Anonymous messages give people the nerve to say what they would never say face to face, and that is their whole value. The same nerve, in the wrong hands, turns into cruelty or spam. Anyone who remembers the rise and fall of Sarahah, or the headlines around NGL, knows that an anonymous app lives or dies by how it handles abuse. Sarhny is built on two principles at once: the sender's identity is protected, and abuse has limits. This article explains, in plain language, the layers that sit behind every message, from the settings you control, to automatic filters, to reporting, blocking and human review, and ends with practical tips to protect yourself.
The principle: anonymity is not a free pass
We never reveal who sent a message and we do not sell your data. That promise is central to Sarhny, and every safety tool is designed to work without breaking it. Filters read the text of a message, not its author. Moderators see the content that breaks the rules, never the identity of whoever wrote it. Reporting stops an abusive sender without telling anyone who they are. The goal is a space that stays honest without letting harm go unanswered.
Layer 1: you choose who can message you
The first line of defence is in your own settings:
- Who can message you: everyone, followers only, or anonymous messages switched off completely whenever you need a break.
- What kind of messages: voice notes and images only reach you if you turn them on yourself, and you can switch off text messages too.
- Your inbox is private: nobody else sees the messages you receive. Nothing from your inbox appears on your public profile unless you choose to answer it publicly.
Layer 2: filters that run before a message arrives
Every anonymous message goes through an automatic check before it is saved to your inbox. If it breaks a rule, it is never delivered, and the sender sees a notice that the message was not accepted.
Abusive words
The Sarhny team maintains a list of slurs and abusive words and can update it at any time. Matching works on whole words, not fragments, so an innocent message is not rejected just because it contains a word that happens to share letters with an offensive one. This matters in Arabic in particular, where a short root can appear inside everyday words.
Links and phone numbers
Links to well-known social platforms are allowed, so you can still share an account or a post you like. Links to other websites are rejected, and so are messages containing phone numbers. That keeps scam links out of your inbox and stops people posting someone's number without permission.
Explicit images
If you have turned on image messages, every uploaded image goes through an automatic nudity check. An image the check flags is rejected and never reaches you.
Layer 3: hurtful messages do not ambush you
Not every harsh message is an outright slur; some words wound without being profanity. For those we use something gentler than rejection. On the Sarhny website, a message containing hurtful words is folded behind a notice that reads “This message may be hurtful — tap to show”, so you decide when to read it. The phone notification for that kind of message arrives without its text, so it never surprises you on your lock screen. For a calm way to deal with these, see how to handle mean anonymous messages.
Layer 4: limits against flooding
Someone who tries to bombard one person with message after message, or to send a large volume of messages in a short time, runs into limits and is asked to wait. Similar limits protect comments on replies from repetition and spam, and they protect the login page from password guessing: sign-in attempts pause for a while after a number of failed tries.
Layer 5: reporting that actually does something
If you receive an abusive message, tap “Report” on it. The message disappears from your inbox straight away, and the report is recorded against the sender without revealing their identity to you or anyone else. When the same sender is reported by several different people, they are stopped from sending anonymous messages for a period. We require reports from more than one person on purpose, so a single angry user cannot silence someone else by reporting them over and over.
Reporting is not limited to messages. In the app you can report a post or an account and pick a reason, such as harassment or bullying, sexual content, impersonation or repeated spam messages. Comments on replies can be reported as well.
Layer 6: blocking
If the person bothering you is a registered Sarhny user, you can block them from their profile. Blocking removes the follow between you in both directions, and they can no longer message you, even if they try to send an anonymous message from their account. You can unblock later if you change your mind.
Layer 7: moderators and human review
Automatic filters cannot understand everything, so Sarhny has trusted community moderators, chosen by the Sarhny team, who can instantly hide abusive replies, posts and confessions in the night room, Al-Musamara. They can only hide content, and they never see who sent anything. Everything they hide goes into a review queue for the Sarhny team, which decides whether to restore it, delete it or suspend the account behind it. The rules we review against are in our content policy.
Layer 8: what reaches search engines
Some public replies can appear in search results, but answers containing explicit sexual language are kept out of search-engine indexes, and so are accounts with names of that kind. That way the public side of Sarhny does not become a doorway to explicit content.
Honestly: what filters cannot do
No filter is perfect. A determined person can reword a message to slip past a list, or write something hurtful in perfectly ordinary words. That is why we never rely on a single layer. Filters catch the obvious part; settings, reports, blocks and human review handle what gets through. Your part matters too: every report you send makes the space cleaner for you and for everyone else.
Tips to protect yourself
- Do not reply publicly to an abusive message; a public reply gives it an audience. Report it and move on.
- Do not try to unmask a sender with apps that promise to reveal identities; those promises can be a gateway to scams. We explain why in can you find out who sent an anonymous message?
- Keep your phone number, address and anything that points to where you are out of your public replies.
- If messages start to wear you down, switch to followers only or pause them, then reopen when you are ready.
- If you are threatened or blackmailed, take a screenshot, report it in the app, and contact the relevant authorities where you live.
Start safely
Create your Sarhny account, set who can message you before you share your link, and enjoy the honesty knowing there are layers behind it. And if you are curious what your answers say about you, read about the AI personality article.
Frequently asked questions
Does Sarhny reveal who sends abusive messages?
No. We never reveal who sent a message and we do not sell your data. Reports are recorded against the sender, though, and a sender reported by several different people is stopped from sending anonymous messages for a period.
What happens when I report a message on Sarhny?
The message disappears from your inbox immediately and the report is recorded against its sender without revealing who they are. If the sender is a registered user, you can also block them from their profile.
Why was my message rejected?
It may have contained a word from the abusive-words list, a link to a site other than the well-known social platforms, a phone number, or it may have been too short. Edit it and send it again.
Can I pause anonymous messages?
Yes. In your account settings choose who can message you: everyone, followers only, or anonymous messages off. You can change it at any time.
Do the filters stop every hurtful message?
No filter is perfect; some hurtful messages use ordinary words. That is why filters work together with your settings, reporting, blocking and review by moderators and the Sarhny team.