Safety & crisis care
What Nicodemus does when someone is in crisis — and, just as honestly, what it cannot do.
If you are in danger right now, please reach out immediately.
In the United States, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (dial or text 988), or chat at 988lifeline.org. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
Nicodemus is an AI companion for prayer, reflection, and Scripture. It is not a crisis service, a counselor, a therapist, or a person — and it is never a replacement for one.
What the app does in a crisis
- When it senses you may be in danger, it stops everything else — no Bible study, no usual back-and-forth — and responds with care, pointing you toward a real, trained person.
- It gives you the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988). In Spanish, you can press 2 — oprime 2 para español. It also names your local emergency number (911 in the US).
- That crisis response is never blocked by any usage limit or budget. Even if you have hit a message cap, a crisis reply still comes through — this is enforced in the code, before any limit is ever checked.
- The crisis message stays pinned on your screen, so the number does not scroll away when you keep typing.
- It will not discuss methods or means of self-harm, in any framing — not as history, not as theology, not hypothetically.
- It works the same way in English and Spanish.
What the app cannot do
- No human is monitoring your conversations. Nicodemus is software. There is no counselor reading along and no one on the other end.
- It cannot contact anyone for you — not 988, not a family member, not your church, not emergency services. It can give you the number and encourage you to reach out; making contact is something only you can do.
- It is not a substitute for professional help, a counselor, a pastor, or emergency services.
Reaching a real person
You were not made to carry heavy things alone. If you are struggling, we gently encourage you to reach out to your church, a pastor, or someone you trust — and, in a crisis, to the trained people at 988. Nicodemus will point you toward your people, but the reaching out is yours to do, whenever you are ready.
Nicodemus is for adults — you must be 18 or older to use it.
This page describes how the app behaves for the United States pilot. If the app ever behaves differently from what this page promises, tell us — we will fix the app or this page.