Chat / Messengers

SimpleX has no user account at all. No phone number, no username, no address book on a server. You connect by a one-time link or a QR code. Relays pass messages and are not supposed to learn who is talking. The apps are open source. The network is small. Delivery can be slower than Signal. […]

Session gives you a random Session ID instead of a phone number. Messages go through an onion-routed network of community nodes, so there is no central account database of who messaged whom. Clients are open source. There are phone and desktop apps. Onion routing costs time. Big files are limited. Calls exist and they are […]

Threema sells a messenger for a one-time fee. A random Threema ID replaces your phone number. Chats are end-to-end encrypted. The company is in Switzerland and has published outside audits. You can use it without handing over a number or an email. The apps are open source. The server is not. You are trusting Threema […]

Element is the main app for Matrix, a federated chat protocol. You can use Element’s server or run your own and still talk to people on other servers. Private rooms can be end-to-end encrypted. Bridges can mirror Slack, Telegram, and other networks into a room. The homeserver sees metadata. Public rooms are often unencrypted. Encryption […]

Signal encrypts messages, voice, and video by default. The protocol is open. WhatsApp uses a cousin of it. Sealed sender hides your identity from Signal’s servers on ordinary messages. Since 2023 the handshake also includes a post-quantum layer, PQXDH, so a recording of today’s traffic is harder to crack later with a future quantum machine. […]