Chapter 2: App Basics and Settings

13: English, Hindi (हिन्दी), Gujarati (ગુજરાતી), Marathi (मराठी), Bengali (বাংলা), Tamil (தமிழ்), Telugu (తెలుగు), Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ), Malayalam (മലയാളം), Punjabi (ਪੰਜਾਬੀ), Odia (ଓଡ଼ିଆ), Assamese (অসমীয়া) and Urdu (اردو).

1. Open the Samaj, Contacts or Social tab.
2. Tap the three dots at the top right.
3. Tap Language.
4. Tap your language.

The whole app switches immediately and the list closes by itself. You do not need to restart.

Each language is written in its own script with the English name underneath (for example "ગુજરાતી" with "Gujarati" below). Look for the English name if you cannot recognise the script. A tick mark shows the language you are using now.

The Business tab's menu is shorter (Refresh, Home screen icons, About, Logout). Switch to the Samaj, Contacts or Social tab and use the three-dot menu there.

English, until you choose another one.

Yes. It is saved on your phone and stays after you close the app. If you move to a new phone or reinstall the app, choose your language again.

No. It only changes how the app looks on your device. Messages, posts and names appear exactly as people wrote them.

Yes. The kinship names used in the Family Tree (for example father, jeth) show in your chosen language. There are 103 relations in all 13 languages.

• Samaj: your community, with members, family tree, matrimony, gallery, radar and your business.
• Contacts: your phone contacts who are on KuhuChat, and your private chats.
• Social: your groups (the Social Circle).
• Business: the Business Circle, a directory of businesses.

Contacts. You can start chatting before you join your Samaj.

• Wall brick icon (left): opens your personal wall and shows a count for new activity.
• Your Samaj name (centre): your village, or a combined label if your village is merged with others. Tap it to open Village Connection.
• Megaphone: your Voice Status for your Samaj, and the voice messages left for you (see Chapter 16).
• Magnifier: search your Samaj.
• Toolbox icon: opens the Toolbox.
• Three-dot menu: the menu.

• Family Tree: shows a badge for family notifications.
• Matrimony: shows a badge for new interests.
• Gallery: shows a badge for new photos. Admins also see posts waiting for approval.
• Camera: takes a photo or video and drops it as a pin for your Samaj.
• Radar: shows a green number for pins near you. Tap to open the radar. Long-press to set the radius.
• Business bag: opens your business. It turns green once your business has a name and at least one product with a photo and price.

1. Long-press the Radar icon.
2. A sheet called Nearby Pin Radius opens.
3. Pick your distance in km. The green number only counts Samaj pins within this distance.

• Contacts: wall brick, title, megaphone (your Contacts Voice Status), search, toolbox and the menu.
• Social (Social Circle): search, toolbox and the menu.
• Business (Business Circle): a header noting that businesses are verified with 2+ govt. credentials, plus the toolbox and the menu.

• Mitra, the star button (on Contacts, Samaj and Social), opens Mitra. It holds Relation Analysis for your chats and your Thread Diary (see Chapter 15).
• Trip (on Contacts and Samaj) opens the Trip Planner.

They hide automatically while you have a chat open.

• Samaj, Contacts and Social tabs: Profile, App Theme, Notification Sound, Language, Blocked Users, Reminders, Home screen icons (on phones that support it) and Logout. On the Samaj tab, admins also see Manage Admins. The Social tab's menu also has New Group.
• Business tab: Refresh, Home screen icons, About and Logout.

You have not joined a Samaj yet, or your request was rejected. Complete the form (see 1.4). The tab then opens normally.

Your village group has been merged with other villages of the same caste. The label shows the combined group.

Yes. On screens wide enough (about 700 px or more) the app shows a split view with the list on the left and the open chat on the right. Until you pick a chat, the right side shows a "start a chat" placeholder.

They count things that need your attention. Each tab shows the total of its own items. A number above 99 shows as 99+.

• Contacts: unread private chats, new posts and approvals on your wall, activity on your contacts' walls, new radar pins from contacts, voice messages left for you in Contacts, and contacts with a status you have not heard.
• Samaj: unread community chats, your wall, activity on Samaj members' walls, new radar pins from members, gallery items, new matrimony interests, family tree notifications, voice messages left for you in Samaj, and members with an unheard status.
• Social: unread group chats.
• Business: no badge.

It is the total of all tab badges added together. Your own wall is counted once, even though it appears on two tabs.

• Chat unread: opening the chat.
• My wall: opening your wall. Posts waiting for your approval stay counted until you approve or reject them.
• Another person's wall activity: opening that person's wall.
• New radar pins: viewing that person's pins.
• Gallery, new approved posts: opening the Gallery.
• Gallery, waiting for approval (admins): an admin approves or rejects the post, or it is published automatically. Opening the Gallery does not clear it.
• Matrimony: tapping the Matrimony icon.
• Family Tree: opening the Family Tree.
• Voice message left for you: listening to it.
• Unheard status: listening to that status.

New posts on your wall start as pending and need your approval. They count for you until you approve or reject them. They only appear to others once approved.

Three badges show only inside their own screen: the Radar's live "pins near me" number (it changes with your radius), the Interests tab count in the Matrimony dashboard, and the pending merge requests count in Village Connection.

The wall and pin counters are re-checked every hour. Wall posts from the last 15 days and pins from the last 30 days are included. Older pins count as already seen.

If an unread message is deleted for everyone, the receiver's unread number goes down.

Some phones (for example Xiaomi) show the number of notifications still in the notification shade. When you return to KuhuChat, it clears its old notifications and sets the exact total again. If the app is fully closed, the icon shows your phone's own notification-based number until you open the app.

• New private, group and Samaj chat messages.
• A new post on your wall, and wall posts approved on a wall you follow.
• New gallery posts and newly approved gallery posts.
• New radar pins from contacts or your Samaj.
• Family tree relation requests and changes.
• Matrimony interests: sent, resent, accepted, rejected and unmatched.
• Group invites.
• A voice status posted by someone, and a voice message left for you.
• Your reminders.
• A Diary thread deleted by its owner.

• Private message: opens the Contacts tab, then that chat.
• Group message: opens the Social tab, then that group chat.
• Samaj chat message: opens the Samaj tab, then that chat.
• Family tree request: opens the Family Tree at that request.
• Radar pin: opens that pin.
• Wall activity: opens the wall.
• Group invite: opens the app home.
• Reminder: opens the Reminders screen.
• Voice status or voice message: opens that person's status screen.

This works even if the app was fully closed.

Open the three-dot menu, tap Notification Sound, and use the Notification tab. The options are Kuhu (long), Koel (short) and Phone default. Tap the play button beside a sound to preview it.

No. Reminders have their own sound settings, so changing one never changes the other. The reminder options are Cuckoo Clock, Koel (long) and Phone default. They are set on the Reminder tab of the same screen. Reminders use longer sounds on purpose, so you do not miss them.

Tap the notification and the voice note plays. If you tap a second reminder while one is playing, the first stops so they do not overlap.

Yes. They still show, and they use the right sound for what they are. A reminder uses your reminder sound, and a chat message uses your notification sound.

When your message reaches the other person's phone, the app marks it as delivered. You see the status tick on your side.

1. Check that notifications are allowed for KuhuChat in your phone settings.
2. Make sure you have internet.
3. Check that your phone is not muting or restricting KuhuChat in battery-saver settings.
4. Log out and log in again if it still does not work.

1. Tap the three dots and choose App Theme.
2. Pick a colour tab: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Teal, Blue, Purple or Grey.
3. Tap a colour.

The colour applies everywhere immediately and a "Theme updated!" message appears. There are 94 named colours, such as Rose Red, Saffron, Sunflower and Maroon.

It fine-tunes your chosen colour. The default is the original shade, sliding toward Lighter makes it paler, and toward Darker makes it deeper. The slider has 24 steps.

It chooses how the top bar looks.

• Colored: the bar uses your chosen colour.
• White: the bar is white with dark text and icons, and your colour is used as the accent.

A small preview card shows how your choices look before you leave the screen.

Tap Reset to Default. It returns the app to Saffron.

Yes. It is saved on your phone and kept after you close the app. It is not shared between devices, so set it again on a new phone.

No. It only changes your own screen.

Not at the moment. KuhuChat uses a light look, and you choose the colour and the top-bar style.

Yes. The status bar and navigation bar icons adjust to match your colour or the white top bar so they stay readable.

Tap the three dots on the Samaj, Contacts or Social tab and choose Notification Sound. The Sound screen has two tabs: Notification (chat messages) and Reminder (your reminders).

Kuhu (long), Koel (short) and Phone default. Kuhu is selected until you change it. Tap the play button beside a sound to hear it. Phone default has nothing to preview because it uses your phone's own sound.

Cuckoo Clock, Koel (long) and Phone default. Phone default is selected until you change it. Cuckoo Clock and Koel can be previewed with the play button.

Yes. On the Reminders screen, tap the music-note icon. The Sound screen opens directly on the Reminder tab.

No. Your choice applies the moment you tap it.

Yes. Your choice is saved on your phone and on KuhuChat's server, so notifications that arrive while the app is closed use the sound you picked.

No. The two settings are separate on purpose.

1. Tap the three dots at the top right of any tab (or the three dots on My Profile).
2. Tap Logout.
3. Confirm "Are you sure you want to logout?" by tapping Logout again.

You return to the login screen.

KuhuChat clears the chat and contact copies saved on that phone, stops any business location alerts for your account, and signs you out. Your messages, posts and account stay safe on your account and come back when you log in again.

Nothing from your account stays behind for the next person who logs in on the same phone.

No. Logging out is not deleting. Log in again with the same mobile number to continue where you left off.

1. On the Samaj, Contacts, Social or Business tab, open the menu at the top right.
2. Tap the red Delete Account button near the bottom.
3. Read the warnings.
4. Decide what happens to your posts (see the next question).
5. Type DELETE in the box. The red button only becomes active when the word matches.
6. Tap Permanently Delete Account.

By default they are deleted. If you tick the box "Keep my posts, gallery photos and pins for my Samaj", they stay for your Samaj and show as "Deleted user", with no name, photo or phone number. The Review my pins button lets you look at your pins before you decide. Your own wall and your Diary threads are always deleted.

• Your profile, login, reminders, trips, Mitra chats and contacts.
• Your family tree entries, matrimony profile, admin applications and votes. If you are a village admin, the admin seat is handed over.
• Your group memberships. A group is deleted when its last member leaves.
• The messages you sent in group and Samaj chats.
• Your private one-to-one chats, for both people.
• Your wall, your Diary threads and, unless you chose to keep them, your gallery posts, your posts on other walls and your radar pins.
• Your business in Business Hub, and your follows of other businesses.
• Your group hotel requests.
• The photos, videos and voice notes behind all of the above.

Hotel booking and payment records are kept because the law and accounting rules require it. KuhuChat also keeps one small log entry with no personal details. Star ratings you gave to other businesses are not removed yet.

When the delete finishes, KuhuChat clears the chats and contacts saved on your phone, signs you out and returns to the login screen. The three extra home-screen icons (KuhuTools, KuhuBiz Search, KuhuTrip) are switched off. See Chapter 24 for the full details.

Private one-to-one chats are deleted for both of you. This also stops a phone number that is given to someone new later from opening your old conversation. Copies that other people saved, forwarded or screenshotted are theirs and are not removed.

Your login is removed last, so nothing is lost if a step fails. Sign in again and tap delete again. A very large account can take several minutes. If you see "already running", wait a few minutes and try once more.

Yes. Open app.kuhuchat.com/delete-account, log in with your mobile number and OTP, and follow the same steps.

Chapter 24 explains every step, what is deleted and kept, and what to do if something goes wrong.

No. Deleting is permanent. You can create a new account with the same number later, but it starts empty.

Yes. Use the Delete account page on this website and follow the email option.

If you only want a break, log out. Deleting is for when you want everything removed.

On screens about 700 pixels wide or more, the Contacts, Social and Samaj tabs show two panes. The list is on the left and the open chat is on the right. Until you pick a chat, the right side says "Select a chat to start messaging".

Yes. Open it in Chrome or Edge, log in with your mobile number and OTP, and use it like the app.

• A browser cannot read your phone's contacts, so it shows contacts your phone has already synced.
• Some phone-only features, such as the home-screen icons, are not available.

Yes. Both use the same account.

On Android phones, KuhuChat can add up to three extra icons next to the main app icon: KuhuTools (the Toolbox), KuhuBiz Search (business search) and KuhuTrip (the Trip Planner). The main KuhuChat icon always stays.

1. Tap the three dots and choose Home screen icons.
2. Switch on or off KuhuTools icon, KuhuBiz Search icon or KuhuTrip icon.

When you switch one on, a message confirms "Icon added".

Come back to Home screen icons and switch it off. Do not uninstall the app, because that removes all of KuhuChat.

The option appears on phones that support it. It is Android only and is not available in a browser.

Where your phone allows it, you can add a shortcut. Long-press it later and tap Remove to take it off. If your phone refuses, open Settings, Apps, KuhuChat, Permissions and look for the home screen shortcut permission.

Tap the toolbox icon in the top bar of the Samaj, Contacts, Social or Business tab.