Gliph Marketplace
For the first time, you can now create, browse and purchase items from Gliph Marketplace from the Gliph iPhone app.

• Join the Open Gliph Marketplace Chat Group
• View Animated Gif of iPhone App and Gliph Marketplace

Using cash or Bitcoin to complete a P2P transaction has never been easier! You can chat directly with a buyer or seller, make an offer or leave a deal with ease. Push notifications keep you informed of deal progress.

If you want to pay or be paid in Bitcoin for a listing, just connect your Coinbase or Blockchain.info wallet to your Gliph Account. (Use Bitcoin in the menu)

Updated Activity View
Gliph for iOS 2.0 includes an updated color set and improves the usability of the app. By default, the app is brighter to look at, and +People button has been added to clarify how to add friends or create Groups.

The updated Activity view makes it easy to see items you’re buying or selling in Gliph Marketplace. Listings you’re actively working with are shown right above your conversations. Once you’ve completed or left a deal, these are moved back out of the activity view.

Dark Color Mode
In Settings you can now enable a “Dark Mode” which turns the title bar black across the entire app.

This subtle change to the look of the app may be attractive if you want to keep a low profile and aren’t big on the new brighter default look of Gliph.

Note, you will need to restart the app after changing this setting for it to take effect.

More to Come

This is Gliph’s 40th release for iOS, on a steady three year run of development for the Gliph iPhone application. While the app has evolved quite a bit, this particular release marks a big step forward for the app!

This is the first version of our iOS app with Gliph Marketplace. We have a variety of improvements planned that fill out this important new part of Gliph. As always, we appreciate your support and feedback. Please send a message to Support with comments!

And if you missed it, today we released Gliph Marketplace for Desktop Web.

Today marks an important expansion of Gliph with the release of Gliph Marketplace: a new way to buy and sell locally using cash and the Bitcoin digital currency.

Our team has brought together secure messaging, transaction workflow and digital payments into an awesome new P2P transaction experience we call Deal Flow.

• Deal Flow helps you stay focused on completing a deal by integrating messaging and useful push notifications into the buying and selling experience. Gliph Marketplace has privacy built-in eliminating the distraction of “burner” phone numbers and “email gateways.”
• Deal Flow saves you time with intuitive listing status updates. For example, when someone is ready to buy something from you, the status moves from “Q&A” to “Offer Submitted.” Deal status updates ensure you have the most recent information so you can make the best decision with your time.
• Deal Flow earns you money faster by making digital payments an integrated part of the Gliph Marketplace experience. Once you’ve accepted an offer, paying for the item using Bitcoin is handled in a single tap.

You can view a complete video demo of Gliph Marketplace and Deal Flow here:

Gliph Marketplace Deal Flow on Android

Initial Release
Gliph Marketplace and Deal Flow are initially available on Gliph’s Android and mobile web applications. Desktop Web and iPhone versions are coming soon.

While waiting for the iOS update, iPhone users may visit https://gli.ph/m in mobile Safari to start using Gliph marketplace now.

Items available in Gliph Marketplace (like this Playstation 4) may be viewed on the Desktop Web right now.

Becoming a Seller in Gliph Marketplace
At the onset of Gliph Marketplace, our team is personally interviewing and approving every seller on the platform. You can apply to become a seller using this form.

We’re also reviewing each new listing prior to publishing in Gliph Marketplace because:

1. We want to make improvements on Gliph Marketplace as quickly as possible. We can gather feedback and respond to it faster by limiting how many sellers are using the system at first.
2. Gliph Marketplace is not a dark market. It is intended to be well-lit and safe place to buy and sell stuff. Especially at the beginning, we want to make sure people’s first experiences are good ones.

One of the results of this will limit the selection of items available in the Marketplace at first. So if you don’t see something you like nearby please be patient. :)

We are planning to approve new sellers regularly.  At first, we are focused on people in the San Francisco, New York City and Portland, Oregon regions. However, we’re looking for people who are knowledgeable about Bitcoin and are happy to accept it as an alternative to cash so please apply regardless of your location. We encourage you to apply.

Conclusion
We are very excited to be bringing this product to market today. It represents a culmination of creative ideas, privacy, technology and embrace of Bitcoin that our entire team is proud of.

We acknowledge we have a lot left to do and over the coming weeks we will be working hard to bring the remaining clients online, add or improve features and find and fix issues. Thank you for your support and feedback! Hit us up at username ‘support’ or at our support email address support at gli.ph.

When someone sends a message to a group you’re in, your smartphone will vibrate and play your chosen notification sound. However, after the initial messages, Gliph will enter a cooldown period until you’ve visited the conversation and left it again.

During the notification cooldown period, you’ll still get visual notifications but your phone will not vibrate or make noise. This cooldown period ends after five minutes. That way, if you just missed the first notification you’ll get another reminder about ongoing, unseen activity in your group.

In case you did not know, you can shut off notifications for a particular group or private conversation. This allows you to more carefully control what conversations are important enough to interrupt your day.

Notifications are important in letting you know something happened on Gliph. We know they need to be reliable, and useful. As a result we’ve done revisions to make them more helpful. We believe notifications are a critical part of Gliph’s platform and we will continue to iterate and improve their behavior over time

Bitcoin has been Returned to the Gliph iOS Application
We’ve just released version 1.90 of the Gliph app, which was approved by Apple for the App Store late this last week. The release restores the ability to send Bitcoin between Gliph users, and adds the new capability of paying outside the Gliph network using QR codes.

New Desktop Web Application Now Available
Gliph now supports all modern web browsers with a brand new desktop web application. Whether you’re on a tablet, laptop or desktop computer you can now take advantage of everything Gliph has to offer.

Revamped Android Application
We’ve completely rebooted our Android application and it now stands in near-parity with our iOS application. We’re particularly pleased to bring this long awaited update to the Android platform.

The update includes a refreshed look, Secure Group Messaging support, Profile photos and a brand new QR code scanner. You can now use Gliph on Android to spend Bitcoin from your Coinbase or Blockchain wallet outside the Gliph network.

Introducing Secure Group Messaging
Gliph now supports secure group messaging across all of its existing clients and its new Desktop Web application. Group messaging offers the same data impermanence technology as Gliph’s existing 1-to-1 conversations.

Privacy Policy Update
With all of these product updates, we also took the time to make the first update to Gliph’s Privacy Policy since we first got started. Our entire team stands behind this policy, and it served as the basis for many of the features that Gliph continues to offer.

We improved the Privacy Policy by focusing on its readibility and clarifying language on how we handle personal data. We have a blog that explains every change in great detail, and encourage everyone to have a look.

Apple, Bitcoin and Gliph

The call from Apple Worldwide Developer Relations came just before Thanksgiving last year. Without much elaboration as to why, Apple told us the Gliph iOS app would need to remove the ability to send Bitcoin or risk being pulled from the App Store.

That event kicked off months of publicity in reaction to our blog post on the state of Bitcoin in the App Store and Google Play. The press feasted on the controversy of Apple’s behavior and Gliph became something of a poster-child for Bitcoin’s fight for mainstream acceptance.

If you wiped away the media hype, and focused on the appeal letter we made public, you would find the real reason why Apple should not have made that choice in the first place:

“By inhibiting the creation of Bitcoin apps Apple holds innovation back from the world. We are witnessing the dawn of a massive technological innovation. The potential impact of virtual currencies stretches further than any company or platform.”

At Gliph, we feel Bitcoin is a transformative technology. We also love developing software for the iOS platform. It was challenging to understand how this company we respected deeply would rule against Gliph and Bitcoin.

When Apple unveiled updates to its App Store Review Guidelines to allow “approved virtual currencies” at WWDC 2014, we became optimistic Apple had thoughtfully considered the language of our appeal.

Gliph’s new approval confirms Apple is now allowing apps featuring Bitcoin transactions in the App Store. We’re proud to have taken the lead in pushing for this important change.

For more information about the new version of Gliph for iOS, please check out this blog entry.

The update, (version 1.90), is part of a larger release that includes an a new Gliph Android application and the introduction of a brand new Gliph Desktop Web app.

This is also Gliph’s first iOS release using ReactiveCocoa and Gliph’s new and improved backend system. You can read more about that effort here.  OK, on to the updates!

Bitcoin is Back

This is such important news, it has its own blog post. But let’s dig into exactly what the Gliph iOS App can do with Bitcoin. With the new Gliph iOS app you can:

• Attach a Coinbase or Blockchain Bitcoin wallet to your Gliph account
• View balance wallet and past transactions performed using Gliph
• Send Bitcoin to any other Gliph user that also has a Bitcoin wallet attached
• Send Bitcoin to any QR code Bitcoin wallet address using a new QR code scanner

Support for Secure Group Messaging

Gliph now supports secure group messaging! That’s right, you can now assemble and manage your own groups on Gliph! In this version of the iOS app, you can participate in groups, though group creation needs to be done on the web.

For more information about secure Group Messaging on Gliph please see this post.

Profile and Group Photos

You can now add a Profile Photo facet as part of your Gliph profile. It has the same privacy options as other Gliph facets, like phone number or your name. You can have it be Public, Private or Private and shared with specific people or groups.

All new users are offered the ability to set a Profile Photo, but you can do this now by visiting the menu and choosing Profile.

Refreshed Activity View

The Activity View has been refreshed with a new message unread indicator and the display of Profile photos. The view should also refresh more quickly to accurately reflect the read status of the messages there.

Coming Soon

There are a few things we left out of 1.90 to get it out the door for you. This includes message delay and timed expiration. We also weren’t able to get the complete Create Group capability into this version, but you can still do that using the mobile web.  We plan to fill in these gaps, and continue to refine this experience over the next few releases.

Purchasing and Currencies
11.17 Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions

This is a new item in section 11, Purchasing and currencies that was not in the last revision of the guidelines.

In addition to this change, the standard program agreement for iOS has a new additional term that is likely relevant to applications interested in offering Bitcoin functionality:

Use of the In-App Purchase API
2.2 You may not enable end-users to purchase Currency of any kind through the In-App Purchase API, including but not limited to any Currency for exchange, gifting, redemption, transfer, trading or use in purchasing or obtaining anything within or outside of Your Application.

“Currency” means any form of currency, points, credits, resources, content or other items or units recognized by a group of individuals or entities as representing a particular value and that can be transferred or circulated as a medium of exchange.”

Let’s dive into some analysis:

Apple Recognizes Virtual Currencies Exist
The new language in 11.17 suggests that Apple is now keeping a list of “approved virtual currencies.” Previously, there was no official indication that Apple tracked virtual currencies at all. In fact, references to virtual currencies were previously believed to refer only to in-game currencies like virtual gold. (See Rules on Bitcoin in Google Play and the Apple App Store… in our previous post on Apple and Bitcoin apps)

That recognition does not mean Bitcoin is on Apple’s special list yet.

It might be reasonable to assume that 11.17 also refers to in-game gold, except for the qualifying language in the updated iOS Developer Program License Agreement. In that agreement, “Currency” is now defined as “units recognized by a group of individuals or entities representing a particular value that can be transferred or circulated as a medium of exchange.”

Jurisdiction Is Important
In 11.7, Apple has specifically said transmission of approved virtual currencies may occur so long as they are in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories the app is sold in.  This suggests that the moment formal state acknowledgement of virtual currencies exists, app developers may allow users in those areas to transmit virtual currencies.

As exciting as that may sound, so far Apple has treated their interpretation legislation affecting the legality of Bitcoin as proprietary.  For example, if you spoke with a representative from Apple Worldwide Developer relations and asked them “is sending Bitcoin legal in the United States?” they would respond that this was “proprietary business information of Apple.”

It seems even though there is a framework for the transmission of virtual currencies like Bitcoin, Apple’s interpretation of law may be critical as to whether it is allowed.

Getting Bitcoin Apps into the App Store
It is unclear immediately how this affects successful submission of Bitcoin-transmitting applications into the app store. Apple generally reviews applications as their submitted, with rule changes, previously submitted applications may now qualify and be approved.

No Selling Bitcoin via In-App Purchases
Aside from providing a definition of “currency,” 2.2 also specifically means App Developers may not use the App Store In-App purchasing to purchase currency.  This makes sense, as it would put Apple between buyers and sellers during a currency exchange.

In the United states, the transmission or exchange of money may require special registration as a money transmitter. Given its behavior toward Bitcoin in the past, it makes sense that Apple would not want the responsibility of being involved in these types of transactions.

Gliph’s Bitcoin Transmission Capability
Gliph has been on the front line of getting Bitcoin sending into the App Store. Our company maintains that it is acting within existing state and federal regulations around the transmission of Bitcoin currency. As a result, we will continue to look to Apple for allowing the ability for our users to transmit Bitcoin between each other in our iOS application.

Download Gliph for iOS Today.

We’re excited about improving peer-to-peer transactions and providing a great platform for identity. In following this passion, we’ve iterated on Gliph by adding new features and changing the way the system works.

Some of the additions were in response to insights along the way. For example when we learned that  the majority of Craigslist deals were handled via email and lacked privacy, we built Cloaked Email to make that a better experience. Later, we realized Bitcoin would be a a fantastic way to close transactions and built in simple Bitcoin transfer into Gliph secure messaging.

We’ve learned a lot about email and believe communication can be faster and better than that. GliphMe‘s secure and private instant channel is the first of our efforts here.

Adding these capabilities over time caused a build-up of technical debt. And like any debt, it can not be ignored. But unlike some debt, it wasn’t the type of thing that could be paid off slowly over time. As a result, this re-factor was focused on two areas of the Gliph platform:

the backend application and the iOS application. On the backend, we re-worked the API which now allows us to build the Android, iPhone and web clients more consistently. On the iPhone client, we’ve changed how data flows internally. To get very specific, we’ve moved to reactive programming, making Gliph more event-driven and providing us a more responsive user experience to work with.

Because you can only make so many major changes at once, we did not focus on updating the Android app to leverage the new API during this project. However, now that the backend is completed, documented and working, we will be tackling this as well. We’ll announce the release of the iOS app as soon as it has been approved.

This release will have few outward facing changes on the web, Android or iPhone. However, it did involve a great deal of effort from our team and has set the Gliph platform for a solid march forward.

Please join me in congratulating the Gliph engineering group on completing this challenging and important development cycle. Say hello on Twitter.

What happens to Information We Put Online?
It is hard to understand what happens to data we store online. Every text we send, every picture that is transmitted, and every person we connect with is represented by data. This data is transmitted across the Internet and ultimately saved on one or many servers and sometimes multiple devices such as smartphones, desktop computers and laptops. What happens to this data?

Social platforms commonly offer “deletion” or “removal” features that make it appear that you can permanently remove stuff you have put online. Unfortunately, these services are often misrepresenting what actually happens with information.

For example, messaging services like GroupMe and Whatsapp offer to remove messages for you. But depending on the app, your unencrypted messages are saved in a database with a flag marked deleted. Services may be built in a way that they are unable to delete the message on the other person’s phone, instead only “hide” it from your end of the conversation.

For a long time, Facebook would not actually remove photos that you had deleted from your account. Now that Facebook has fixed their system, your photos actually be will be actually deleted within 30 days. Today, you can “Delete this Photo,” however Facebook’s platform may not actually delete it for weeks.

A lot of questions have been asked about how Snapchat handles removal of data. You send a photo to someone, and it is supposed to disappear within a short period of time. However, Snapchat has made it clear that images sent over the service will persist for up to 30 days or until all recipients of the image have opened the photo. More concerning to some is that snaps are not being removed properly from smartphones and can in fact be recovered.

Update (5/8/14): Snapchat settled charges from the FTC that it misrepresented how it was handling user data collection practices.

This is a pretty big problem, since if you don’t have a background in Computer Science, you must rely on what you’re being told in the interface. If it says “Delete,” does that mean right now, forever, from everywhere?

Behind the Scenes on Message Deletion on the Gliph Platform
When we first introduced message deletion on the Gliph platform, our focus was on clarifying why Gliph deletes from both sides rather than allowing complete archiving. (Please see “Our Thinking on Message Deletion“). What follows in this entry is a more general overview of what Gliph is doing with deleted messages.

When you send a message on Gliph, it originates from either the Gliph iPhone, Android or web applications. At that time, the message is stored in a “cache” (memory) of your device. The message is also stored encrypted on the server, and once it is received by the other Gliph user, it may be temporarily cached on their device as well.

If the same message is deleted, (by either the sender or the receiver), the Gliph app first removes the message visually and from the local cache and then tells the server, “remove this message right now!” The server responds by deleting the information from Gliph’s database. If the other person has the app open, and are looking at the conversation, they will not see the message removed immediately.

However, the next time they refresh the view, the app will realize that the data does not exist anymore. This causes their app to visually remove and also delete the message in the local cache. This completes deletion of a message or entire conversation of messages on the Gliph platform.

Nitty Gritty Details
There are a lot of details when it comes to how “cacheing” is handled, particularly around the security of data stored in a local cache. For example, what happens if you’ve deleted a message but the other person hasn’t opened up the app? Is the message still in the device cache and vulnerable?

The security of this area varies with the platform you’re using and what you’ve done to it. For example, iOS protects application data from being accessed using something called “sandboxing” but may be vulnerable if the device is rooted using “jailbreaking.” Android uses a similar sandbox to isolate application data. However, many Android users seek full control over their devices and “root” their phones.

Both jailbreaking on iOS and rooting on Android present important security implications, because these operations can allow apps to access data they otherwise should not be able to. Android users have access to a variety of tools that look for vulnerabilities in apps on rooted and non-rooted devices and attempt to collect data from these apps. 

Gliph regularly wipes and re-loads the local cache on iPhone and Android to help reduce the likelihood that a jailbroken or rooted phone would have persistent message data. However, we strongly advise people to be aware of the security implications of using Gliph on jailbroken or rooted devices.

How Message Deletion on Gliph Works
There are three ways messages are deleted by the Gliph platform today. All of them follow a process outlined in “Behind the Scenes on Message Deletion on the Gliph Platform” outlined above.

Individual Message Deletion
Gliph’s iOS and web apps allow of you to delete individual Gliph messages. This happens when you swipe a message on the Gliph iPhone app to the left and choose delete. In the web app, you tap the Edit button in the top right of any conversation.  On Android, Gliph does not currently offer individual message deletion.

Conversation Deletion
All of Gliph’s apps allow you to delete all messages in a conversation at the same time. On iPhone, you can delete messages by swiping a conversation from the activity view. We have an animated gif showing this behavior in this blog entry.

On Android, the process has a few steps:

1. Go into a conversation.
2. Tap the ( i ) button in the action bar to go into the Gliph view.
3. Tap the 3 dots icon in the action bar.
4. Choose “clear all messages.”

On the web and iOS you can delete all messages by:

1. Go into a conversation.
2. Tap the center part of the title bar on the web or the ( i ) in the title bar of iOS to get to the Gliph View.
3. Scroll down and choose “Clear Conversation.”

GliphMe
GliphMe (video demo) has its own special behavior in how it handles deletion of messages. Once someone starts a conversation with you using one of your links, Gliph keeps track of when the last message was sent. After 48 hours, Gliph automatically deletes the entire conversation and connection with the GliphMe link respondent.  Connection data is permanently removed from the Gliph database as well.

Gliphme acts like this for two reasons: One, to reduce the clutter from conversations that you probably have no interest in continuing, and two to reduce the amount of unwanted private conversation data that Gliph is storing.

It is possible for GliphMe conversations to avoid this automatic removal after 48 hours. If someone who is not a Gliph user clicks a GliphMe link and uses that page to sign up for Gliph, the conversation will persist just like a normal conversation. At this time, we’re calling this “claiming” a conversation by the respondent. After a conversation has been claimed, the messages can still be deleted from that point using the same procedures outlined in “How Message Deletion on Gliph Works” above.

One area where message deletion is not supported is in a GliphMe conversation that has not been claimed. For example, if you reply to an inbound GliphMe message and then wish to delete that message. You can not do so if the respondent has not claimed the conversation yet. We recognize that this may be in conflict with expectations for uniform deletion behavior across Gliph and are still considering how best to handle this with GliphMe.

Expiring Messages
In the Gliph iOS and web apps, it is possible to set messages to expire after a period of time. This is very similar to how Gliph handles user-directed deletion of messages. Except in this case the server has set a particular time, when it will remove the data from the Gliph database. The next time either the sender or receiver opens the app after the message has been removed from the database, any existing local cache of the message is removed and it will no longer be visible on either user’s devices.

Data Impermanence and Privacy
When other internet services store your conversations permanently, unencrypted, it creates the possibility that that information will be hacked or even misused in the future. This is particularly concerning for messaging services that use advertising-based monetization, or are entertaining acquisition by an advertising-based company. This doesn’t need to happen.

At Gliph, we are designing software to avoid these issues. For example, the new product we released recently, GliphMe, uses automatic deletion of conversations after 48 hours. Another way we demonstrate commitment to this is by honoring what is implied in the interface. As in, “Delete” should mean stuff actually is deleted everywhere Gliph can, as promptly as possible.

The entire Gliph team feels there is a strong connection between privacy and impermanent or ephemeral online activity. This includes not only messages you’ve sent but who you have connected with online in the past.

This issue is particularly important as Gliph extends past simple messaging and into the realm of peer-to-peer transactions. We continue to think deeply about how we can empower people who use Gliph with both user experience and technical implementations that deliver privacy through data impermanence and beyond.

We love feedback! If you have comments on this blog entry or unanswered questions about deletion on Gliph, please send a message to the Support Gliph or to support [at] gli dot ph.

New Feature for iOS and Android: GliphMe
GliphMe is a powerful little link for connecting privately with friends and strangers. When someone clicks a GliphMe contact link they are presented a chat box that lets them communicate with you.

You get push notifications of the new message on your iOS device and can reply directly from the app. Read the blog entry on the feature or learn more at the GliphMe home page.

Gliph for iOS 1.88
We’ve made a variety of improvements to the Gliph app for iOS in 1.88. They include:

• Multi-Invite capability – You can now invite multiple friends to Gliph using SMS and Email during signup or in the Connect View (Use the + button in the Activity View)
• Connect View improved – We’ve cleaned up the view you use to add friends on Gliph.
• iOS 7 swipe behavior – You can now swipe back from a conversation to the Activity View, which is how iOS 7 does things.
• Easier profile setup – You can now add a few profile facets during signup for Gliph.

We also worked to squash some bugs that folks had reported. Please keep the reports coming to the Support Gliph.

• Fixed Crasher when enabling LockDown Privacy Protection
• Fixed emoji being cut off when shown as last message in Activity View
• Fixed tap target area of Message Options button

Gliph for Android 1.35
Over the winter break, we completely rearchitected the Gliph Android app’s internals, allowing us to move forward with more improvements to the app. After a few bug fixes we made the following miscellaneous improvements to the app:

• Better naming – You can now see the tag or shared First Name facet of a connection that you’re talking with in the app. This way you you don’t have to remember people’s gliphs.
• Handle connections – We added a button in the title bar of the connections view to make it more obvious how to edit the connection.
• Help during signup – Commonly, people have a hard time signing up on Android because so many gliphs are already taken. We’re working to improve this, in the meantime we added some text that should help a bit.

As always, we welcome feedback on the apps, particularly bugs or crashes that you’re experiencing. Please reach out to the Support Gliph if you notice something.