

You always see your own birds' exact positions on your map. See our Privacy Policy.

Roost messages are encrypted in transit and at rest. They are not end-to-end encrypted.

Location data, including GPS, is removed from photos before they're stored or delivered. See our Privacy Policy.

No. Roost does not sell your personal information, and advertisers never receive your name, email, messages, contacts or location.

The only ads in Roost are sponsored GIFs, shown only to adults without Roost Supporter or Founders Club. Roost may use public profile details, like your username, bird names and collection, to promote Roost itself, but never your private messages, media, friends list, precise location or real name. See our Privacy Policy.

It depends on the distance and the speed of the courier you choose. A message across town can arrive in minutes, while a letter to a pen pal overseas can take days. Roost shows the trip time before you send.

Some birds are fast, while snails and most turtles take their time. You can follow the flight on the Map or close the app; you'll get a notification when it arrives. Want it there sooner? See Can I make my messages arrive faster?

Yes. Pick a faster courier, or train your birds: birds get faster as they level up and train.

Every flight earns your bird XP, and the training games add more XP and speed. There's no hard speed cap. If you'd rather a bird keep its current pace, turn on Practice Mode to lock its speed. See What is training?

Yes, while it's still in flight. Unsending a message costs 1 egg of Egg Energy.

Egg Energy refills on its own over time. See What is Egg Energy for?

You can send text, photos, drawings, voice notes and GIFs. Photos are free for everyone.

You can also send a view-once Flutter photo, or start a game of Chess or Four in a Row in a one-to-one chat. Pen pal letters are different: they can't include photos or contact info.

A Flutter is a view-once photo on Roost. It disappears after it's opened.

Once your friend opens it, the chat shows that it has fluttered away. As with every photo on Roost, location data is removed before it's delivered.

Yes. You can play Chess or Four in a Row with a friend inside a one-to-one chat, and every move is carried by bird.

Games aren't available with pen pals.

Yes. Send an Invite Flight, a message to a friend who hasn't joined Roost yet. If they don't claim it within 14 days, it expires.

Roost stores only a keyed hash of their phone number, not the number itself. Anyone who opens the invite link sees a preview of the first 80 characters, so keep private details out of the opening line.

Yes. Roost can translate messages on your device. The text isn't sent to Roost or to a translation service.

Translation uses your phone's built-in engine, so the languages available can depend on your device.

Press and hold any message, then tap an emoji.

Tap the same emoji again to remove your reaction. Your reaction shows under the message for everyone in the chat.

Your bird stays at the recipient's Rookery as a Visitor until you recall it. To have your birds fly straight home after every delivery, turn on "Auto-recall my birds" in Settings.

From your side, a bird that's visiting someone shows as Away. See What does each bird status mean?

Opt in to Pen Pals in the Roost app, make a pen pal profile and verify your phone number. Roost suggests matches, and once you both accept, you can start writing.

Your pen pal profile has a postcard prompt, your interests and your city. As the app puts it, "Pen Pals are slow letters, not live chat": each letter travels by bird across the real distance between you.

• Letters are moderated before delivery.
• No photos or contact info: no links, socials, phone numbers, emails or exact locations.
• You're matched only within your age group.
• You can block, report or unmatch anytime.

Learn more on our Pen Pals page.

Yes. Pen pals on Roost are anonymous, one-to-one letters with someone new. Your pen pal only ever sees your general city area, never your precise location.

Letters can't include contact info, and pen pals stay separate from your friends unless one of you sends a friend request later.

Roost Supporters can filter pen pal matches by country and save filter presets. Otherwise, Roost suggests matches for you.

It depends on how far apart you live and which courier carries the letter. A letter to a pen pal overseas can take days, and Roost shows the trip time before you send.

That's by design. Flight times are real, and your home sets the distance every letter travels. How often you write is an expectation, not a promise. Slow letters are still good letters.

A courier is the bird, snail or turtle that carries your message on Roost. Each time you write, you choose who carries it.

You can set a default courier so sending takes one tap.

Any bird you own that's at home can carry a message, and Roost has more than 1,000 species to collect, including snails, turtles and bats.

There are also extinct species in the Ghosts of the Past collection, like the Dodo and the Passenger Pigeon, and new species arrive regularly.

Speeds vary by species, and every bird gets faster as it levels up and trains, so your fastest courier depends on what you collect and how you train it.

For birds built for speed in real life, look for the Speed Demons collection of swifts and swallows in the app. At the other end, snails and some turtles and tortoises are the slowest couriers.

You get new birds from drops, the Egg (a mystery pack), the Shop, weekly leaderboard rewards, the Egg Streak and special events. Everyone also starts with starter birds.

You can check a mystery pack's odds before you buy.

Every bird on Roost has one of seven rarities. Rarer birds are harder to get from drops, the Egg and the Shop.

1. Common (gray)
2. Uncommon (green)
3. Rare (blue)
4. Epic (purple)
5. Legendary (orange)
6. Mythic (red)
7. Celestial (astral blue)

The Codex is your collection log of every bird type in Roost. Each entry shows whether you've Sighted it or Adopted it, along with real field-guide facts about the species.

• Sighted: a bird of that type has come to your Rookery.
• Adopted: you've owned a bird of that type that started out as yours.

Both are permanent. Species pages include facts like habitat, diet and conservation status.

They count different things. Your pigeon count is how many individual birds you have; the Codex counts each different kind you've collected.

If you own five birds of the same kind, your count shows 5 but the Codex counts one kind.

A bird on Roost is always At home, In flight, Arrived, or Away/Visitor.

• At home: in your Rookery and ready to send.
• In flight: delivering a message right now.
• Arrived: the message has been delivered. You can recall the bird home.
• Away / Visitor: the bird is at someone else's Rookery. It's Away from the sender's view and a Visitor from the recipient's.

Turn on "Auto-recall my birds" in Settings to bring your birds straight home after each delivery.

Yes. You can give any bird you own its own name on Roost.

Egg Energy is Roost's training currency. You spend 1 egg to start a training session or to unsend a message in flight.

You can hold up to 10 eggs, and 1 egg refills every 6 hours. Roost Supporter raises the cap and speeds up the refill. Out of eggs? You can still play in Practice Mode.

Training is how your birds get stronger. Each session costs 1 egg and earns your bird XP and speed.

• Swoop: dodge pipes.
• Bullet Hell: dodge bullets and beat bosses. Grazing bullets builds a combo.

You can train any bird that's at home, anytime, as long as you have eggs.

Practice Mode lets you play the training games without spending an egg, but it gives no XP or speed.

It turns on automatically when you're out of eggs. You can also switch it on for a bird you're happy with, which locks its speed.

No, there's no hard cap on a bird's speed. Birds get faster as they level up and train, so your most-trained birds will outrun the rest.

Each training game has weekly leaderboards, one per difficulty. Boards reset every Monday at 00:00 UTC, and the top 3 on each board earn a random bird.

iPhone and Android players are ranked on separate boards.

When an Egg Streak is running, you get a small task each day. Finish it to crack that day's egg and keep your streak going; complete the full streak to earn a bird.

Miss a day and your streak resets, though you may get one save to protect it. The Egg Streak is separate from Egg Energy.

Search for your friend's username and send a request. Once they accept, you can message each other.

You can also find friends from your contacts if you choose to. Contacts are hashed on your device, and you only show up as "on Roost" to people who have your number if you've verified your phone and turned on "Let people who have my number find me", which is off by default.

Nests are group chats on Roost for you and up to 20 friends. Every message sent in a Nest flies to each member.

The owner adds and removes members, and there's no public joining. Each member picks their own nest color. You can get Nest looks and extra Nest slots in the Shop.

The Map shows birds in flight in real time. Use the filters to choose which flights you see: Mine (the default), Friends, Nests or Pen Pals.

You always see your own birds' exact positions. You also get a notification when a message arrives, so you don't have to keep watching.

Every bird on Roost carries a Passport. The first time it arrives in a new country, it can earn a permanent stamp for that country.

Each stamp records the date, the distance traveled, and who sent and received the message.

Landmark events are special destinations on the Roost map that you can send a bird to for a reward, for a limited time.

The first community expedition, the Heard Island Expedition, opened on September 20, 2026, with a pin on one of the most remote islands on Earth, and runs through October 18, 2026. As of late September 2026, more than 73,000 people had sent a bird. Reaching the island earns a Heard Island Passport stamp and a Legendary bird.

In the Roost Shop you can buy specific birds, mystery packs like the Egg, Nest looks, extra Nest slots and flight trails. You can also subscribe to Roost Supporter.

Purchases go through the App Store or Google Play. Virtual items have no cash value and can't be transferred, sold or traded.

Yes. Roost Supporter is an optional subscription, billed monthly or annually through the App Store or Google Play. Roost stays free without it.

Supporter includes:

• More Egg Energy that refills faster
• More pen pal requests, plus country filters and presets
• A monthly bird of Epic rarity or better
• The Gilded flight trail and a Supporter badge
• No sponsored GIFs

Cancel anytime in your App Store or Google Play account. Benefits last until the end of the paid period, and the birds and items you've collected aren't deleted when it ends. At times, Roost has also offered Founders Club, a one-time purchase that includes Supporter perks for life.

Refunds are handled by the store you paid through, not by Roost. On iPhone, request one from Apple; on Android, request one from Google Play.

For Apple purchases, go to reportaproblem.apple.com. For Google Play purchases, follow Google Play's refund steps.

The only ads in Roost are sponsored GIFs in the GIF picker. They're shown only to adults without Roost Supporter or Founders Club, and never to anyone under 18.

Roost Supporter removes them, and advertisers never receive your name, messages, contacts or location.

Sign in to Roost with your Apple or Google account; there's no separate password. If you turn on Pen Pals or contact matching, you also verify your phone number with a one-time code.

The code arrives by text message, or by Telegram in some regions.

Yes. Go to Settings → Edit Profile to change your username. You can change it once every 30 days.

Usernames are at least 3 characters and use lowercase letters, numbers and underscores. If a name is taken, you'll be asked to pick another.

Your avatar pigeon is the bird other people see as your profile picture. You can pick any bird you own.

Set or change it in Settings → Edit Profile → Profile Picture.

No. Your Roost account is stored in the cloud, so signing in again on a new phone or after reinstalling brings everything back.

Request a copy in Settings → Download My Data. Once it's ready, it stays available for 30 days.

For other privacy requests, email privacy@roostsocial.app.

Go to Settings → Account → Delete Account. You're signed out right away, and most of your data is removed within 30 days.

Changed your mind? Sign back in before deletion finishes to cancel it. Some data is kept longer:

• Encrypted backups for up to 90 days
• Purchase and consent records for 7 years
• Messages you already delivered stay with the people who received them
• Anonymized totals that can't identify you

Can't open the app? Email privacy@roostsocial.app from your account email. Full details are on our Delete Account page.

Email contact@roostsocial.app for help. We reply within 2 to 3 business days.

• Privacy requests: privacy@roostsocial.app (answered within 30 days)
• Safety concerns: safety@roostsocial.app
• Bugs and ideas: feedback@roostsocial.app
• Press: press@roostsocial.app
• Partnerships: partner@roostsocial.app

You can also visit our support page.