SimpleX Chat

SimpleX Chat is a messenger from SimpleX Chat Ltd, a company in the UK. Its README starts with the claim it is built around: “SimpleX - the first messaging platform that has no user identifiers of any kind - 100% private by design!” There is no phone number, username or account number; each conversation uses its own addresses on the servers. It is actively developed: version 7.0.4 came out in October 2026, and 7.1 betas followed.

What it does

• Adding people with a one-time invitation link or QR code, or with a longer-lived address you can share; groups work the same way.
• End-to-end encryption of messages and files, with a double ratchet and an additional layer of encryption.
• Several chat profiles in one app, an incognito mode that uses a random name per contact, and hidden profiles behind a password.
• Voice and video calls, which run through WebRTC in your phone’s system WebView, and voice messages and files.
• Your own servers: you can add or run message servers and file servers, and stop using the preset ones.
• An encrypted local database, protected by default with a random passphrase kept in Android’s keystore.

What goes online

Messages, files and, by default, calls travel through relay servers. From the 7.0.4 code and SimpleX’s privacy policy:

• Two operators are preset and switched on: SimpleX Chat Ltd (servers under simplex.im) and Flux (simplexonflux.com). Flux’s message servers only forward messages to other servers; they don’t store them. You choose operators during setup and can change them later.
• Private routing is on by default: messages are sent through a second server, so the server holding your contact’s messages doesn’t see your IP address. The policy states that “Preset servers do not log IP addresses of the user devices that connect to them.”
• Calls go through a relay by default (turn.simplex.im), so your contact doesn’t see your IP address.
• Tor isn’t used unless you turn on the SOCKS proxy setting; then, with Orbot running, it prefers the servers’ .onion addresses.
• Link previews are an exception: the first time you type a link, the app asks whether to enable them, and only then does your phone fetch the page, directly or through your SOCKS proxy, not through SimpleX’s servers.
• There is no update check in the Android app, and no analytics or crash-reporting library. Our scan found no trackers.

Notifications: during setup you choose how it receives messages. “Always on” keeps a background service running so notifications arrive straight away; the setup screen warns it “Uses more battery”. The alternatives are checking periodically, or only while the app is open.

The permissions it asks for

Twenty-one, most of them for calls and the background service: camera and microphone for calls, voice messages and scanning QR codes, foreground services for messaging and calls, ignoring battery optimisation so the service isn’t stopped, full-screen notifications for incoming calls on the lock screen, and starting at boot to bring the service back. It asks for no location or contacts permissions. It also hides its screen from screenshots and the recent-apps view by default, a setting called “Protect app screen”.

About this file

• This is the developers’ own build of version 7.0.4 for 64-bit ARM, from SimpleX Chat’s own F-Droid repository, which describes itself as “Stable and beta versions built by the developers”. We verify that repository with the key fingerprint SimpleX publishes on simplex.chat/fdroid.
• It is signed with SimpleX Chat’s key (CN=Evgeny Poberezkin, O=SimpleX Chat), the fingerprint SimpleX also lists in its reproducible-build script, and it is the same file as the aarch64 APK on the GitHub release. GitHub still labels 7.0.4 a pre-release, while SimpleX’s repository offers it as the stable version.
• F-Droid’s own repository builds and signs its own copy, and Google Play has the same package name, with over a million downloads; we can’t check the key Play uses. A 32-bit ARM build exists in SimpleX’s repository; this site hosts the 64-bit one only.
• The 87.5 MB file runs on Android 8.0 and later. Our scan found no trackers.
• SimpleX Chat is licensed under the AGPL-3.0. Its name, logo and graphics aren’t: they are “All rights reserved”, and the assets licence allows them only as part of the unmodified app, which this file is. Using screenshots needs SimpleX’s written permission, so this page has none. This site isn’t affiliated with SimpleX Chat Ltd.

CPU types in this build: arm64-v8a (64-bit ARM, almost every phone since 2017).

Versions currently kept in the SimpleX Chat repository. We host and check only the newest stable one. Full changelog.