From download to your first end-to-end encrypted message — no account, no email, no phone number. About five minutes, most of it spent writing down twelve words.
GhostLink runs wherever you do. Pick one — you can add the others later, your identity travels with your seed phrase.
The first time GhostLink runs it generates a private key on your device. That key is your identity: there is no signup form, no username, no password.
Your key never leaves your device. Not to us — there is no "us" in the middle — and not to anyone else.
GhostLink shows you a 12-word recovery phrase (BIP39). Write it down on paper and store it somewhere safe — not in a screenshot, not in a cloud note.
This phrase is the only way to recover your identity if the device is lost or wiped. No one can recover it for you — that is the point. Lose it, and the identity is gone forever.
To talk to someone, exchange an invite: a short code or a QR code. Share it in person, or over any channel you already have — email, another messenger, a piece of paper.
When they accept, your devices perform an ECDH P-256 key exchange directly with each other and open an encrypted peer-to-peer link. No server ever sees the keys.
Before trusting the link, compare the peer's security fingerprint: a short code derived from their public key, shown in the conversation details.
Read it out over a call or compare in person. If both sides match, no one is sitting between you. This takes ten seconds and only needs doing once per peer.
Type and hit send. Your words are encrypted with AES-256-GCM on your device and travel straight to your peer — ciphertext on the wire, plaintext only at the two ends.
Try the live cipher demo on the home page to see what an eavesdropper would actually read.
Two extras worth knowing from day one:
That's the whole setup. Add more peers the same way — invite, verify, talk. Reconnecting is automatic once a peer is known.
A photo or cloud note of your 12 words syncs to places you can't see. Ink on paper in a drawer has no attack surface.
Comparing fingerprints over the same channel you invited on proves nothing. Use a second channel, or do it in person.
Messages queue locally for up to 24 hours and deliver when your peer comes back online. No server stores them in between.
Restore the same seed phrase on your phone and desktop to carry your identity across platforms.
Free and open source, GPL-3.0. No account required — ever.