In June 2025, information spread online that married couples would have access to their significant other’s chats in a new Russian messaging app. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
The Russian company VK launched a beta version of the messenger Max in the spring of 2025. June 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin called The government will provide all possible support to the application and transfer to the platform all services provided by government agencies and financial organizations. On June 10, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted law about the creation of a national messenger - judging by the comments of parliamentarians, it is about Max. At the time of writing this analysis, only chats, video calls, the creation of chat bots and mini-applications are available in it, but in the future they are going to integrate it with other VK services and gradually add additional functions - up to combining government, commercial and financial services in one application. In particular, with the help of the application it will be possible to confirm your age at the supermarket checkout or even check into a hotel without presenting documents. The Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media has already recommended officials should correspond in this messenger. And from September 1, smartphone manufacturers will be required to pre-install Max on their devices sold in the Russian Federation.
Since the full functionality of the application is still unclear, many rumors have already appeared around it - from mandatory registration through State Services to access to the correspondence of a husband or wife. Some publications wrote about such an unusual function of the new messenger. technologies And lifestyle. It is claimed that the function will simplify the resolution of issues related to children, medicine and other legal aspects. The pros and cons of this feature of the messenger are discussed by social network users (“VKontakte", "Classmates", Threads, X, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram). Most of the posts repeat each other almost verbatim.
Not at all home page Max website, nor in the section answers In response to frequently asked questions, “Verified” did not find information that married users will have access to each other’s correspondence. There is no mention of this function in numerous articles about the messenger published by the largest Russian news agencies and media. In addition, the purpose of such a decision is not entirely clear: how exactly access to a spouse’s personal correspondence can help in legal and/or medical issues that users write about in their posts.
The earliest publication found “Verified” about such a function of the new messenger appeared in the Telegram channel “The Empire is very evil» June 14, 2025 at 13:31 Moscow time. Soon the news spread across larger channels, but at the time of writing the analysis, many posts had already been deleted (copies were preserved in the TGStat archive). The fact is that “The Empire is Very Evil” specializes in satirical news - the channel description states: “Caution, fake news and harsh satire are possible. What is written is a work of fiction, all coincidences are accidental.” Five hours later, the channel appeared fast with screenshots of publications that appeared in popular channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers about access to spouses’ correspondence in Max. “The Empire is very evil” indicates that many people bought the joke, and the VK company, instead of playing up the fake that had gone viral, demanded that the author of the channel delete it.
This is not the first time that Internet users have taken satirical news from this channel at face value and started spreading it as real. Thus, “Verified” has already denied viral reports that the actress Milla Jovovich fired a Ukrainian housekeeper for refusing to speak Russian, which hobbyhorsing in Russia officially recognized as a sport or that during the Olympics in Paris the rapper Snoop Dogg, who took part in the Olympic torch relay, had his phone stolen. All of them originally appeared on the channel “The Empire is Very Evil” as satirical news.
Thus, there is currently no confirmation that spouses will be able to read each other’s correspondence in the Russian Max messenger. The full functionality of the application is still unclear, because, judging by media reports, they plan to significantly expand it, adding many other functions to chats and calls. However, it is unlikely that one of them will have access to the messages of her husband or wife - the primary source of this information was a Telegram channel specializing in satirical news.
Cover photo: social networks
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