SimpleX Chat

SimpleX Chat is a cross-platform end-to-end (E2E) encrypted instant messaging app and console application. The app does not require phone number, email address, or any other external identification.^[1]

SimpleX Chat
Developer	SimpleX Chat Ltd
Initial release	12 January 2022; 3 years ago (2022-01-12)
Repository	github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat
Written in	Haskell, Kotlin
Operating system	Android 8.0 or later iOS 15 or later Windows (desktop and console) macOS (desktop and console) Linux distribution (Flatpak, AppImage, .deb, console)
Available in	English, German, Spanish, Chinese, Turkish, French, Italian, Russian, Ukrainian, Japanese, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, Bulgarian, Thai
Type	Encrypted voice calling, video calling and instant messaging
License	GNU Affero General Public License
Website	simplex.chat

• Free and open-source software portal

SimpleX applications are completely open source and available for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS operating systems, and various Linux distributions.^[2]

History

The messaging app was developed from 2020 to 2022, according to GitHub releases.^[3] On January 12, 2022 there was an official release which introduced a terminal application featuring the implementation of the SMP protocol developed by SimpleX Chat Ltd.^[4]

In July 2024, the American cybersecurity firm Trail of Bits conducted an independent security audit of the SMP protocol version 6.1.^[5]

According to The Guardian, following the arrest of Pavel Durov in France in 2024 many far-right groups have migrated from Telegram to SimpleX due to hightened privacy concerns.^[6]

Russia

In September 2024 the app was blocked by Russian authorities (Roskomnadzor).^[7] In Septemper 2025, Tagansky court of Moscow fined the owning company SimpleX Chat Ltd. for "failure to fulfill the obligations of an instant messaging service provider", a violation of the law requiring every messaging application to collaboratee with state authorities and, if requested, provide encryption keys for certain communications.^[8]

Features

SimpleX Chat doesn't require any identification data to sign up and use the application. Unlike other instant messaging solutions, a SimpleX user isn't assigned a rigid unique identification number, which makes large-scale data scraping more difficult. All the private messages are E2E encrypted by SMP protocol, group messages work like multiple P2P messages and are also E2E encrypted , however that makes it harder to make larger chats.