Straight talk about
what this is and who made it

Tokek wasn't built by linguists or a university department. It was made by people who moved to Bali themselves and ran into the language on the street, at the workshop, and with their landlord. We're bule too, same as you.

We think that's an advantage: we know exactly which phrases you need in your first week, because we went looking for them ourselves. It also means we hold no diploma that guarantees anything.

That you'll be able to say the phrase you need clearly enough to be understood. That words come back for review right as you start to forget them. That the app works with no internet.

That you'll speak fluently. That your accent will be perfect. That every phrase lands exactly the way a local your age from your neighbourhood would say it.

A living language changes faster than any app. If a local corrects you — they're right, not us. Tell us, and we'll fix it.

Meanings are checked against standard Indonesian dictionaries and, where we're unsure, against native speakers who live here. The pronunciation written in Latin letters is an approximation, not a phonetic transcription — enough to be understood, not a linguistics paper.

Indonesian stress is light, and some linguists argue it barely exists at all. Our marks are a hint, not a law. When a local says it differently, they win.

Until you sign in, there is no account. Your progress, saved words and day streak live in your browser's memory and never reach our server. Clear the site data and they're gone — neither you nor we can bring them back.

Two exceptions we'll say plainly. If you use the translator without signing in, we keep your IP address and the number of translations for the day for up to a week — otherwise scripts would drain the translator at our expense; after seven days that record is deleted. And on the landing pages (not inside the app) we run analytics that collect anonymous visit stats and may record how you moved your cursor, setting their own cookies for that. Inside the app — your account, the chat, the lessons — there is no such tracking, on purpose.

When you sign in — by email or through Telegram — an account appears. It holds exactly what's needed so your progress survives a change of phone:

Always: your email (or your Telegram ID, if you signed in that way) and your learning progress — which words you've learned and when to review them. Sign-in is kept in your browser by an ordinary functional cookie — it's there so we don't ask for your email every time, and it tracks no advertising.

Only if you enter them: your name, country, contact (Telegram or WhatsApp), nickname, photo and a few words about yourself. The nickname, photo and “about” are shown to other people in the shared chat — that's what they're for. Leave them blank and we store none of it. One exception: if you sign in through Telegram, your name and @username from your Telegram profile are filled in right away — that's how Telegram sign-in works; you can change or clear them in your account.

Depending on what you use: the messages you write in the shared chat (everyone there can see them); the history of your translations and photo breakdowns — so you can come back to them; and a reminders subscription — only if you turned it on.

About payments. We never see or store card numbers — the payment provider handles those on their side. All that reaches and stays with us is a record of the payment itself: the payer's email, the amount and the transaction number. We collect no passports, visas or addresses.

You can delete all of it. Write to us and we'll erase your profile, progress, your chat messages and subscriptions. Your translation history and anonymous stats we don't erase but detach from you, so there's no way to tell they were yours. Payment records stay — bookkeeping requires it. And you can sign out and wipe your local progress yourself, from your account.

Tell us. A mistake in a language app is not a small thing, and we fix those first. It's especially valuable if you're a native speaker or have lived here a long time.