Decoder Ring
Features

Pick how secret you want to get.

Decoder Ring starts free and stays useful. Each tier adds one specific power on top of everything below it — no all-or-nothing paywall.

For everyone — free

The whole cipher, no strings.

Encode or decode any text instantly. Decoder Ring preserves capitalization, punctuation, and emoji — so the gibberish still looks like a sentence, just one only your friends can parse.

  • Encode or decode any text instantly
  • Preserves capitalization, punctuation, and emoji
  • Share directly to Messages, Mail, or any chat app
  • Beautiful light and dark modes
  • No account. No sign-up. Nothing to manage.
Free version, encode mode
Plus

Change the dial. Pick your dictionary. Lose the ads.

The free tier locks the cipher number and the word list. Plus opens both — including a British English dictionary — and removes the ad slot at the top of the main screen.

  • Change your secret cipher number — pick any number from 1 to 10,000
  • Switch between multiple word dictionaries, including British and American English
  • No ads
Dictionary picker available with Plus
Contacts

One tap, one cipher per friend.

Save up to ten friends or group chats. Each contact has its own cipher number and dictionary, so you don't have to remember "the one I share with Sam is 873." Tap their name from the main screen and Decoder Ring sets the dial for you.

  • Up to ten saved contacts or group chats
  • Per-contact cipher number and dictionary
  • One-tap "translate for <name>" from the main screen
  • Edit, rename, or delete contacts any time
Saved contacts list
Messages auto-decode · works on every plan

Hand the typing to your iPhone.

Set up a Messages automation once and Decoder Ring decodes incoming messages from that friend the moment they arrive — no copy, no paste, no app switch. The app walks you through the setup the first time.

  • Built on iOS Shortcuts — no extra app to install
  • Works on every plan (decodes with your global cipher)
  • With Contacts: auto-routes to the right friend's cipher and dictionary
  • With Auto-Shift: the rotating daily cipher applies automatically
  • Requires iOS 26
Main screen after an auto-decoded message from a saved contact
Auto-Shift

A living cipher that rotates daily.

Turn on Auto-Shift for any contact and their cipher number bumps by one every calendar day. Yesterday's code is already stale — perfect for ongoing games, daily challenges, or just making a spy thriller out of your group chat.

  • Per-contact daily increment, fully automatic
  • Editing the magnitude resets the anchor to today
  • See today's effective cipher number in the editor
  • Toggle on or off at any time
  • Includes the Apple Watch companion app — change the dial from your wrist
Translating for a specific contact
Messages auto-decode · how it looks

Tap-free decoding, end to end.

Set up one automation per friend in Apple's Shortcuts app, add their number to the contact's linked handles in Decoder Ring, and you're done. When their next message arrives, the app foregrounds and the decoded text is already waiting.

A real auto-decoded iMessage.
The in-app setup wizard walking the user through creating the Messages automation
The setup wizard walks you through the automation.
A contact's Linked handles section with one or more phone numbers added
Add the sender's number to a contact's linked handles to route per friend.
Auto-Shift companion · Apple Watch

Change the dial from your wrist.

Auto-Shift includes a companion app for Apple Watch. Pick a saved contact, tap red, green, or blue — your cipher number jumps by a preset amount, and the app auto-encodes a quick instruction message so both sides stay in sync.

Apple Watch contact picker
Pick the friend you want to talk to.
Apple Watch color buttons
Quickly change the Cipher number in one of three ways and communicate it to your friend.
Watch app locked behind the Auto-Shift tier
Available with the Auto-Shift tier.
Polyglot · coming soon

Translate the cipher, not just shift it.

The next tier we're building. After the dictionary shift, Polyglot translates the resulting word into Spanish, French, or German. Your friend's app reverses both steps to recover the original.

  • Spanish, French, and German at launch
  • Layered on top of any other Decoder Ring tier
  • Same on-device privacy promise
Coming soon

Want early access? Email us.

One last thing.

Decoder Ring is a toy cipher, not a security product. Anyone who knows your cipher number and dictionary can decode your messages. Don't use it for anything you actually need to keep private.