Nygma
Very little
Your sign-in email and how many chats you started each day. No messages, no contacts, no keys, and no list of who you talk to.
Nygma Chat · on Google Play · iPhone coming soon
The chat with nothing to hand over.
No phone number. No contact list. No key server. Your messages are locked on your phone, and the keys that open them are agreed between your phone and theirs. Our server never holds them.
4 GB free, up to 10 GB with friends. No card. No phone number.
On a computer?
Scan with your phone.
Scan with your phone.
Free on every plan. One-to-one chats with text, photos, videos, files, voice notes and location.
How you connect
A little harder to connect. On purpose.
Other apps find your friends by uploading contacts and matching phone numbers, so a company sits in the middle of every first hello. In Nygma, the first hello happens between two phones.
1 · Meet
Open New chat
Your phone makes a one-time code. It works for 10 minutes, and only while the screen is open.
2 · Scan
They scan it
The secret that seals your keys travels inside the code, screen to camera. Our server only carries a sealed copy it can’t read or change.
3 · Talk
You see who joined
“Someone joined as Maya.” Not them? Remove the chat in one tap. They never find out.
Far apart? Send a one-time link, and give its 6-digit code a different way. Want proof you’re talking to the right person? Compare 8 words with them: Chat info → Verify security.
The difference
Where do your keys meet?
Every encrypted chat starts with two phones agreeing on a key. Who carries that first key is the question that matters most, and the one nobody asks.
You
Company server
keeps everyone’s keys and hands them out
Them
Your phone asks the company’s server for your friend’s key and uses the answer. The newest apps add checks that can flag a swapped key afterwards. They can spot a fake key; they can’t stop the server from handing one out.
You
sealed by the QR code, screen to camera
Them
Our server
only carries sealed envelopes; holds no keys
There is no key directory to hack, swap or subpoena. The secret that seals the first key travels in the code you share, so neither we nor anyone who breaks in can slip in a fake one.
Side by side
Same goal. Different choices.
Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram each do some things very well. Here is where Nygma chose differently — including where we are behind.
| Checked 30 Oct 2026 | Nygma | Signal | Telegram | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phone number to sign up | Never. The people you chat with never see your sign-in email either | Yes. A paid no-number option is in Android beta | Yes. Usernames are rolling out | Yes |
| How you find people | You invite them. No contact upload, no directory | Contacts matched in a secure enclave; findable by number by default | Your address book, if you allow it | Contacts synced with your permission |
| Who hands out the first key | No one. It is sealed in the code you share | Signal’s key server, with automatic key checks since August 2026 | WhatsApp’s key server, with key transparency | Telegram holds the keys to Cloud chats |
| End-to-end encrypted | Always | Always | Personal chats, always | Only opt-in Secret Chats |
| Ready for quantum computers | At the start, refreshed during the chat | Yes, refreshed with every step | Not announced | No |
| Read receipts, typing, online | None. Delivered ticks only | On by default, can be turned off | On by default | Read status shown |
| A PIN that opens an empty app | Yes, the duress PIN (Advanced protection) | No | No. Chat Lock can hide chats | No |
| Groups and calls | Not yet | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Track record | New in 2026. Protocol and formal models public | Open source, years of public review | Signal’s protocol; the app is closed source | Its own protocol; open apps, closed servers |
Sources, checked 30 October 2026
- Signal: Automatic Key Verification (11 Aug 2026)
- Signal: phone number privacy and usernames
- Signal: SPQR, the post-quantum ratchet
- Signal: government requests and what was produced
- WhatsApp: key transparency
- WhatsApp: reserve your username (June 2026)
- WhatsApp Help Center
- Telegram: FAQ
- Telegram: privacy policy
- Telegram: end-to-end encryption (Secret Chats)
- WhatsApp records available to law enforcement: FBI “Lawful Access” document, January 2021 (reported by Rolling Stone, November 2021)
Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram are trademarks of their owners. Apps change: tell us if a cell is out of date.
Don’t take our word for it
Try to get in.
Pick who you’re worried about. See what each app could give them, from each company’s own published policies.
Signal
Very little
When the account was created and when it last connected, per Signal’s published replies.
Who you talk to
Account details and, with the right orders, your contacts and near-real-time records of who you message. No message text.
Telegram
Your number and IP
Phone number and IP address on a valid court order. Cloud chats sit on Telegram’s servers under Telegram’s keys.
From Signal’s published replies to government requests, Meta’s and Telegram’s own pages, and a 2021 FBI document on messaging apps, checked 30 October 2026. What any app reveals also depends on your settings and your phone.
If a court asks
Exactly what we could hand over.
We publish it, so you don’t have to take a promise on trust.
What we have
- The email you sign in with
- How many chats you started each day, not which
- Sealed envelopes waiting for delivery, unreadable to us
- For now, which chat mailboxes your phone checks for notifications — never who is on the other end. Our next app update removes this link.
What we never have
- Your messages, photos, files or voice notes
- Your phone number or your contacts
- The keys to any chat
- A list of who you talk to
Honest limit: like any internet service, our servers see the network addresses that connect to them.
Built for the worst day
If someone makes you open it, Chats is empty.
Nygma Chat is made for the moment someone takes your phone and tells you to unlock it.
- A duress PIN opens Chats as a never-used app: no chats, no history, no notifications (Advanced protection)
- Strong mode keeps your chats sealed behind a vault password until you type it
- Protect a chat: no screenshots, screen recording or saving, on both phones
- Messages disappear after 7 days by default (or 24 hours, 30 days, or never); files expire after 30 days unless you save them
A decoy, not a guarantee: it can’t stop someone who already knows to ask for your real PIN.
Under the hood
Private in the details.
Quiet by design
No read receipts, no “typing…”, no online status, no last seen. Notifications say only “Nygma · New activity”, and every message is padded to the same size.
Ready for quantum computers
Every chat starts with X25519 and ML-KEM-768 together — the new NIST standard — and refreshes the quantum-safe secret every 50 messages or 24 hours.
Open for anyone to check
We checked the key exchange with ProVerif, the tool researchers used on Signal’s post-quantum handshake. It found one flaw before launch, and we fixed it. The protocol and the models are public.
What Nygma Chat doesn’t do (yet)
Find people for youNo contact matching. That is the point.
Groups and callsOne-to-one chats today.
Chat on a computerPhone only, where your keys live.
Hide your network addressLike most apps, our servers see where connections come from.
Questions
Good to know.
Is Nygma more secure than Signal?
Signal is excellent, and it has years of public review that a new app can’t match yet. Nygma makes different choices where we think they matter most: no phone number, no key server between you and the people you talk to, and a duress PIN for when you’re forced to open your phone. If those are the risks you care about, Nygma is built for you.
Why can’t I just find my friends in the app?
Finding friends means matching phone numbers or a directory of users, and that is exactly the map of who you know that we don’t want to hold. You invite people yourself: show your code in person, or send a one-time link and give them its 6-digit code a different way.
Can Genie9 read my messages?
No. Messages, photos, files and voice notes are encrypted on your phone with keys our servers never hold. We only pass on sealed envelopes and delete them once they are delivered or expire.
How do I know I’m talking to the right person?
When you scan their code in person, the keys can’t be swapped on the way. For a chat started with a link, open Chat info → Verify security and compare 8 words with them on a call or face to face.
Does Nygma Chat cost anything?
No. Chat is free on every plan. The duress PIN that opens an empty Chats comes with Advanced protection, on the Professional and Power plans.
Start a chat that’s only yours.
Free on every plan. On Google Play now, iPhone coming soon.
4 GB free, up to 10 GB with friends. No card. No phone number.