Vanifesto

Humans are innately social.

Yet Social Media (as we know it) is such a conveyer belt of misery that governments are passing legislation to ban it with broad brush strokes.

The failure here isn’t necessarily the companies or the employees behind social media platforms. There aren’t design meetings with mustachioed villains rubbing their hands together gleefully. This is natural, expected consequence of a new technology being introduced and seeing unexpected levels of success. Like the telephone, iteration is required for ubiquity.

Humans want to connect. Social Media will become good, embraced, appreciated, and used by all (even children) in some far flung future. It will be as important and as embraced as e-mail is today. What technologies power that future? What policies protect users, even from themselves? What design decisions lead us to excellent user experiences?

And most importantly… Can we get there sooner?

Let’s find out.

The VanChat Difference (Vifference)

Think of VanChat more like a fun road trip with your friends in a van. Conversations are momentary, intimate, and focused. Topics can be asynchronous, and the most recent topic is bubbled up in prominence.

You won’t feel compelled to keep checking in because you might miss out. Take it slow. Chat when it matters, and post your captured moments in privately curated feed.

Also, autocrats and nazis don’t fit in the Van. We are governed by our 🇨🇦 Charter, and there are no “amendment” rights here.

Data, Privacy, Trust, and Safety

Compliance for data regulation, trust, and safety is not an easy challenge, and there is currently no universal standard that can be applied globally. These laws and regulations are still being drafted, challenged, and changed — with 2026 seeing record activity in this field. Balancing data privacy and anonymity combined with new regulations for child safety are particularly difficult to navigate.

While VanChat will follow all applicable regulations, VanChat also hopes to model a “future good” to shape the future of regulation and legality while acknowledging this is currently a moving target.

At a high level, VanChat pledges that:

• Intolerence will not be tolerated. Read our Terms of Service.
• Your data is private, secure, and not for sale. Read our Privacy Policy.
• Commercialization only so far as to keep the lights on.

Vanifest Destiny

VanChat is a Product of Canada and is hosted on Canadian soil. No data is stored, on cloud services or otherwise, outside of the borders of Canada.

(You can opt in to things such as mobile app push notifications, which require storing device IDs on your device manufacturers servers.)

Non-Canadian entities we pay:

• GitHub (Source control)
• Apple (App Store fees)
• Google (Email, Play fees)
• Anthropic (Dev tools)

Contact

For questions, feedback, or support requests, contact us.