The organisation has no copy of its own record
What was agreed lives on a dozen personal handsets. When somebody asks what was decided, the answer depends on who still has the phone and whether they scrolled back far enough.
Use case · getting off consumer messaging
Work should not depend on somebody’s personal number
Enclessa replaces a WhatsApp group used for work with rooms that belong to the organisation rather than to whoever created the group: people join with an account instead of a phone number, channels and roles separate the shift rota from the management discussion, direct messages stay end-to-end encrypted, and somebody leaving is an account being deactivated rather than a number being removed and a history walking out on their phone.
Open betaThe platform is being built in the open, so parts of it are not there yet, behaviour changes between releases, and no availability figure is committed while it is in beta. What is still being built.
At a glance
- Identity
- An account, not a personal phone number
- Structure
- Teams, categories and channels instead of one group
- Direct messages
- End-to-end encrypted, as they were before
- Leaving
- Deactivate the account; access ends everywhere at once
- Record
- The organisation keeps its own history and can export it
- Cost
- Free for up to ten people, permanently
The situation
A group was created for something small and became where the work happens. It now holds shift changes, customer complaints, photographs of documents, and the occasional decision that matters. Everybody in it is there by personal phone number, the history lives on personal devices, and nobody in the organisation can produce it or delete it.
What goes wrong when this is spread across four products
Leaving does not end access
Removing somebody from a group removes them from future messages. Everything up to that point is still on their device, and there is nothing anybody can do about it.
Personal numbers are the directory
Everyone in the group has everyone’s private mobile number, permanently, whether or not they wanted that. It is also a personal-data processing question nobody has answered.
One group for everything
The shift rota, the customer complaint and the conversation that should not be in front of the whole team are all in the same thread, and there is no way to separate them without creating a second group that half the people forget to check.
How Enclessa handles it
Write down what the group is actually used for
Before anything moves, list the distinct things happening in that one thread — the rota, the operational questions, the customer issues, the social. That list is the channel structure, and it is the reason the replacement will not simply become one busy room again.
Create the workspace and invite people by email
Set up the organisation and its first team, and invite people to accounts rather than collecting phone numbers. The Free plan covers up to ten people permanently with no payment card, so a small team can do this without a purchase decision.
Make one channel per thing, and keep private conversations private
Give each of the uses you listed its own channel, grouped into categories. Conversations that should not be in front of everybody become direct messages or group direct messages, which are end-to-end encrypted and which no administrator can add themselves to.
Run both for a fortnight, then close the group
Keep the WhatsApp group open while people learn where things go, and answer every question in the new channel rather than in the old group. Then set a date, say it in both places, and close the group — a group that stays open never empties.
Save anything from the old group that matters
WhatsApp can export a single chat as a text file from within the conversation, one chat at a time and from a personal device rather than by an administrator. Decide deliberately what is worth keeping and post it into the right channel; the rest is better left behind than migrated.
Use the leaving process you now have
When somebody leaves, deactivate the account. Access ends across every channel at once, the organisation keeps its record, and nobody is relying on a colleague to delete a thread from their own phone.
Which plan this needs
The Free plan, for up to ten people, permanently and with no payment card: channels, threads, end-to-end encrypted direct messages, video calls and search over the last ninety days. Past ten people, or if you need search over the whole history, the Starter plan is the next step.
Compare the plansWhat this will not do
- There is no importer. Nothing moves your WhatsApp history into Enclessa, and anything worth keeping has to be brought across by hand.
- Group channels are not end-to-end encrypted. Direct messages and group direct messages are; a channel is server-readable so that search, retention and export can work.
- There are no mobile apps. Enclessa runs in the browser and on macOS, which is the single biggest difference from a phone-first messenger and the thing to test before you commit.
- There is no telephone number, no SMS and no way to reach somebody who has not signed in. Enclessa replaces the group, not the phone.
- The Free plan searches the last ninety days. Older messages are still there; searching all of them is a paid plan.
Where the detail is
Migrating from WhatsAppThe longer version, with the audit and the cutover.Read moreMigrating from DiscordThe same exercise for a team whose work ended up on a Discord server.Read moreThe Free planTen people, permanently, with no payment card.Read moreEncryptionWhat is encrypted, what is not, and why the line is where it is.Read moreMessagingTeams, categories, channels and threads.Read more
Questions
Replacing a WhatsApp group: common questions
Can I import a WhatsApp group into Enclessa?
No. There is no importer of any kind. WhatsApp can export a single conversation as a text file from within that conversation, and anything worth keeping has to be posted into the right channel by hand.
Does Enclessa have a mobile app?
No. Enclessa runs in the browser and on macOS, and there are no iOS or Android applications. For a team replacing a phone-first messenger this is the most important thing to test before committing.
Is Enclessa encrypted like WhatsApp?
Direct messages and group direct messages are end-to-end encrypted using MLS as specified in RFC 9420, with no administrator override. Group channels are server-readable by design, because that is what makes search, retention and export possible.
What does it cost to move a small team off WhatsApp?
Nothing for up to ten people. The Free plan is permanent rather than a trial, needs no payment card, and includes channels, threads, encrypted direct messages, video calls and search over the last ninety days.
What happens to the history when somebody leaves?
The organisation keeps it. Deactivating an account ends access across every channel at once, rather than removing a phone number from a group while the entire history stays on their handset.
Encrypted collaboration, hosted in Europe.
Create a workspace in a couple of minutes. It is yours at your-team.enclessa.app, hosted in the European Union, with encrypted direct messages from the first one you send.
Open beta. Free plan, no payment card to start.