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Shoal, in brief.

Everything you need to write about Shoal: the facts, a paragraph you can use as it is, logos and app screens. Anything else, just ask — hello@shoal.chat.

Fact sheet

What it is
A messaging app for families, built around children. Children can message only people a parent has added or approved.
Who it’s for
Families with children from pre-readers to early teens, and the grandparents, step-parents and friends around them.
Children’s accounts
No phone number, email address or password. A parent adds the child by name and sets up the phone or tablet they’ll use as a family device.
Parental oversight
Family admins (a parent or another trusted adult) can read children’s chats, read-only. Children can see that their grown-ups can see their chats.
Encryption
Messages are encrypted on the sending device and stored only as ciphertext. Shoal isn’t end-to-end encrypted: it holds the keys, which is what makes oversight and account recovery possible. How it works
Platforms
iPhone and Android apps, and a web app at app.shoal.chat.
Price
Free during the beta. Then per family, not per person: Small family £2.50 a month (up to 3 people), Full family £4 a month (up to 10 adults and 10 children). Pricing
Business model
Families pay. No ads, no selling data, no AI training on messages.
Company
SHOAL MESSAGING LTD, registered in England and Wales, company no. 17286024. Registered office: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ.
Data protection
Registered with the ICO, reference ZC178426. Database in Cloudflare’s EU jurisdiction.
Founder
Max Whiteford
Press contact
hello@shoal.chat · 03330 41 49 49

About Shoal (to copy)

Shoal is a UK family messaging app for children and the people who love them. Children can message only the family and friends a parent has approved, and need no phone number or email address of their own. The app adapts to each child’s reading age, and parents can read their children’s chats — that’s how its safety features work. Messages are encrypted in storage. Shoal has apps for iPhone and Android and works in a web browser. It is made by SHOAL MESSAGING LTD, an independent company registered in England and Wales.

Please don’t describe Shoal as end-to-end encrypted. It isn’t, and we say so.

The founder

Max Whiteford is a father of three with a background in product and software development. Shoal started as a pet project — a chat app so his own children could stay in touch with their wider family — and grew from there. He has been chair of trustees at his children’s nursery, a role that came with a DBS check and safeguarding training. He isn’t an online-safety expert, and Shoal’s guides for parents are built on the published advice of those who are.

Logos

Use the version made for your background, with clear space around it, and please don’t recolour or stretch it. The wordmark is always lower case: shoal. In text, it’s “Shoal”.

Colours

  • Ink #192737
  • Sage #90BBAA
  • Deep sage #46705F
  • Paper #FAF7F1

App screens

Real screens from the app, captured with a fictional family. No real people or messages.