Session - Private Messenger

Oxen Project

About this app

Session is a private messenger offering privacy, anonymity, and security. With end-to-end encryption, no phone numbers for sign-up, and decentralisation, Session is a messenger that truly keeps your messages private and secure.

Session uses a powerful decentralised network of servers to route your messages, making it impossible for anyone to leak or sell your data. And with Session’s private routing protocols, your messages are completely anonymous. No one ever knows who you’re talking to, what you’re saying, or even your IP address.

Privacy is the default when you use Session. Every message is encrypted, every time. We take your privacy seriously — Session gives you a safe, private place to chat with your friends, family, or anyone in the world.

• Fully anonymous account creation: No phone number or email is needed to create a Session ID
• Decentralised server network: No data breaches, no central point of failure
• No metadata logging: Session doesn't store, track, or log your messaging metadata
• IP address protection: Your IP address is protected using a specialised onion routing protocol
• Closed groups: Private, end-to-end encrypted group chats for up to 100 people
• Secure attachments: Share voice snippets, photos, and files with Session's secure encryption and privacy protections
• Free and open-source: Don’t take our word for it — check Session's code yourself

Session is free as in free speech, free as in free beer, and free of ads and trackers. Session is built and maintained by the OPTF, Australia’s first privacy tech not-for-profit organisation. Take back your online privacy today — download Session.

Want to build from source, report a bug, or just take a look at our code? Check out Session on GitHub: https://github.com/oxen-io/session-android

Ratings and reviews

Literally everything is broken now...I don't know what's happened over the last couple of weeks, but the app is unusable. People that are showing up as members of groups cannot see the group. People that you remove from the group can still access it. Notifications for groups are non-existent and not working too well for individual messaging. Audio messages not sending, recipients can't load them if they do send. Honestly I think your app has been sabotaged. Apple and Android both affected.

Something in this app changed over the last month or so to make it nearly unusable. Messages don't send, files or pictures won't load for the other user or myself, and chats with users that were deleted reappear in my list. UPDATE: This has gotten so bad that I know tell others that I talk to switch to other apps. Session has become unusable. It should not take 5+ minutes for a message to send to a contact. Fix it!

Overall decent app but two major bugs: 1. When trying to share a picture, if it's recently saved to gallery it won't show up in the share option. I assume the function doesn't refresh the Gallery before opening. 2. Messages have emojis automatically react to them. For instance, I'll send a message and there are anywhere from 1 - 3 emojis showing on the message, but I never reacted with an emoji and neither did the message recipient.

What's new

Refactored user config to remove feature flag
Fixed unconstrained retry on jobs to prevent UI updates causing serious performance degradation
Disabled the send button when the composition box is empty
Refactored mention list in the conversations to improve responsiveness.
Improved view performance on conversations
Removed double wrapping of config messages
Standardised styles for Mentions
Fixed video call rotation from system setting
Fixed voice messages that kept playing even after removal