Where are my messages stored?
Better Messages stores every message body in your own WordPress database — the WebSocket cloud relay does not persist message content of any kind.
The WebSocket servers act as transitional relays only: they route message payloads between participants in real time and store the minimum metadata needed to deliver them. Message content is encrypted in transit and the relay cannot read it — we couldn't read your messages even if we wanted to.
What the WebSocket servers DO store#
- User IDs
- Thread IDs
- Message IDs
- Unread message count per thread
- Delivery status per message
- Licensed website domains (e.g.
your-site.com)
What the WebSocket servers DO NOT store#
Anything else. No message bodies, no file content, and no user profile data.
For sites with strict data-sovereignty requirements (GDPR Article 9, HIPAA-adjacent, jurisdictional rules), consider the Self-Hosted plan — the relay runs on infrastructure you control.
See also#
- Privacy & GDPR — full data-flow picture
- End-to-end encryption — opt-in per-thread E2EE
- Servers location — where the cloud relay runs
- Pricing — including the self-hosted plan