Session - Private Messenger

Please add support for: - An option for a delay on the screen lock requiring authentication to get back into the app (30 seconds, one minute, five minutes, etc.) - Larger versions of the emoji reactions to messages; they’re super tiny right now - changing the font size via the iOS Text Size feature in the Control Center - Also, at least the iPad version of the app has a bug in which it often doesn’t prevent the screen from locking during a video call; the screen dims and then eventually shuts off, both on low-power mode and regular mode. Re-unlocking the iPad and going back to the video doesn’t fix the problem; it just occurs again. It would appear that the bug is triggered when the user minimizes the video to look at some thing in the chat and then goes back to the video. The only solution I have found so far is to quit the app and restart it.

Until now have touted session as the best e2e messenger to anyone who’d listen. The unique sessionid anonymous signup and built in onion routing are clutch features that give the app an advantage over competitors. But for the past few months session has been super glitchy. Not syncing between my devices anymore (all running current versions of session); messages randomly don’t self delete in certain chats (even with both users’ apps up to date and self destruct settings updated accordingly). I’ve ridden for session for a long time and got dozens of people to use it, but with the amount of problems I’m having it’s becoming almost unusable. Everyone in my session group is still a member but no one actually gets messages from the group anymore. What is going on? Is this ever going to get better? Any insight into why signal and (sigh) telegram function so much cleaner in general? I’m trying to convince myself that switching to signal for primary use isn’t necessary but session has sucked lately, coming from someone who loves the app, or at least I still love the concept. Thanks for your work but session as it functions now isn’t cutting it. Suggestion I agree with: need an option to retroactively delete all messages that were sent before a self destruct timer was set. At this point though it’s hard for me to trust my messages aren’t still on the receiver’s device even if they self destruct on mine.

I almost only use this app because of the privacy it offers. Yes, I’d like to be able to edit the user’s name BEFORE they accept the chat so I remember who they are instead of looking like an idiot and asking what their username/profile name was again. Sure there’s the occasional issue where you don’t get notifications that you received a message. But now?!? The last couple of weeks it’s been barely working. Messages sit in “sending” for up to 15 mins! Before finally going through. And I keep getting syncing, failed to sync messages. I uninstalled the windows app - didn’t change anything. Uninstalled reinstalled the iOS app - thought it worked as all my messages went through - then the hang up started again within the hour. Other users I talk to say they have the same issue. Their messages are stuck in a massive hang before finally going through. You have a great service offering privacy in a time and world where privacy doesn’t exist anymore. Please fix the issues though.

This app’s great and i’ve personally always loved it. It’s always felt secure and just safe in general. The only problem keeping me from giving it a 5 star rating is a really annoying issue that I get. It started happing just a few weeks ago. My session message requests end up deleting on their on. Like, I’d open the app, see a bunch of message requests that i’ve yet to open, but when i click on “Message Requests” button on top of all my chats, the pending chats just delete on their own. Its really annoying and a part of me is writing this review just so I could find a fix for it. Regardless, great secure app with very few bugs.

Session stands out as an exceptional choice for those prioritizing absolute privacy and security in their communications. As a decentralized messaging platform, it removes the central points of failure and surveillance that other apps struggle to avoid, ensuring your messages stay completely private. What sets Session apart is its commitment to anonymity; no phone number or email is needed to sign up, just start messaging with a Session ID. This, combined with end-to-end encryption based on a modified version of the renowned Signal Protocol, secures your communications against eavesdroppers and hackers. Its open-source nature further confirms the integrity and security of the app, as any potential vulnerabilities can be quickly identified and addressed by the community. For anyone serious about their privacy, Session is not just a good choice—it's the best choice.

I really like the idea of this app and it’s almost on par with some of its competitors (e.g., Confide, Threema.) in addition to other suggestions here, couple of easy tweaks would be big improvements. (1) The ability to edit a message once it’s been sent. I think most messaging app have that feature now. (2) Also, disappearing/ephemeral messaging could be cleaned up a bit. Would be nice if once I set an expiration time limit, the app asked if I would like that applied to all the existing messages in the chat as well. As it stands now, I have to go back and delete individual messages, one by one, which is a pain. It would also be nice if the expiration time applied to things like phone call notifications, and other informational messages in the chat. Otherwise, the app keeps getting better with every update.

I have had this app since the day it was released and have been very pleased, and impressed, with its performance. I ran into some minor issues with push notifications being delayed on the earliest versions, but these were quickly remedied with new updates. This isn’t the most feature-rich messenger out there and the Session IDs may not be for everyone, but if you’re looking for a well-performing app that subverts the big tech companies harvesting your data, you won’t find better. I fully expect that with time it will only get better. I’ve been a believer in the Loki project since it got started and am really impressed with this product running on the network. As others have said, this is surely the future of secure communication.

Knowing the vulnerabilities of conventional messengers, I’m very happy to see session come from Loki. I’ve been on boarding friends, it’s pretty easy to set up, and very intuitive to use thereafter. Great to see that privacy doesn’t have to be insanely complicated! Thanks for all the hard work! Update: I’ve been having trouble getting notifications to work. Messages won’t appear until I open the app. Not sure if this is a bug, or stupidity on my part. Turned on notifications in settings for phone, and in app. Update on update: issue seems resolved, and very well explained as to why push notifications weren’t used. The option to use them is now available. Really amazing work to session, and Loki. Keep it up!

This app worked for the first two days that I had it. Today, the third day, it started bugging out. It spammed my sister and my phones with notifications, only to find out that we didn’t even have any text messages. The app won’t even let my sister talk to me as it continues to say this recipients key isn’t valid. This makes no sense at all, and every time I go onto the app to text her, my text never go through. This app has many issues and glitches at times and it takes forever to send messages. It does have a very interesting layout and it was a cool concept when getting it at first, but dealing with these issues is just not worth the unique design. I do have hope for this app changing in the future, especially with reviews like this one, but like I said it is only a hope and not a guarantee.

I’m a Wicker refugee, of which I’m sure there are many. One of the main things I find strange is not having the ability to edit a msg after it’s been sent. For a workaround-if the recipient hasn’t read it yet, you can Copy the message and paste it, making the necessary edits and then sending it, after which you can then delete the original, making sure you choose “delete for self and recipient” <- a nice feature in and of itself. Other than that there is a glitch I often encounter. When a new message comes in from the user you’re currently messaging- it doesn’t show up on the screen like if you’re typing a reply and they send another message while you’re still on the screen with both your messages, it doesn’t appear. I have to back out of the conversation to look at the list of contacts and then I’ll see it and when I go back into the conversation, the new message is there. I’m on an iPhone 14 Pro Max Thanks in advance for your attention to this matter.

I like this app for secure messaging however i wish there was more personalization options as other messaging apps. Such as #1 ability to change background text images. WhatsApp allows you to pick a photo from you camera roll to make the backdrop of your messaging screen which i think is a great feature. #2 more text color options. There only a few option for text bubble colors and they aren’t the most wide range. I’d suggest adding more colors. And different shades of colors too like pastels. #3 ability to customize a friend your messagings photograph. You can change the name of the person you’re messaging which is a good feature but there’s no option to change their image (just on your end). Some people may not want to display their own photo for everyone to see for privacy reasons so allowing people to change the person they are messagings photo would be a good feature. Other messaging apps offer this as well.

This is an excellent app, and as Wickr is ending its support at the end of 2023, Session is becoming an outstanding replacement, but it has an issue regarding screenshots taken in an iPhone and then trying to forward them directly to the Session app, that or those screenshots are not appearing on the chats, by now the only way of sending screenshots are saving them to your gallery , then in Session you have to open the gallery and attach the images directly to your conversations. This is only presented on IOS devices. Hope the development team could have a look on this issue.

I have known this app for many years and keep being fascinated by its cool UI and reliable encryption. I also invited my sister to download the app. However, this app has some flickers when my sister uses it. The app does not push any notifications when it is opened in background while notifications can be received normally when the phone is locked. Also, the “ delete old open group messages “ function can not be off. Once I tried to shut it down, the app crashed and closed automatically.

Great-privacy-centered app which requires little technical knowledge to set-up. Some acquaintances of mine have been complaining of some notification issues. The app needs to be open in order to get messages with their subsequent notifications. Tried switching some privacy options around and still no luck. Even turned on the calling feature to “kick” the app into sending notifications without the app opened… As us plebs are not behind the curtain of Apple’s inner-workings, won’t you please fix this issue :)

I would love to give an app like this five stars but I’ve recently discovered it is not giving any notifications to anyone I talk to. If I want someone to reply me I have to message them some other way, rendering the security and privacy features relatively useless. It seems the only reason I get notifications is because I keep opening the app regularly send messages. The only messages I get are from people who randomly checked the app or who I message through another app to tell them to check Sessions. This unfortunate feature renders the app useless for anyone who only has a few contacts and infrequent chats and is a major security flaw.

Please make sure to label all of your buttons with alternative text as well as any images. I am unable to use and navigate your app using voiceover with iPhone. Please update this and resolve this major issue and I am sure that this will be a five star review in the future. For now I will have to use Signal. I heard about this app and was really excited, until figuring out it is inaccessible. There is no way to create messages, no easy way to copy your session and I can’t even navigate to any sort of menus if they exist, which I am sure that they do at the very least for some basic settings. Update: still nothing new with the new update. Could you please make some of these basic edits to your UI? Update: still patiently waiting.

It’s high time we can interact without some corporation or entity somehow learning everything about us, and Session delivers. No phone number or email on signup, which took 0 seconds. Nobody in my business or my personal life. I’ll be migrating my small business team here and then chipping away at my friends as well, starting at the early adopters. It’s a new app and I wouldn’t call it a finished product at this point. But if you value your privacy and data more than the bells & whistles that haven’t yet arrived, then it’s already there.

I love the app and it’s simple design. Very quick and easy to set up. The only gripe i have is the call system, I know it’s in beta but it’s a must for me. I want to replace discord with this app eventually and I hope it will be ready by that time. Please add group calling, that would help me out a lot. Also, the calls take a while to get in touch. Please make something like a call for trusted contacts. Overall great alternative messaging app, thank you for doing this loki project, can’t wait to see more of your awesome work.

The app is almost unusable now. Constantly having to force quit and relaunch to get messages to show up. Endless “unable to sync” errors on all the messages I try to send. Audio and video calls don’t connect if one party is using a VPN. Sometimes text messages take 12 hours to arrive. When I try to share a link from another apps “share to session button” it glitches, says something about lack of nodes and the recipient doesn’t receive the link even though it shows sent on my end. Please update so this app can run on an Apple Watch. Please add easy ability for users to create relay nodes using a raspberry pi and a prebuilt ISO image file to burn to an SD card.

Used to be great. The app frequently breaks and will no longer send certain messages, mainly pics and vids. Re-downloading doesn't fix it. I love the privacy and security measures they have but that doesn't matter if it frequently stops working. Numerous message board threads on reddit and discord about the problems which never seem to get fixed. Many better options out there. Devs keep telling people to download current version, which has been done, but refuse to acknowledge they have an issue sending and receiving media. If they can admit it and roll out a fix I'll update the review. Until then, don't waste your time and find a better app to use.

I had gotten rid of the app for 1 day in order to download something else I needed and when I got back on I realized I couldn’t see or receive any of the pdfs pictures or videos I had been previously received or currently and getting sent, it’s just a green bar that slides back and forth under the video would like to see this issue resolved in some way, I’ve had the app again for 3 days, closed and opened it and still nothing

This almost has everything I want. Still with this latest update I’m having a bug where the message doesn’t populate. Or the person I’m talking to isn’t getting my messages. I know there is a lot of tech going on here but if this can’t support a normal back and forth conversation I won’t be able to use this much longer. The frustration will be too much. I’m still gonna give you a 5 star review because I’m confident you’ll figure it out. Just please make it soon. Now things on my wishlist, 1. A loading or progress meter for downloading photos or audio messages. 2. In the “all media” section make a tab for Audio. So it’s easier to find. 3. Time stamps in the chat would be nice next to the message or when you swipe left to reply to a message.

I got this app to replace Wickr and I like that it doesn’t delete messages after 6 days. However I have noticed that I can get a notification but when I open the app, there’s nothing there. I usually have to force close and reopen the app a few times in order for it to show what the other person has sent. Not sure if there is a feature to change this or if it’s just the way the app is.

This app sounds great on the surface. A more private version of Signal that doesn’t require your phone number or the phone numbers of your contacts. But who is the Loki Foundation? Who’s funding this app? How can they afford to offer their service for free with no advertisements? What’s in it for them? Based in Australia. Australia has an anti encryption law. Not the best choice for privacy. I guess we’ll have to wait until this app and its service are fully audited by an independent and reputable auditing firm and that firm releases the full and complete audit report online before we can somewhat trust it.

This is a half baked version of signal. The idea of no phone number is great, but please stop the session updates messages every few minutes. How many times would you like me to read the same articles. With the link from within the app, is this a way to expose the user’s ip address ? No voice or video chat. Being a fork of signal, why not include that functionality and add some ? Thank you for the feedback. What I do like so far is the clean user interface. I will continue to use the app and as things improve I will keep updating my feedback. Hopefully it can get to 5 stars soon.

Used app for a while, used recovery phrase as intended when I reinstalled, all notes to self were deleted and all chatrooms I was in was deleted as well. I purposely made sure that messages would not automatically delete, and despite this, they were deleted after 2 weeks of not having the app. If you add a recovery phrase, whats the point if everything gets deleted when the app is deleted?

Like this app for the privacy and convenience however even with the new update I still don’t get notifications I’ve received a message. Only when I have the app open and on my inbox do the new messages load. I do have all notifications set on the app and the device as well. Others I’ve talked to still have this problem as well. This app has more potential if notifications without being on the app would work more consistently.

My friends and I that use this app have all stopped getting notifications and are thus not aware of messages having accumulated until we open the app. I have checked all the settings, uninstalled and reinstalled the app and nothing I can do my end is making a difference and as I my friends are all having the same problem.

Love the fact session doesn’t require a phone number. I also love the fact I don’t have to create a password, I just have to backup my seed phrase. Overall amazing messenger, only draw backs are some bugs. 1. I keep getting notifications from the app while I’m already in the app. 2. I get notifications from text messages I send.

I love the privacy features Session offers, but part of the point of privacy is being able to not have a single “identity” that is used for everything. Since this doesn’t support creating and using multiple identities for different people or groups, it fails in that aspect. Other missing features: - Ability to enable media/pictures auto-save to the camera roll on a per-conversation basis. - Ability to set the name and photo that I choose to identify that conversation by, rather than forcing you to use whatever the other person has set. (Duplicate names, practical jokes, etc) - Ability to save a transcript of a chat, with or without including media. - Ability to clear the history of a particular chat. - Ability to secure individual chats with a passcode. The whole app too.

I love the app its really good but I have an idea on how it could be improved: 1: there should be a search user options for groups very annoying to scroll to find the user 2: a feature to stop messages in a group so only the creator of the group can talk 3: please upgrade the file size I hate when my files don’t go through becaughts it’s 5mg over 4: being able to leave the group when you created the group I accidentally left my group many times it would be nice for it not to be near the edit group button These are just my suggestion well more of quality of life improvements but I love the app 10/10

App has been great up until this latest update. Now pictures won’t send nor can they be received. Messages are also a wildcard as to whether or not they will be sent or received. Not getting consistent notifications either. Really bummed b/c this app has been pretty flawless up until these past few weeks. Please try and get it back to what it once was. I’d be forever grateful!!

We are using this in Iran while the government trying to shutdown communication this app is great to help us. Its helpful to have mesh technology and connect nearby devices together to help sending messages. There should be a way for me to create a deeplink and share it with my friend to make adding new contact easier by only clicking on the link insteade of copy and paste my sessionID. It would be greate to have inside proxy configuration to set if they block session app requests then we can set reconfiguration on the app. theres more features I can suggest to you but I think these are more important thank you

Doesn’t have tons of a fancy features like stickers or calling (but those are coming in the future!!!), however, what it does have is incredible privacy without any effort on the user. It works like you’d expect SMS to, and doesn’t just go down for hours like some other messengers ;)

Is this App a high school project? Certainly seems like it… The App seemed promising and then something changed a few weeks ago, perhaps a super buggy update??? Not only for my use, but those I’m chatting with as well. Some problems: 1) very difficult to start multi-user chat groups; some individuals do not get notifications or access to the chat even though they have been absolutely correctly added to the chat group; 2) when attempting to post links natively from websites and other Apps through Session, all that shows in the Session chat is a file icon, which has zero functionality. Performing the same action on WhatsApp, Skype or Signal works flawlessly. 3) When I send a message TO someone, a notification comes up that I RECEIVED a message? This Session App definitely is not ready for prime time.

This app is very convenient and has many great features to improve your usage. The only issue is I recently keep getting an error that says “Failed to send message” despite the fact that i’m connected to wifi, tried resending, etc.

There was a personal pin for the app, not tied to Face ID or phone passcode. Otherwise I feel it isn’t 100% secure if my phone pin is known or seen by others, I feel like it adds another layer of protection that other e2e messengers have. There is also a bit of lag on messages, and I do not get notified for each new message.

Session overall does a great job at providing a secure messaging tool. The one item it is missing is the ability to revoke a device. If a computer or device is stolen it is possible for someone to gain access. If there were a way to revoke a device from another device with the session on it, this concern could be alleviated.

In general, this app works really well, but it would benefit from having a separate passcode in the app from the phone passcode. Also, I would like a toggle to disable face ID within the app rather than in the settings of the iPhone. Other than that, pretty darn good!

None of my friends and I are getting notifications unless the app is open. Push notifications are turned on on both the device and app. Disappearing messages timer is set to 1 week, but it’s been 2 weeks and the messages are still there. Please fix these issues because otherwise this app is great

Hey Just downloaded this app and set it up in one minute, and started using it. Sending pictures and text. It has familiar keys for ease of use. It has some unique features to assure safeguarding your information. And who doesn’t want that now after all this data breach and selling of your data.

The app when it was working was nice but I'd really appreciate the same features that signal has like interactive messages and themes. I'm trying to get my friends to switch over to private messages but this app is so bare bones with its interactivity and looks that it comes off as unimpressive. I really hope the crashing is fixed soon.

Whenever I try to forward a media file from one conversation to the another using the share extension on iOS within the Session app, it will send and have a sent receipt but the other person would never actually receive it. Very frustrating. Also, increase file size sharing capacity, please.

for the last 2 1/2 hours I keep getting notifications that the app is resetting. I haven’t gotten any messages from my friend and it is going insane on his end as well. this isn’t the first time this app has done this... it has happened at least 3 times and this is AFTER the updates including the one a couple weeks ago. it is annoying to have it go crazy. please fix it

Seems like there was a breaking change in app versions. An identity created on version 1.0.1 could connect with a identity created on 1.0.2 but then would be unable to reply as it still said pending requests. Reinstalling the app and creating a new identity fixed this

I really enjoy using this app as it makes me feel more secure with my conversations, just a couple things i wish were added...1. option to put a passcode on the app 2. not being able to screenshot messages. Other than that this is all around really amazing App!

I love your guises app. Your guys app has a lot of different features that I love but there’s one thing that I don’t and I have everyone on my contact list pretty much I use your service all the time with it and I tried to find an email address for you guys but I cannot. Put making and receiving phone calls. Do not work all the time and it needs to be better in that aspect but everything else is great.

Using session instead of signal and wire and so far it’s more reliable than both. Only downside is very low file transfer file size limit of 6mb! Read it will be unlimited p2p soon, so looking forward to it.

hi there! Just tried it today and appreciate the privacy policy. Just met one big bug: I can’t see the group chat which I was invited to, and several friends who use iphone and ipad also met this problem. However, interestingly, I can see the group chat which I created. Wish to see this bug solved. I use it in China. Thanks! Btw, I will definitely give five stars once this bug solved.

For some reason, when you create a group and start a group chat, only some people can read the group message. Some people can't read and send messages. It seems that it has not been added to the group, But in fact, they are already in the group.