Trip finished: leave the group or delete it?

Leave a shared group when you want your own participation to end. If you are the host, the available exit is to delete the group for everyone. Removing an offline copy or deleting the app is a different action: neither sends a request to delete an online group.

Tales Ahead is in private testing, with no public App Store download yet, as checked on 15 October 2026. Check current availability before planning a download.

Choose whose participation should end

• A guest wants to stop: Leave group revokes that membership and clears its nickname and marks. The shared group remains for the other members.
• The host wants to close the group: Delete group for everyone deletes the online board and its memberships. The current app has no host-transfer control; the host cannot leave through the guest option.
• Someone wants to clear an old saved view: Remove offline copy clears that group from their app on that device. It does not delete an online group or another person’s copy. This option appears when the app has detected that access ended.

For a fictional example, Morgan hosts a weekend board and guest Pat wants to stop while the others continue. Pat can leave without closing everyone’s game. Morgan should use the host’s delete control only when intending to end that online group for everyone. Support explains leaving before removing the app.

Leave or delete while you still have access

1. Connect to the service and open the intended shared board. Check which group you are ending, especially if you have more than one. Let the group know if you plan to close it for everyone.
2. Open Group options. As a guest, choose Leave group and confirm Leave group. As the host, choose Delete group for everyone, then confirm Delete group. The host action is not a way to leave the others playing in the same online group.
3. Wait for the operation to finish. After a successful response, the current app removes that group from your saved list. If it reports an error, keep the app and its access credentials available while you check the state; a missing response alone cannot establish whether the server completed the request.

The control names and saved-copy behaviour here come from inspection of the current app and API source on 15 October 2026, rather than a real-device or production-group test. If access has ended, that tells you the old membership cannot currently use the service; it does not by itself tell you whether a host deletion, removal or expiry caused it.

If a board remains after access ends

A phone can retain its last fetched board after the group is deleted, expires or a membership is removed. The current app can show “Access ended. This is a saved copy.” Refreshing detects lost access, but does not itself erase that cached board. Under Group options, Remove offline copy clears it from this app on this device.

That local cleanup is separate from leaving or deleting online. It cannot erase an export, screenshot or another member’s saved copy. Ask other participants to remove copies they no longer need, and keep sensitive information out of predictions in the first place. The offline guide explains what a saved view can establish.

Know what remains after an exit

Leaving clears that membership’s nickname and marks and revokes access. It does not remove the group’s shared title or predictions. A token hash and request fingerprint remain until group deletion or expiry so an old request cannot restore the membership. No account does not mean no stored data. The privacy page lists the stored data and deletion rules.

Groups become inaccessible after 30 days without activity. Daily cleanup normally removes an expired group and its memberships within a further 24 hours. Continuing activity can keep a group available, so waiting 30 days from the trip’s end is not a reliable way to close it. Use the host deletion control when the intention is to close it sooner.

Abuse reports are separate records: a submitted report may remain for up to 31 days even after group deletion, and reporting does not automatically remove content. Cloudflare’s recovery systems may also retain data temporarily under the provider’s rules. Group deletion is not a promise of immediate erasure from those systems or from members’ own copies.

Before deleting the app

Leave the group, or delete it as the host, before removing the app if you want to end that online participation. Deleting the app does not send either request. Locally stored boards and access credentials may become unavailable, and there is no account-recovery route. Keep any important local-board export somewhere you control, with its privacy in mind.

If you already lost access and need help, contact the operator through Support. Include a group identifier if available; never send an invitation code, membership token or private group export. Invitation controls address who can join or retain access.

For Pat, leaving ends one membership while the others continue. For Morgan, deleting closes the online group. Clearing a saved copy tidies one device. Choose the action by whose access you intend to end, then handle any remaining copies separately.