Nothing is sold
No advertising, no profiling, no data broker, and nothing used to train anything.
Connect freely
Nothing between you and them
One server. One owner. No advertising network deciding what a conversation is worth.
In your hand
A conversation, as it happens
A messenger should get out of the way. Blackbird keeps the screen for the people you talk to, and tells you plainly what happened to every message.
-
You always know where it is
Sending, delivered, read. Every message says which, and one sent with no signal goes out when the network returns, exactly once.
-
One thread for everything
Words, photos, voice and files arrive in the same conversation, in the order they were sent.
-
Made to feel like yours
Themes, bubbles and layouts are chosen in Settings, and each one is shown on a live chat before you apply it.
-
Quiet by design
No ads and no feed. Nothing on the screen is competing with the person you are talking to.
Where a message goes
The whole journey, nothing hidden
Follow one message from your phone to theirs. Each step is what the app and the server actually do, including the parts most messengers leave off their front page.
This is a message in a Secret Chat, the end-to-end encrypted kind. A normal chat takes the same route, but the server stores it in a form it can read, and the push carries the sender's name and a short preview.
-
Written on your phone
The message exists only on your phone until you tap send.
The message exists only on your phone until you tap send.
-
Locked for the trip
The app talks to the server over an encrypted connection, TLS, the same lock as HTTPS.
Your phone locks the message with a key only their phone holds, before it leaves.
-
Across the network
Your Wi-Fi, your mobile operator and anyone else on the route can see that you connected, not what you wrote.
Everyone on the route, the network and the server included, sees scrambled data.
-
Through the server
One machine in Germany, run by one person. The message is stored there in a form the server can read. Blackbird does not have end-to-end encryption yet.
One machine in Germany holds the message without being able to read it, and deletes it once their phone has it. It still sees who wrote to whom, and when.
-
Delivered to them
If their app is open, it arrives at once over their own encrypted connection, and your ticks turn as it is delivered and read.
Only their phone can unlock it. Your ticks turn as it is delivered and read.
-
If their app is closed
Android lets only Google's push service wake a closed app, so the wake-up goes through Google and carries the sender's name and a short preview.
Google's push service still carries the wake-up, but with no name and no text. Their phone fetches the message and unlocks it itself.
Side by side
Around the message
The message is only half of it. An app paid for by advertising also has to learn about the people sending it. Here is the same conversation in both.
An ad-funded app
- Advertising pays for it
- Tracking code reports how you use it
- A profile is built to target the ads
Blackbird
- No ads, nothing to pay for
- No tracking code in the app
- No profile, nothing sold
Any app's Play Store page lists what it collects, under Data safety.
What it stands for
Built for a circle, not for scale
Most messengers are free because you are not the customer. Blackbird is free because it is one person's work, on one machine, with nothing to sell. These hold whatever the next update brings.
No tracking
No tracking SDK. Nothing in the app reports back on how you use it.
Your contacts stay yours
Sharing them is optional. Only numbers that match an account are used, and the rest are not kept.
Permissions when needed
Each one is asked for at the moment it is used, with the reason, never up front.
Delivered exactly once
Send with no signal and close the app. It goes out when you are back online, once, never twice.
Free to leave
Delete your account from inside the app and your messages go with it.
Always improving
Updates arrive inside the app
Each one is signed, checked against the server's fingerprint before it installs, and comes with notes on what changed. Every release so far is on one page.
The limit
No end-to-end encryption
Messages are encrypted in transit and readable on the server. Whoever runs that server can technically read them.
It is stated here, on the front page, so you can decide with the full picture. See what is protected.
The limit
Only Secret Chats are encrypted end to end
A Secret Chat is end-to-end encrypted: only the two phones in it can read it. Normal chats are not. They are encrypted in transit and readable on the server, and whoever runs that server can technically read them.
Start a Secret Chat for anything you want kept between the two of you. See what is protected.
Get started
One file, then it is yours
Android 7.0 or newer. Updates install from inside the app after that.