SECURITY

Sealed on your phone. Opened only on theirs.

There is no Meshtrike server to subpoena and no account to hack. This page says exactly how Meshtrike protects you, what it can’t protect you from, and how to check our work.

01 · RULES THAT NEVER BEND

Private by design, not by setting.

These rules are built into every screen. There is no switch that turns them off.

  1. Notifications carry no names and no content.

    “New message”, “Incoming call”, “Missed call”. Never the sender, a preview or a photo.

  2. No screenshots.

    Every window blocks screenshots and screen recording, and the recent-apps thumbnail is blank.

  3. Never says “sent” while it’s still on your phone.

    A clock means it hasn’t left. One tick means it left. Two ticks mean their phone confirmed it.

  4. The app never touches the internet.

    Meshtrike doesn’t even hold Android’s internet permission. A separate, optional add-on, MeshGRID, handles Wi-Fi Direct and the private internet route, and only ever carries messages that are already sealed.

  5. Received media is never shown from the original file.

    Photos are redrawn from decoded pixels. Files and videos are never opened inside the app.

  6. Nothing reveals who talks to whom.

    No message paths, no hop counts. The app doesn’t know them and never stores them.

  7. No telemetry, no analytics, no crash reporting.

    Nothing about you or your phone is ever sent anywhere. The build checks for it on every change.

02 · HOW PROTECTED

Four layers between your words and everyone else.

Protection starts on your phone and holds all the way to theirs. Each layer works even if another one fails.

On your phone

  • Database sealed with your PIN, stretched so guessing is slow
  • Duress PIN wipes everything and shows a fresh install
  • Panic wipe with a 3-second hold
  • Screenshots and screen recording blocked

In the message

  • Sealed end to end before it leaves your phone
  • Every call uses fresh keys
  • Disappearing timers from 5 minutes to 4 weeks
  • Received photos are redrawn from pixels, never shown from the original file

On the network

  • Relaying phones hold only sealed data they can’t read
  • No message paths or hop counts are ever stored
  • The optional internet route goes through the Nym mixnet
  • Notifications never show names or text

Who you talk to

  • Verified means you scanned each other’s code in person
  • A 30-digit safety number to compare out loud
  • If a contact’s key changes, sending pauses until you re-pair
  • Public channels give you a different random name

03 · HONEST LIMITS

What it does. And what it can’t.

No app can protect you from everything. Knowing where the edges are is part of staying safe.

Protects you from

  • Network shutdowns and overloaded towers
  • Relays and strangers reading your messages
  • A server being hacked or subpoenaed, because there isn’t one
  • Someone impersonating a contact you verified in person
  • Being forced to unlock, with a duress PIN

What it can’t do

  • Malware already running on your phone
  • Someone who sees your unlocked screen or photographs it with another camera
  • Locating a phone while it transmits, using radio equipment nearby
  • Contacts who choose to share what you send them

Not yet independently audited.

Meshtrike hasn’t had an independent security audit yet. Until it has, treat it as beta software for high-risk use. An external audit of the core and the app, a formal model of the handshake and envelope format, and a public report are on the roadmap, before we call it ready for high-risk use.

Read the whitepaper PDF version

04 · COMPARE

How Meshtrike stacks up.

Every app here makes different trade-offs. This table follows each project’s own public documentation.

Meshtrike compared with Briar, bitchat, Meshtastic and Signal
FEATURE MeshtrikeApp v1.0.0 BriarBriar Project bitchatpermissionless tech MeshtasticLoRa radios SignalInternet messenger
Works with no internet
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, LoRa
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
Bluetooth LE mesh
LoRa radio mesh
Needs internet
Relays through other people’s devices
Carried sealed for up to 72 h
Syncs between contacts
Multi-hop, up to 7 hops
Rebroadcast by radio nodes
Central servers
Long-range radio
Optional LoRa radio
LoRa radio required
Internet route that hides metadata
Nym mixnet, optional MeshGRID add-on
Tor
Nostr relays, Tor where enabled
—
Through Signal’s servers
No phone number or account
Phone number required
Extra hardware needed
None. LoRa is optional
None
None
A LoRa radio per person
None
Platforms
Android
Android, desktop
iOS, macOS, Android
Radios + phone apps
All major platforms
  • Based on each project’s public documentation as of October 2026. Meshtrike features are as of app v1.0.0.
  • Briar’s site lists the project as in maintenance mode.
  • bitchat’s whitepaper notes its mesh peer ID stays stable across sessions, and store-and-forward mail is sealed without forward secrecy.
  • Meshtastic’s documentation notes it doesn’t provide forward secrecy.
  • Bridgefy isn’t listed: university researchers reported severe vulnerabilities in it in 2020 and 2021.

05 · CHECK OUR WORK

Don’t trust us. Check.

Everything is open source under Apache-2.0. Found a problem? Please tell us privately first, so people can update before it’s public.