Privacy & identities

Fancy Mumble keeps your data minimal. There is no analytics, no account, no email required. You and the server you connect to is the only relationship.

This page covers what the server sees, how to control your identity, and the advanced settings that change how the app talks to it.

Identities

An identity is your “passport” between servers. It bundles:

• A default username.
• A client certificate (a small file that proves it is you).
• A per-identity profile (avatar, bio, banner, name style).

You can have multiple identities. For example one for a gaming server, one for a work group, one for an anonymous community.

 Screenshot placeholder: identities panel with three saved identities.

Create a new identity

1. Open Settings, Identities.
2. Go to the section Create new identity.
3. Pick a label (only visible to you).
4. Set the default username.
5. The app generates a new certificate automatically.
6. Click Create.

Use an identity

When you connect to a server, the active identity is sent. To switch identity for the next connection:

• In Expert mode, the connect wizard has an Identity dropdown.
• In Normal mode, the app picks the identity associated with the saved server (if any).

Import or export

You can export an identity as an encrypted .fmid file. Useful for moving to a new computer.

• Export: Identities, pick one, Export. Set a password.
• Import: Identities, Import, pick the file, enter the password.

Caution

The exported file contains your private certificate. Anyone with the file and the password can impersonate you on servers where you are registered. Treat it like a password file.

Registration

On most servers you can register an identity. Registration tells the server “this certificate belongs to this username”, so the same name always maps to you.

• Right-click your name in the user list, pick Register.
• The server may require an admin to approve it.

Registered users can be granted roles and have permission to use specific features.

What the server sees

When you connect, the server receives:

Item	Always sent	Note
Your username	yes	What you typed in the wizard.
Your certificate hash	yes	Used for identity.
Your public IP	yes	The server logs it for moderation.
Your client version	yes	”Fancy Mumble 0.2.x”.
Your operating system	yes (basic)	“Windows”, “Linux”, “Android”. No version detail.
Your local time zone	optional	For displaying timestamps to others.
Your microphone activity	yes when transmitting	But not the audio itself when muted.

What the server does not see:

• The audio itself unless you are transmitting. Mute means mute.
• Your saved servers, your bios, your themes, your screenshots.
• Any data from other servers you have connected to.

Privacy settings

Open Settings, Privacy to control what data the app sends and what it renders for you.

Setting	Default	What it does
Streamer mode	off	Hides server host, port, IP addresses, and geolocation in the UI. Suppresses native OS notifications so they cannot leak into a screen recording.
Disable read receipts	off	Stops sending read receipts so others cannot see you have read their messages. Also hides receipts from others in your view.
Disable typing indicators	off	Stops broadcasting the “is typing…” signal when you are composing. Also hides typing indicators from others.
Disable OpenStreetMap maps	off	Prevents map tile requests and IP geolocation lookups to external services.
Disable link previews	off	Stops requesting link-preview metadata from the server for URLs you paste into chat. Prevents the server from learning which URLs you shared.
Allow external embeds	off	Required for the YouTube watch-together adapter. When enabled, the YouTube IFrame API is loaded on demand. Disable to restrict watch-together to direct media URLs only.
Enable dual-path sending	on	In end-to-end encrypted channels, also sends a plain-text [Encrypted message] placeholder over the normal path so legacy clients see something. Disable to keep the ciphertext off the unencrypted path entirely.

Expert mode

Toggle Expert mode under Settings, Advanced to reveal extra controls across the app:

• Audio: gate close ratio, hold frames, legacy backend, audio statistics.
• Profile: identity selector, custom CSS, registered certificate display.
• Connect: port, server label.
• Settings: developer mode, log level.

Turning Expert mode off only hides the advanced controls, it does not undo their values. Any changes you made while in Expert mode (for example, a custom voice gate threshold or a non-default audio backend) stay in effect. To revert specific values, switch Expert mode back on, set them back to defaults, then turn Expert mode off again. The Reset button at the bottom of Advanced restores all settings to defaults.

Developer mode Expert

Inside Expert mode there is a separate Developer mode toggle that shows:

• Memory stats in the status bar.
• Offloaded message counts.
• The reload-app button in the menu.
• An audio recording button in the channel sidebar (only while connected and voice is active). Records inbound channel audio to a WAV file. The filename supports wildcards: {date}, {time}, {datetime}, {host}, {user}, {channel}.

This is for power users who want to monitor the app’s footprint. The default is off.

Klipy API key (GIF browser)

The GIF browser uses a third-party service called Klipy. At the moment you must provide your own Klipy API key to use it. The app does not ship with a shared key.

Server-side GIF search is on the roadmap

There is currently no way for a server owner to configure one key for all users, so each user has to set up their own. Server-side GIF search is being tracked at Fancy-Mumble/FancyMumble#82, Add Gif Search Support for the Server Side.

1. Sign up at the Klipy site and create an app to get an API key.
2. Open Settings, Advanced, Klipy API key.
3. Paste your key and save.

Without a key, the GIF picker button still appears, but searching returns an error.

Auto-reconnect

If the network drops, the app tries to reconnect for the next few minutes. Turn off Auto-reconnect under Advanced if you prefer a manual approach.

Auto-update Desktop only

By default the app checks for updates on launch and installs them in the background. Turn off Auto-update on startup to opt out and update manually.

Time format

Pick how timestamps are shown in chat:

• Auto (follows your system).
• 12-hour (with AM/PM).
• 24-hour.

Plus a separate toggle to convert times to your local timezone when other users have a different one set.

Log level

For troubleshooting. Default is info. Set to debug or trace when a developer asks for it. See Debug logging.

Reset

The Reset button at the bottom of Advanced restores everything except your saved servers and identities to defaults. A confirm dialog asks twice.

Next step

You have completed the user section. From here:

• Server owner? Head to Docker quick start.
• Server admin? Head to SuperUser & first login.
• Something broken? Head to Common issues.