A messenger that keeps no record of who you talk to.
CHANNEL Messenger: private messaging, phone to phone.
When the other phone is near, CHANNEL tries the direct paths first — Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. When one succeeds, the message never touches the internet or our server. When the phone is not near, or the direct paths do not get through, a mailbox holds the sealed envelope until their phone collects it, and then forgets it. There is no contact upload, and a one-to-one conversation's history is kept nowhere but on your devices and theirs.
We store your address and the day it arrived — nothing else.
What it looks like
The people in these pictures are invented. The phones are the iOS Simulator and the Android emulator running the shipped build.
Messages. Every row is a person you paired with; the mark on the bubble says which way the message went.A conversation. Letters under the name say which paths are open to that phone right now; here they are Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LAN and Internet.Contacts. Linked means the two phones hold each other’s keys. Nothing here is uploaded anywhere.Settings. Reach, privacy, calls, location, blocked — and the profile card, which is the only thing you ever share.
And on Android
The same Messages list on Android, in the phone’s dark theme.The same conversation. Both apps are built to look and behave alike.Contacts on Android.Settings on Android.
A whole messenger, not a stripped-down one
Voice and video callsSealed between the two phones.
GroupsSmall groups, and formal groups with an admin who decides who joins.
Photos, video and filesVideo up to 5 GB, and any file except programs.
Voice messagesRecord up to 4 minutes; at the limit the recording stops and waits for you to send or delete it.
ProfilesSeparate identities on one phone, each with its own contacts and conversations.
Disappearing messages and view onceWith the view-once picture shielded from screenshots.
Edit, format and reactEdit a sent message for fifteen minutes, bold and italic, and any emoji as a reaction.
Polls, mentions and pay linksPolls in a conversation, @mentions in a group, and PayPal, Revolut, Mercado Pago, Pix or Mexico’s SPEI from a conversation’s Pay sheet.
One profile, several devicesShare a profile across up to 10 devices in all, every one an equal; its history follows.
Voice made for conversation
Where a feature is on iPhone only, it says so.
Recording that sends itselfWith Auto Send on, the microphone keeps listening. When you pause for about a second, what you said is sent as a voice message and recording carries on. iPhone.
Keep talking while it sendsEach part is sent in the background, so recording never stops while one goes. Stop sends what you were saying. iPhone.
Voice messages up to 4 minutesRecord up to 4 minutes. At the limit the recording stops and waits for you to send it or delete it. iPhone and Android.
Voice messages play in sequenceWhen one finishes, the next plays on its own if it is a voice message from the same person, directly after it. iPhone and Android.
Video messages play in sequenceA video message that finishes in the full-screen player hands over to the next one if it is a video directly after it. iPhone.
Noise reductionA voice message cuts the sound around you and keeps your voice. A switch in Settings turns it off. iPhone.
Playback speed1×, 1.5×, 2× or 0.75×, remembered for each person. iPhone and Android.
TranscribePress and hold a voice message and choose Transcribe to write out what was said underneath it. It happens on your device. iPhone and Android.
Where it is
In testing on iPhone and Android
Counted from the list on the Status page.
Working64working features in the current product
Not yet0designed, and not reachable in the app
The full list, item by item, is on the Status page. It is written in the present tense: what a thing does today, and a date saying when that was last checked.
Leave an address to hear when CHANNEL Messenger opens to the public and when there is a new version to download. That is the whole reason the list exists.
We store your address and the date you sent it. Nothing else — no name, no IP address, no tracking (our host's short-lived request logs record an address, as the Security page says). It is never sold, shared or rented, it is used for nothing but the two things above, and every email we send has a one-click unsubscribe. Ask us and we will delete it.
Availability
iOS — closed testing
Android — closed testing
Mac with Apple silicon — runs the iPhone app
CHANNEL Messenger is in closed testing on the App Store and Google Play.
Price: free for as long as you like for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi messaging and for receiving everything sent to you. Sending over the internet is two months free, then $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year (US prices; the store shows yours in your currency). On iPhone, a family plan is $9.99 a month for up to six people through Apple Family Sharing; on Android, a subscriber can share the plan with up to five paired contacts. During testing it costs nothing.
CHANNEL