Alternatives to Ricochet Refresh
An anonymous peer-to-peer instant messenger that connects contacts directly over Tor onion services. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Ricochet Refresh
An anonymous peer-to-peer instant messenger that connects contacts directly over Tor onion services.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Ricochet Refresh.
Cwtch
Metadata-resistant messaging over Tor with no central servers.
Cwtch is also a metadata-resistant Tor messenger with no central servers, adding an Android app and group chats.
Briar
Peer-to-peer encrypted messaging over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Tor.
Briar sends peer-to-peer encrypted messages over Tor, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, running on Linux and Android, though it is in maintenance mode.
Quiet
A peer-to-peer team chat app that syncs messages between members' devices over Tor, with no server.
Quiet uses Tor for serverless team chat on desktop and Android, but it is unaudited beta software without direct messages.
Session
An encrypted messenger with no phone number and no account, routed through an onion network.
Session uses onion routing and distributed service nodes so contacts need not be online together, with mobile clients available.
SimpleX Chat
A messenger with no user identifiers at all, not even a random one, so there is no account to correlate.
SimpleX Chat has no user identifiers and uses self-hostable relay servers, adding mobile and terminal clients and offline delivery.
qTox
A desktop client for the encrypted peer-to-peer Tox protocol with chat, calls and file transfer.
qTox is a peer-to-peer Tox desktop client adding voice and video calls, but it does not route through Tor onion services.
Jami
A fully peer-to-peer communication platform with no servers relaying your data and no personal information needed to sign up.
Jami is a GNU peer-to-peer messenger with calls and video conferences, but it does not route through Tor to hide IP addresses.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Ricochet Refresh as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Chitchatter
A peer-to-peer chat app in the browser that is serverless, decentralized and ephemeral.
Ricochet Refresh is an open-source desktop messenger that connects contacts directly over Tor onion services, hiding IP addresses, but both contacts must be online at once.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
SecureDrop
An open-source whistleblower submission system that news organizations install to receive documents from anonymous sources.
RetroShare
A decentralized, encrypted friend-to-friend network for chat, mail, forums, channels and file sharing.
Berty
An open-source peer-to-peer messenger that works without central servers and can operate offline.
Keet
A peer-to-peer chat app for encrypted messages, audio and video calls, and file transfers.
