Phoenix Chat — Anonymous Chat over Tor

About the project

Phoenix Chat is a chat app that uses no accounts, phone numbers, or databases. A user's identity is just a random key pair generated on the device, and all data is stored as local files.

Every device runs its own Tor v3 onion service. Messages are encrypted with nacl.box (X25519) and sent straight to the friend's device over the Tor network, with no third-party relay. Messages for friends who are offline are queued and re-sent automatically as soon as they come online.

There are two versions speaking the same protocol, so their users can chat with each other: a desktop app (Electron + Node.js) and an Android app (Kotlin). Both share the same React interface, available in Indonesian and English.

Key features

• No accounts: identity is an X25519 key; contacts are added with a code or QR
• End-to-end encryption with nacl.box, delivered directly over Tor onion services
• Offline message queue, Sent/Read receipts, and file attachments
• Tor Route screen showing the guard, middle, and rendezvous relays in use
• obfs4 and Snowflake bridge support for networks that block Tor
• AES-256-GCM encrypted backups that restore on both desktop and Android
• Available as a Linux AppImage, an Android APK, and its own F-Droid repo

Releases