Messages, servers with channels, voice calls and profiles in one lightweight app. Your device encrypts direct messages, groups and private channels, you can host the server for your community yourself, and the code will be public.
Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows, macOS and Linux, straight from the browser
Your message turns into ciphertext while it is still on your device. The server receives a sealed block, passes it on and never sees what is inside. That is how direct messages, groups and private channels work on every server.
Encryption does not hide everything, and we say so plainly. A server has to know who to deliver a message to, but it does not need to know what is in it.
Who writes to whom, when and how many bytes. Group membership, presence, "typing..." and read state. Your profile and, by default, your list of servers and friends.
The content of direct messages and groups. The name and avatar of a private group.
All content of public channels. Names and topics of private channels, roles, bans and invites. Who posts in private channels, when and how much.
The content of private channels, direct messages and groups. The audio and video of calls.
The time and the fixed size of a notification.
Which conversation the notification is about and how long the message is.
Plazer has been running in production since 22 October 2026 and is still being developed. New versions land on app.plazer.org and load the next time you open it. This is what your conversations rest on today, including in the worst case.
The hub runs accounts and relays encrypted conversations, while channels, roles and voice calls live on community servers. We run one of them, and next to it can stand the server of anyone who hosts one on their own machine.
How to host your own serverEncryption rests on the MLS standard (RFC 9420) and the mls-rs library. Before version 1.0 we plan an audit of the encryption core, the hub, the community server and the app. Report a vulnerability to kontakt@plazer.org and we reply within 72 hours.
Security and reporting vulnerabilitiesA community server on your own machine keeps its channels, roles and history with you, not with us. You download your account data in the settings as one file, together with your encrypted conversations decrypted on your device. We would announce closing the hub at least 30 days in advance.
What we keep and for how longHonestly, with the upsides and the downsides. You can use Plazer on our servers or run your own, and those are two different deals: the second gives you full control, but also chores.
Signal | TeamSpeak | Messenger | WhatsApp |  Plazer | Plazer on your own server | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| End-to-end encryption for direct messages | turned on manually | |||||
| End-to-end encryption for group chats | turned on manually | not all | ||||
| End-to-end encryption for voice calls | ||||||
| Open source code anyone can check | to be published | to be published | ||||
| Servers with channels and roles | communities | |||||
| People in one voice call | up to 75 | server limit | up to 50 | up to 32 | depends on server | depends on hardware |
| Account without a phone number | Meta account | |||||
| Server on your own hardware | ||||||
| No server to look after | ||||||
| Themes and plugins allowed by the terms | chat colours | chat themes | wallpapers | |||
| No ads in the app | in Updates | |||||
| Cost for the user | free | paid server | free | free | free | machine cost |
| Downsides |
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As of September and October 2026, based on the public documentation of Signal, TeamSpeak, Messenger and WhatsApp.
We do not want you to take our word for how the encryption works. We will publish Plazer's code with licences, so anyone can check it.
1// Every message is padded before encryption2const BUCKETS: [usize; 4] = [256, 1024, 4096, 16384];34pub fn seal(group: &mut Group, text: &str) -> Sealed {5 let padded = pad_to_bucket(text.as_bytes(), &BUCKETS);6 // The key never leaves this device7 group.encrypt_application_message(&padded)8}910fn pad_to_bucket(bytes: &[u8], buckets: &[usize]) -> Vec<u8> {11 let size = buckets.iter().find(|b| **b > bytes.len());12 let mut out = bytes.to_vec();13 out.resize(*size.unwrap_or(&bytes.len()), 0);14 out15}
Encryption is one part. Just as important is what the server never receives in the first place, and how little you have to tell us about yourself to get started.
A name and a password are all it takes to create an account. You give no phone number and no email address, so nobody can link your account to a SIM card, a mailbox or the contact list on your phone.
When you sign up you get a recovery key. You write it down once, and together with your password it brings your account back when you switch or lose devices.
You decide who can message you and invite you to servers. Messages from strangers land in requests, and the spam and word filters sort out the rest before you see anything.
When you look for an old message, the app searches its own index stored on your device. The query goes nowhere, so the server does not know what you are looking for, when, or how often you come back to the same topic.
The index is built from messages you already have on the device. Filters by author, channel, attachments and date work the same in one conversation and when you search every server and conversation at once.
It also works offline: on a plane, on the underground or on a trip with poor signal you can search everything that has already downloaded. Results show up at once, because nothing waits for the network.
When you paste a link, your app fetches the page preview, not our server. The finished preview goes into the conversation encrypted exactly like a normal message, encrypted conversations included.
In many messengers the company server builds previews. To show a title and an image it has to know which address you sent, and those addresses add up to a fairly precise picture of your interests.
In Plazer the server sees neither the address nor the preview. The recipient gets the finished preview inside an encrypted message, so their app does not contact the page either until they click the link themselves.
A notification only says "New message", and the content appears once you open the app. Even the service that delivers notifications to your phone cannot see what someone wrote to you.
That middleman only knows the time and the fixed size of a notification. It does not know which conversation it is about or how long the message is, because the notification itself is encrypted with a key only your browser knows.
Nobody glancing over your shoulder or picking your phone up from the table sees anything on the lock screen either. The content only shows when you open the conversation yourself.
By default your chat history is not copied anywhere. You turn a backup on with one switch, and that is your decision, not a factory setting nobody remembers.
The backup is encrypted with your account key before it leaves the device. The server stores a sealed block it cannot open, and you can rebuild your whole history from it on a new device, even when the old one is gone.
When you move your account, you can also pair the new device with the old one and conversations travel directly between them. You can switch the backup off at any time with the same switch.
In every conversation, group and server you can set how long messages stay before they disappear. A conversation that does not need to last forever simply does not.
Conversations you do not want on your list can hide behind a separate PIN. They do not show up in the app until you enter it, even when someone is looking through your unlocked phone.
Files meant only for you live in a private vault. Large files go without a size limit straight from your device to the recipient's device, once they accept.
Someone added to a group sees the conversation from the moment they joined. Earlier messages stay with the people who took part in them, so nobody quietly reads what you wrote before they arrived.
This comes from the encryption itself: only the people in the group at that time had the keys to the older messages. A newcomer gets keys from the moment they join, not the whole archive.
It works the other way too. When someone leaves or is removed from a group, the keys change and that person cannot read anything you write afterwards.
The server owner and anyone with the Administrator role can open a private channel, because that is what an administrator is. Every such visit stays in the channel history for everyone to see, so nobody reads conversations without a trace.
In ordinary messengers a server owner may have access to channels and members have no way of knowing. In Plazer an administrator entering is an event in the conversation, as visible as a new message.
If a conversation should stay out of reach even for the administrator, have it in direct messages or a group. Nobody but the people in it has access there.
Two-step verification, passkeys and a device list where you can remove a single device.
A warning when the security key of someone you talk to changes.
Download all your data, including encrypted history from this device, and delete your account with 7 days to change your mind.
Message translation and voice note transcripts happen on your device, without sending the content to a server.
In voice calls a relay hides your IP address from the other participants.
Report a message or a person without breaking the encryption of the whole conversation.
A blocked person cannot message you, call you or trigger a notification.
A list of authorised apps where you can revoke access, and an account server protected from spam and abuse.
Voice in Plazer is always encrypted, public server channels included. Anyone who joins a public channel can read its text, but not even the server relaying the audio can hear what you say.
A call between two people connects directly between your devices, along the shortest route. Fewer hops mean less delay, which you notice most when you are playing together.
A key only for the people in the call. Every time someone joins or leaves, the participants agree on a new key, so nobody hears a part they were not there for. Try it with the "Someone joins" button on the diagram.
Voice messages. Record with one press, up to 5 minutes, with a waveform. The message goes out encrypted like any other, and the app can turn it into text on your device without sending the recording to a server.
A voice channel is more than a call. The same server shows your screen to everyone who wants to watch, records the call on separate tracks and moves you to another device without hanging up.
Live, with no viewer limit, with chat, recording and clips. A premiere shows a finished video to everyone at once, at the same hour.
A shared screen does not pop up on anyone uninvited. You click "Watch" when you feel like it, and one channel can carry several streams at once.
Viewers point and draw arrows and circles on a shared screen that fade after a moment. Everyone has their own colour, and the person sharing decides whether to allow it.
Talk to one person without leaving the channel. The rest of the room does not hear it.
You join the channel once someone already inside lets you in.
Start on your computer, finish on your phone, without hanging up.
Record the call on separate tracks, one per person, ready for editing.
Your phone becomes a second camera for the computer you are calling from.
Channel status, a chat next to the call, pinned messages and a list of who was here recently.
Device choice, sensitivity, push to talk, noise suppression, voice filters, per-person volume and background blur on camera.
Camera and screen sharing with sound, streamer mode and your own keyboard shortcuts.
Replies, reactions, threads, polls and voice notes do not mean giving up encryption. On top of that come things an ordinary messenger does not have: a message that opens on a chosen day, a list the whole group edits, and a draw nobody can cheat.
Bold, spoilers, headings, lists, code and quotes, plus colour, alignment and text size.
route.gpxEmoji and server emoji reactions, editing, deleting and threads work the same in encrypted conversations.
1A list everyone allowed can change. Each person adds and ticks off their part, and the message always shows the current state.
Roll a die, flip a coin or draw a person, with a guarantee that nobody swapped the result. Poll answers can stay hidden and be revealed to everyone at once.
A message reveals itself on a chosen day, or only after someone enters a password or answers a riddle. You can also show it to chosen roles only.
Up to 5 minutes, with a waveform. Transcripts and translations are made on your device, not on a server.
I am at the car park below the hut, waiting at the start of the trail.
You write at two in the morning and the message wakes nobody. It arrives without a notification and waits until the recipient opens the app. You can also schedule sending for a chosen time.
Text and voice channels, forums, announcements, stages and events, roles with permissions for every channel, and moderation that needs no bot. Plus things you will not find anywhere else: a server can have a form of government, a successor to its owner and its own chronicle.
Text channels with threads, private ones included, and forums with tags. A media channel keeps photos and videos in one place, and you arrange categories by dragging.
The owner decides which matters go to a vote and which stay in their hands. And a server is never left without someone who can change things.
The owner decides, as on an ordinary server.
All members settle the matters put to a vote.
A few people make decisions together, not just one.
When the owner has not shown up for 3 months, the server passes to the chosen successor.
The server's milestones written down in a chronicle every new member can browse.
The server mascot grows together with the community.
A bracket where members pick the best proposal, one pair at a time.
Posts, stories for 24 hours, a wall with notes from friends, a song and a 3D room decorated your way. You decide who sees what, and you can show up differently on every server.
Photos and posts people see when they open your profile.
They disappear after 24 hours and only friends see them.
Friends leave notes on your wall, and Plazer reminds you of their birthdays.
It only plays when someone clicks it, never on its own.
You decorate it your way, and guests look around with a free camera. No other people and no talking, just your music, which a guest can mute.
Staff, Partner, Creator, Pioneer, Bug Hunter, Day One, Millionth and more, some of them with levels.
A status with emoji and pronouns, a separate profile on every server, and invisible or "do not disturb" for chosen servers only.
Chat streaks with friends and your year in Plazer in numbers.
A server directory with trustworthy activity stats, a random chat with someone who speaks your language, and people nearby within a radius from 1 km. Your exact location goes to nobody.
Open to everyone, with trustworthy activity stats, so you can see where people really talk.
A random server to drop into, with a daily limit on spins.
With someone who speaks your language and shares your interests, with a daily limit.
Within a radius from 1 km, without giving away your exact location.
Plug a LoRa transmitter into your phone and keep writing where there is no signal: at a festival, in the mountains, out sailing. With a relay a message travels up to a dozen or so kilometres.
Add a friend by scanning the code on their phone.
Group your friends your way, and they do not know which circle they are in. A shared circle only exists when everyone in it agrees.
Trip photos in one place, with people tagged.
A shared place just for the two of you, set up with both people agreeing.
Saved messages, images and links arranged into collections.
Your own limit for using the app and stats on how much time you spend in it.
Pick what you want to change and see it in the preview. Themes change colours and layout, plugins add features, and webhooks and bots connect Plazer to the rest of your tools, encrypted channels included.
Click an option to see it in the preview
+lazer is optional support for Plazer. Supporters get an animated avatar, profile effects and more boosts, but nothing that makes conversations comfortable sits behind a payment.
Nothing essential costs money: emoji from other servers, call quality and file size are the same for everyone.
Plazer runs at app.plazer.org, and from your browser you install it on your phone, tablet and computer. One account on every device: you add a new one with a QR code from a device you are already signed in on.
Chrome installs Plazer like an app: with a home screen icon, full screen and notifications without content.
Safari adds Plazer to your Home Screen. From there it runs full screen and sends notifications.
Chrome or Edge installs Plazer in its own window, with an icon in the Start menu, the Dock or your app menu.
No installation, in a regular tab. The same account, the same conversations and the same end-to-end encryption.
On our community server you can report a bug, ask about setting up your own server and see what we are working on this week. Answers come from the people who write the code, not a bot.
PlazerThese are the questions people ask us most often before they move their friends or a whole community over. Your question is not here? Ask it on our community server. The people who write Plazer answer, usually the same day, and good questions end up on this list.
Plazer has been running in production since 22 October 2026: the app at app.plazer.org, the hub at api.plazer.org and our community server at srv.plazer.org. It is still being developed, and we plan a cryptography audit before version 1.0. What protects your account today and how to report a vulnerability is on the security page.
A community server hosted on its own machine keeps its channels, roles and history with its owner, not with us, so it does not disappear with our service. You download your account data in the settings as one file, together with your encrypted conversations decrypted on your device. We would announce closing the hub at least 30 days in advance, so everyone has time to download their data.
Yes. In the settings, under Data & Privacy, you prepare one ZIP archive. Its account.json holds what the hub keeps about you: your profile, friends, blocks, servers with your roles, sessions and devices, the messages you wrote on its servers and the list of files you uploaded. If you want, your browser adds your encrypted conversations, decrypted right there, and that part never reaches us. The prepared data waits 7 days for you to download it.
The app and our servers are free. If you host your own server, you only pay for the machine it runs on. +lazer is optional support with cosmetics and extra boosts, while call quality, file size and emoji from other servers are the same for everyone.
Plazer's servers and development are paid for by its author, Michał Fox. +lazer is optional support that gets you profile cosmetics, and no feature is locked behind a payment. Plazer's core features stay free.
No. You create an account with a name and a password, and you write down a recovery key when you sign up. You add friends by name or with a QR code.
Public channels are open to everyone who joins them, so their text is not end-to-end encrypted. The author's device still signs every message, so the server can hide it but cannot forge it. Direct messages, groups, private channels and all voice calls are end-to-end encrypted.
An administrator can open a private channel, and everyone sees that visit in the channel history. Keep conversations the server owner should not see in direct messages and groups, where nobody but the participants has access.
Community servers keep running, so their channels and voice calls carry on. Direct messages and groups are unavailable until the hub is back, because it passes them between servers.
On the new device choose pairing and scan the QR code on the old one, or type in the numeric code, and your conversations travel directly between the devices. If you no longer have the old device, sign in with your password and recovery key and restore your history from the encrypted backup.
You get your account back with your password and recovery key. You restore your chat history from the backup encrypted with your account key, if you turned it on. Without a backup the history stays only with the people you talked to, because we have no access to it.
Not in terms of security. It is the same code from app.plazer.org with the same encryption, and the latest version loads every time you start it, so either way you trust that you get the same code as everyone else. We build the encryption core from a pinned version of its code in a reproducible way, and every release records its checksum and the key it pins. Installing gives you an icon, a separate window and, on iPhone and iPad, notifications.
Yes, if the server runs on your hardware. Everything it keeps lies with you in three places: the PostgreSQL database, the attachments folder and the server key file, so you back it up like any database and folder. To move to another machine you take those three along and keep the same address, because the key and the address are the server's identity and a new key means a new server. You can also hand ownership to another account, and members see who handed the server to whom. A server we run has no export for its owner.
No. Channels, roles and history from Discord cannot be loaded into Plazer, so you rebuild the server yourself. Role permissions match Discord's, so you can set them up the way you had them. An invite with a label and a source in the link shows you where new people come from, and webhooks in public channels accept messages in Discord's format, so a program that posted to Discord posts to Plazer once you change the address.