Olvid
France
French end-to-end encrypted messenger that requires no phone number or central directory to work.
A French encrypted messenger built around an unusual idea: no central directory, no phone number, no email address. Olvid was founded in 2019 in Paris by cryptographers Solenn Brunet and Thomas Baignères, and the product is built so that even Olvid's own servers don't know who is talking to whom.
What you get
- End-to-end encrypted messages, voice and video calls
- Identity by key exchange, not phone numbers, so the server has nothing to leak
- Group chats, file sharing, ephemeral messages
- Native apps for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux
- A business edition for teams, with an admin console
Where it sits
Olvid is the messenger the French government picked for ministers and senior civil servants in 2023, replacing WhatsApp and Telegram for sensitive conversations. The protocol has been audited by ANSSI, France's national cybersecurity agency.
Honestly
The no-directory model is the security win and the UX cost: adding contacts is more work than tapping a phone number, because you and the other person have to exchange a one-time link or QR code. If you can live with that, Olvid is one of the more rigorously designed messengers around.
United Kingdom
Switzerland