Say it once. It arrives.

Yes, while it is in beta. And it has no ads.

iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows. You can use several phones at once: history and changes follow you to each of them.

No. We did not read them before either, and since version 1.8.0 direct chats, encrypted groups and calls are end-to-end encrypted: now we could not read them even if we wanted to, because only the people in the conversation hold the keys. Channels and open groups are public by design: they are protected on the way and on your phone, but not end to end, and we do not read them either. More about encryption in the questions below.

A message is locked on your phone and unlocked only on the devices of the person you are talking to. On the way and on our servers it lies in a form nobody can read: not us, not your internet provider, and not anyone who broke into our server or carried off its backups. The keys to the conversation exist only on the devices of the people in it and never reach us. In Verboo encryption is on by itself since version 1.8.0: there is nothing to set up.

Direct chats and calls, and in encrypted groups everything: messages, photos, videos, files, voice and video messages, reactions, and the group's name and picture. Channels and open groups are public by design, so we do not put end-to-end encryption on them: they are protected on the way and on your phone. The kind of group is chosen when it is created: an encrypted group holds up to 1,024 members, an open one up to 10,000. If the other person's app cannot encrypt yet, Verboo tells you so plainly.

There is a threat called "record now, decrypt later": someone stores other people's encrypted traffic today, hoping to break it with a quantum computer years from now. That is why the keys travel between devices in a post-quantum way: ML-KEM-1024, the standard the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) approved in 2024 precisely against quantum computers, together with the proven classical P-384 curve. To get to a key, both protections would have to be broken at once. The messages and files themselves are encrypted with AES-256-GCM and a 256-bit key, which is considered strong against quantum computers too.

Open the Safety Code in the chat and choose to verify it together with the other person: both screens show six chess pieces on coloured squares. Compare them by voice or in person. If the pieces, the colours and the order match, nobody is in the middle, and the chat gets a verified mark. If the other person's keys change later, for example on a new phone, the mark goes away and you can verify again. When the other person is offline, you can compare the whole safety code, drawn as a chess position on a board or as digits.

Not the content. But to deliver messages the server has to know whom to pass them to and when: who writes to whom and when, the size of a message, its kind (a message, a reaction, a read receipt), who is in a group, and the network addresses of devices. Encryption cannot hide this service information, and we do not promise that it does.

If you have another device with Verboo, link the new phone to it, and it hands the new phone the keys. If there is no other device, your recovery phrase (eight words) and the chat backup bring them back. The backup holds not the messages themselves but the keys that open them. Your phone seals it before it is sent to us, the key to it is derived from the phrase, and the phrase itself never reaches us. Without the phrase nobody can open the backup, including us, so keep it somewhere safe. The backup can be switched off in Settings.

Hold a message (right-click it on a Mac or Windows) and choose Report, or report a user, a group or a channel from its profile. The report goes end-to-end encrypted to Verboo's moderators, with the reported message and up to five messages before it. A moderator may hide a post, block a group or a channel, or suspend an account. Every measure can be undone: the person it touches is told why and may appeal within a month, and the appeal is decided by another moderator. A report about content involving a minor hides the post at once, and such material is passed to the competent authorities. To write to us yourself, open Settings and choose Contact Us.

iPhone. Install TestFlight from the App Store, then on the iPhone tap “Join on TestFlight” in the Download section and accept the invitation: Verboo installs through TestFlight.

Android, Google Play. 1. Join the testers' group with the Google account your phone uses. 2. On the phone tap “On an Android phone”: Google Play opens, join the test and install Verboo. From a computer tap “In a browser on a computer”, sign in with the same account and tap Become a tester. Error 403 means another Google account is open or the group has not updated yet: check the account and try again in a few minutes.

Android without Google Play. Join on Firebase App Distribution, or download the APK file and check it against the published checksum.

Mac. macOS 15 or later. Download the disk image, open it and drag Verboo into Applications.

Windows. For Windows 10 or later, 64-bit. Run the installer. Windows may say the publisher is unknown: choose More info, then Run anyway.

Ah, a most valuable question! We would be delighted to trade this information. The price is 10,000,000 dollars. Credit is not accepted.