What your ally receives, and does not

One short text when a known adult site is opened on your device, with the app, the device and the time. A text if On Guard is uninstalled, signed out or a device is retired. A text if a device has not been active for 7 days. Never the site, the image, your history, or anything the guard saw on screen. Here it is, word for word.

On this page

The text, word for word

The text your ally receives

On Guard

Text message

On Guard: Explicit content detected in Safari on Joe's iPhone at 11:42 PM ET. Mike, now's a good time to check in with Joe. Reply HELP for help, STOP to opt out.

No image
No link
No site
No category

Allies are alerted with the app, the device and the time. No additional details.

The names, the app, the device and the time are examples; yours replace them. Reply HELP and STOP work from the first message.

That is the entire message. It is composed on our servers from your first name, the app (from a short list of known apps kept on the server, never sent by the device), your device's label and the time. It goes out when adult content is on one of your devices, after a gate has rendered on your own screen.

The promise

Alert texts arrive in a group text with the member and one ally, so both read the same message. Allies never share a thread with each other. The welcome and removal texts go to the ally alone.

In the group text you read the check-in at the same moment he does, and a reply from either of you lands in that thread. A single text from On Guard only understands HELP and STOP.

When an ally hears from On Guard

The promise

Your ally gets a check-in if an adult site is opened on your devices, with the app, the device and the time. No additional details.

If a known adult site is opened: a check-in with the app, the device and the time. No additional details.
If On Guard is uninstalled, signed out or retired on a device: a text with the device and the time.
If a device has not been active for 7 days: a text with the device and the date. If defense is switched off on a device: an alert in the On Guard app.

The first is the check-in text above, sent when a known adult site is opened. The second is a text that names the device and the time when you uninstall, sign out or retire a device: "On Guard was uninstalled from {device} at {time}." The app shows you that message before you confirm. The third is a text when a device has not been active for 7 days: you are warned two days earlier with a link to your devices, and owning another device never silences it. If defense is switched off on a device, your ally gets an alert in the On Guard app instead.

The honest line

Ceilings: at most three check-in texts a day, one per half-hour burst, and up to 8 messages a day in total. A quiet-device text goes once per quiet stretch. Nothing about billing ever reaches an ally: a payment problem is between you and the store.

What is never sent

Sent

That a gate fired, and your name.
That defense was turned off, or On Guard was uninstalled, and on which kind of device.
That a device has gone quiet.

Never sent

The site, app, image, or category.
A screenshot or any picture of your screen.
Your history, a list of events, or a count.
Anything from the suggestive tier.
Whether you proceeded past the gate.
Your billing or subscription state.

The promise

Allies are alerted with the app, the device and the time. No additional details.

If your ally has the app

An ally does not need the app for the texts. If he installs On Guard and signs in with the same account he accepted the invite with, he also sees a small standing-guard view: your name, each of your devices, whether it is "On guard" or "Gone quiet", and when it was last seen. That view is liveness only. It has no history, no events, and no engine details.

How to be a good ally The page to send him.

Questions

Does the ally text say what site or app it was?

No. It says it is a good time to check in with you. There is no field in the message, or in the system behind it, for a site, app, image, or category.

Is the ally told when I proceed past the gate?

No. The text fires when the gate goes up. What happens after stays on your device.

How does the ally know a device is "Gone quiet"?

Each device sends a liveness heartbeat. When one has been silent for 5 days, you get a warning with a link to your devices. At 7 days your ally gets a text naming the device and the date, once per quiet stretch. If a device reports that defense was switched off, your ally gets an alert in the On Guard app instead.

Can I see exactly what my ally would get?

Yes. The message above is verbatim, and on builds that include it the Block test (Settings → Test your guard) sends the TEST version to your own phone. No ally is texted by a test.

Checked September 17, 2026 against the shipping app. If something here no longer matches what you see, email team@stayonguard.app.