NotChat

Private peer-to-peer text chat. No accounts, no phone numbers, no central server that can read your messages or map your social graph. Each phone runs its own Tor onion service; you add people by scanning a QR (or pasting an invite), then chat over encrypted messages end to end.

Use NotChat when you want messaging that stays offline-friendly to big platforms: metadata stays off their servers, contacts are only people you deliberately added, and the app keeps trying to deliver even when peers are briefly unreachable.

Why people use it

• No middleman — messages go peer to peer over Tor, not through NotChat’s (or anyone’s) cloud
• No signup — identity lives on your device; invite someone with a QR
• Text that seals — messages are signed and encrypted; bad signatures and replays are dropped
• Works in the background — Android foreground service + retries so inbound and queued sends keep moving
• Simple UI — Signal-style chat list, drafts, delivery ticks, notifications when you’re not already in that chat

Features (v0)

• 1:1 text chats with local nicknames
• QR / invite link contact requests (Accept / Decline)
• Persistent drafts per chat
• Message notifications (skipped while that chat is open in the foreground)
• Outbox with automatic retry
• Always-on network keep-alive on Android (battery Unrestricted recommended on some OEMs)
• Open-source; signed release APKs via GitHub Releases

Not in v0: groups, media, voice, cloud backup, usernames directory, multi-device sync.

Threat model: network observers and location/identity correlation — not someone with an unlocked phone in hand. Details: SPEC-v0.md.

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Releases

Signed arm64 APKs are attached to GitHub Releases as NotChat-arm64.apk.

Creating a release (or pushing a v* tag) runs .github/workflows/android-release.yml. Required repo secrets and local build steps: ANDROID.md.

# Latest download (after first release exists)
# https://github.com/zarkones/NotChat/releases/latest/download/NotChat-arm64.apk

Local production build:

android/build-release-apk.sh
# -> ./app-release-arm64.apk
ADB_SERIAL=<device> android/build-release-apk.sh   # optional install

Debug build: android/build-debug-apk.sh.

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How contact works

You show a QR / invite from Settings
  onionchat:v1?id=<56char>&pk=<b64url>&n=<b64url>&nick=<urlenc>

Friend scans or pastes → signed contact request
You Accept → both can send sealed text messages

Normal UI shows a 56-character ID, not a raw onion hostname. Nicknames are local labels.

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Build from source

Prerequisites: Rust (see rust-toolchain.toml), network for Tor bootstrap. Desktop UI needs WebKitGTK. Android needs SDK/NDK + dx — see ANDROID.md.

cd NotChat   # or your checkout path
export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"

cargo build --bin headless
cargo test --lib
cargo run --bin headless                  # onion + HTTP (no GUI)
cargo run --features desktop --bin onion-chat   # desktop UI

Package id: dev.zarkones.onion_chat (crate/bin name onion-chat for historical reasons; app name is NotChat).

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Layout

Path	Role
SPEC-v0.md	Product + wire format
src/	Identity, crypto, DB, protocol, HTTP, Tor, UI, Android notify/runtime
android/	Manifest overlay, build scripts, launcher icons
assets/	Logo, QR scanner JS
.github/workflows/	Release APK CI

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0