Is Aurora running?

Private group conversations are in the works — the same no-server, end-to-end-encrypted model as one-to-one chats.

• How it works: a group message is sealed individually for each member and delivered peer-to-peer. No group ever lives on a server, and no one in the middle can read it.
• Reaching everyone: if a member is briefly offline, other members can carry the still-encrypted message and hand it over when that person reconnects — peers help peers, the server stays out of the path.
• Status: built and verified between test devices; finishing polish before a release.

Photos, videos and voice messages now send across carrier networks.

• Media: photos, videos and voice messages now travel the same peer-to-peer, NAT-traversing path as messages and calls, so they reach contacts on mobile data instead of silently failing. A direct connection on a shared network is still used when available.
• Reliability: a queued photo is no longer re-sent as a plain "📷 Photo" text, and an unsent photo, video or voice message is retried automatically once a direct connection becomes possible.

Release notes →

Reliability fixes for connections, calls, and background battery use.

• Calls: an unanswered outgoing call now stops ringing on its own instead of showing "Calling…" forever; a second incoming call while you're already on one no longer disrupts the call in progress; and ending or declining a call now tears down cleanly.
• Connection status: the chat header now tells "couldn't connect directly — you may both be on mobile data" apart from "they're offline," and a stalled connection reports the real outcome instead of hanging on "Connecting…". A brief network blip no longer flashes a failure.
• Battery: when your phone has no network, Aurora now waits quietly and resumes the instant connectivity returns, rather than repeatedly reaching for the server in the background.

Release notes →

Call-handling fix and UI polish.

• Calls: returning to the app during a call — via the app icon, the ongoing-call notification, or the floating bubble — now reliably brings the call screen back. Before, it could land on the home screen with no way back to the video (the call kept running, just out of view).
• Chat: the connection status in the chat header is now a single tidy line; the full "couldn't connect directly" guidance shows as a banner above the conversation instead of crowding the header.
• Polish: long contact names and the server-status line now truncate cleanly instead of wrapping.

Release notes →

Peer-to-peer connections that traverse carrier NAT.

• App: messages now connect over a WebRTC data channel (ICE + self-hosted STUN, no relay) so two phones can reach each other across mobile / carrier-NAT networks — IPv6 first, falling back to IPv4, with direct TCP as a same-network fast path. The chat header shows the live connection state and reports honestly when a direct path isn't possible.
• Server: a self-hosted STUN service (coturn, STUN-only — never a relay) now runs on the rendezvous host so devices can discover their public address for hole punching. It never carries your messages.
• Site: the Security and How-it-works pages now describe the peer-to-peer transport and its honest limits.

Release notes →

Website and server updates (no app release).

• Website: a modernized redesign — new navigation, motion, a FAQ, and an Install & troubleshooting page — plus a "For security researchers" section linking the public threat model and crypto spec.
• Homepage: added an interactive screenshot showcase — a swipeable carousel of real Aurora screens (conversations, chat, QR pairing, and the security settings) — and refreshed the site's look with a full-page aurora background.
• Security page: expanded each cryptographic layer with a plain-English "why it matters," covering harvest-now-decrypt-later resistance, nonce-reuse immunity, man-in-the-middle protection, and the honest limits of hardware-backed key storage.
• Server: added a privacy-safe /health liveness endpoint (which powers this page) and turned off API access logging, so no IP-to-node history is retained.

An onboarding patch so a fresh install can actually receive messages.

• First-run setup now ends on a permission gate that explains each permission and won't let you in until the two delivery-critical ones — notifications and background/battery — are granted. These are exactly what a new install needs to receive a pairing request and messages.
• Microphone and camera are optional (asked on first use); sharing photos uses the system picker, so there's no gallery permission to grant.

Release notes →

A pairing-reliability patch.

• A host showing their QR code is now pulled straight to an incoming request when a friend scans it, instead of the request sitting unseen behind the QR screen.
• The in-app version label now shows the real build version.

Release notes →

The second pre-alpha — in-app video, calls that survive leaving the app, and a large internal cleanup.

• In-app video playback with a real thumbnail and a fullscreen player (play/pause, scrubbable seek bar, elapsed/total time) — decrypted straight from memory, never written to disk.
• Minimise a call with Back: it keeps running with a floating video bubble and an ongoing-call notification.
• Delete a contact on both sides, cryptographically erasing keys and messages.
• Numerous call-stability fixes (connect, hang-up, accept, teardown) and a fresh install now does a working video call on the first try.
• Behaviour-preserving architecture cleanup and a new test suite.

Release notes →

The first public pre-alpha. Source published to GitHub under AGPL-3.0 with a signed APK.

• Direct peer-to-peer encrypted messaging, photos, videos, voice messages, reactions, and replies.
• Disappearing messages, and voice/video calls over WebRTC.
• Hybrid post-quantum cryptography (Kyber-1024 + X25519, Dilithium-3 + Ed25519) with forward secrecy and a PQXDH handshake.
• No account, no phone number; QR pairing with mutual code verification.
• Zero-log rendezvous server behind TLS with certificate pinning.

Release notes →