Layers
The only messaging app where strangers can't find you
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Gerard Heng

Layers - The private network strangers literally can't reach you on.

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Layers
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Layers makes it architecturally impossible for strangers to message, call, or find you — not a toggle, not a setting, but enforced server-side through mutual contact verification. 100% phone-verified users. E2E encrypted. Built-in location sharing, group calendars, polls & real-time chat translation — all within your trusted circle only. No ads. No algorithm. No strangers.

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Gerard Heng
Maker
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Hey PH 👋 — I'm Gerard, the founder of Layers. The idea came from a simple frustration: every "private" app I used still let strangers reach me if they tried hard enough. Privacy was always a setting, never a guarantee. Layers flips that. Mutual contact verification happens entirely on-device — your contacts are never uploaded to our servers. If someone doesn't already have your number, and you don't have theirs, the connection is blocked before it ever reaches the network. Would love honest feedback from this community, especially on the positioning. Happy to answer any questions about the architecture or the thinking behind it.
Talwe

I think this will get more and more important in the AI Era. So many people trying to reach you and get your attention with automated flows and outbound.

Gerard Heng
Maker

@talwesingh Exactly — and this is only the beginning. AI-generated outreach, automated scam calls, and deepfake messages are going to make open networks increasingly unsafe. Layers was built on the premise that the solution can't be a filter or a setting — it has to be architectural. Random contact is structurally impossible by design — and that's a fundamentally harder problem for bad actors to solve than bypassing an algorithm or a spam filter.

Alex
This is for people who value privacy so I wouldn’t lean so heavily into location sharing, which I assume is optional?
Gerard Heng
Maker

@apcarpl Yes, location sharing is optional and disabled by default. All location features — including geofencing and places sharing — are only activated by the user's choice, and only shared within your trusted circle of mutual contacts. Strangers can never see your location on Layers.

Gerard Heng
Maker

Update: We've just added a 3-month free trial — no payment needed. A great opportunity to try Layers and invite your trusted contacts to join your private network.