- Category
- Messaging · SaaS alternative
- Cost
- Free
- Country
- UK
- Licensing
- FOSS
- Platforms
- iOS · Android · Linux · macOS · Windows
- Self-hostable
- Yes
Pros and cons
+ what works
- +No user identifiers at all (no phone, no email, no UUID, no username)
- +Pairwise queue addresses defeat social-graph correlation by the relay operator
- +Open source under AGPL-3.0 with reproducible builds
- +Two independent Trail of Bits security reviews (2022, 2024)
- +Anyone can run their own relays
− watch out for
- −Smaller user base means contact reach is a real friction point
- −Group reliability and message ordering still maturing compared to Signal
- −Onboarding via QR-code invites is more friction than a phone-number lookup
- −Metadata at the queue-server level is minimized but not eliminated
Privacy notes
SimpleX uses pairwise queue addresses on relay servers rather than user-level identifiers. Each conversation runs through a different queue, so the network operator never builds a social graph and there is no account, no phone number, no email, no UUID. Profile names and pictures, if set, are visible only to contacts you have explicitly connected to. The protocol is FOSS (AGPL-3.0) and the clients are auditable; Trail of Bits published protocol and code reviews in 2022 and 2024. SimpleX Chat Ltd is registered in the UK. Anyone can run their own relays.
Tags
#e2ee · #foss · #no-identifiers · #agpl · #decentralized
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