Comm App - Self-Hosted Alternative to Signal, Wire, WhatsApp, Telegram

[robi]

Comm

Comm is an E2E-encrypted messaging app. You can think of it as Signal with an IRC-like federated community layer.

• DMs and group chats are E2EE between devices using pairwise Double Ratchet sessions initiated via X3DH.
• Communities, which consist of a tree structure of channels, are hosted on federated user-run backends that we call keyservers. Communication is encrypted via TLS.

Learn more at comm.app!

Repo structure

The client apps and keyserver layer are mostly written in Flow-typed Javascript. These projects are organized in a monorepo structure using Yarn Workspaces.

• native contains the code for the React Native app, which supports both iOS and Android.
• keyserver contains the code for the Node/Express server. This includes the application server for the communities layer (the "keyserver"), and can be configured to serve web and landing as well (see below).
• web contains the code for the React desktop website.
• landing contains the code for the Comm landing page.
• lib contains code that is shared across multiple other workspaces, including most of the Redux stack that is shared across native/web.

Comm's backend services are centralized and never touch plaintext data. They are written in Rust and deployed with Terraform to AWS. These projects are organized in a monorepo structure using Cargo Workspaces.

• services contains the various different backend services.
• shared contains gRPC and protobuf definitions, and shared Rust libraries.

I am in touch with the developer.

[humptydumpty]

If this gets packaged and we self-host it, all msgs go through our servers and not AWS or another 3rd party, right?

[robi]

@humptydumpty yes, that is correct.

[micmc]

Wow, that's sounds impressive and useful, however shame on them-seriously-for NOT creating an Linux version in 2025, and moreover while this user base is exploding... Where is this "server" supposed to be hosted exactly, if not on Linux?

Moreover, you see, while crying out for ID "protection", to get to "comm web" we STILL need to somehow be IDentified by either G, A, or M, just among the 3 WORST privacy violators, cause we can only scan a QR code to DOWNLOAD the an APP ON MY PHONE to access the server ??? What a BS, sorry...
... a pretty weird approach imho

[svtx]

Also End-to-End encrption is officially DEAD with the new so-called "AI assistants" that are now running on people's devices. There's just no point in pretending it's not.

[necrevistonnezr]

@svtx said in Comm App - Self-Hosted Alternative to Signal, Wire, WhatsApp, Telegram:

Also End-to-End encrption is officially DEAD with the new so-called "AI assistants" that are now running on people's devices. There's just no point in pretending it's not.

?

[charlesnw]

why not use element/matrix? already packaged for cloudron.

[jdaviescoates]

@charlesnw nice to have options.

But also matrix/ element still just not user friendly enough for non geeky adoption IMHO.

Possibly that'll improve a bit once we finally get MAS in the Cloudron package.

[marcusquinn]

Looks like a sincere attempt at this, but like all these things, they underestimate the need for UX vibes when they are in the highest competition market of competing for attention and commitment to infrastructure.

Best private messaging app I've seen for these sorts of things, so far, is https://status.app/.

I get the vision, but they have a way to go to make this attractive and comparible.

[jdaviescoates]

@marcusquinn said in Comm App - Self-Hosted Alternative to Signal, Wire, WhatsApp, Telegram:

Best private messaging app I've seen for these sorts of things, so far, is https://status.app/ .

That seems to have loads of crypto bloat that I personally wouldn't want in a messaging app.

[marcusquinn]

@jdaviescoates True. Not for all. Although, it's an interesting space and concept to watch.

In the other direction, there's things like this: https://terminaltrove.com/gomuks/