Quick questions. Quick answers.

Yachad is Hebrew for “together”. That is the whole idea: not living your faith alone, but with friends and a local church.

For Christians of every denomination and for anyone curious about faith: whether you are looking for a church, firmly rooted in one, or simply want to make plans with friends.

Yachad launches as an iPhone app and in the browser at app.yachad.social, regionally and together with a few pilot churches. The browser has the same app, so friends without an iPhone can join in; it has no notifications for now. I will announce the launch date on this website. An Android app is planned but not yet scheduled.

At launch, the app and the admin portal for churches are in German. This website and the help centre are available in German and English. More languages are planned for later.

At launch, Yachad is planned to be free for individuals and churches. There are no ads and no paid visibility. How Yachad will be funded in the long run, for example through voluntary donations, has not been decided yet.

No. Yachad shows no ads, sells no data and offers no paid visibility, not even to churches.

Yachad has no direct messages. Each date of a plan has a chat for everyone who is coming. For everything else, there is still your WhatsApp group.

No. Catholic, Reformed, Protestant, free church, Orthodox and others should all feel equally at home. No denomination is shown preferentially, and managed profiles are not ranked higher. Before launch I will publish the criteria for which communities can join.

By default only your friends, and you can switch to “Only me” at any time. The church only sees how many people are coming, never who.

Read my privacy promise

From 16. Stricter rules apply until 18: adults can only send teenagers requests or invitations if there is a shared connection, such as mutual friends or the same church, if the church has approved both memberships.

In Switzerland, with Infomaniak: servers, database, images, backups and email. Apple is only involved for notifications, Sign in with Apple and the maps on iPhone. Everything else is in the privacy policy.

Yes, right in the app under Profile, Settings, “Delete account”. After 30 days it is permanently deleted, including your profile, comments, photos and RSVPs. Plans you created for others stay for them, but without your name. You can export your data as a file beforehand.

Guide: delete your account and export your data

The church applies for free access to the admin portal with its official email address. If a basic profile from public sources already exists, the church takes it over. Once I have reviewed the application, the church counts as verified. You can also suggest your church in the app.

More for churches

Everyone on the team has their own login for the admin portal, separate from their account in the app. Admins manage the whole church and invite the team. Each ministry has the roles lead, edit and view only. Two-factor authentication is mandatory for admins and leads.

My goal is a complete profile in about a quarter of an hour. You enter services once as a series; after that you only need exceptions and new events. Every now and then you confirm with one click that your details are still correct.

No. It sees totals: how many people are going to or interested in a date, how many follow a ministry and how many listed it as “my church”. Exception: if a church only accepts “my church” or a ministry only with approval, the responsible team sees the name, username, profile picture and age of people who ask or have been approved, never the date of birth. Who is coming to a date stays a number even then.

Not yet. Importing from existing calendars is planned for after launch.