Private messenger on Android

Android cookie

People install Telegram, Viber, and WhatsApp, and everything is OK for them. But suddenly some of the applications get blocked as in some totalitarian countries. Or the program crashes due to bandwidth breakdown. Or you need to provide message privacy. We hope you know that a messenger vendor pays developers, buys servers, and pays for data centers not because he enjoys giving away services for free.


Why do internet messengers are free of charge?


WEB

If you do not pay for using something does not mean you do not pay with your data.

Technically, when you install a program on your Android phone, you register on the messenger server with your personal phone number. This is very dangerous but a developer gets your social graph. According to your phone book, the servers automatically detects those who already installed this chat. Yan Koum, the WhatsApp developer, was the first who used this idea. It does not matter how you name your contacts: "John the Admin", "Pizza delivery", or "The Witch of Konotop" — phone numbers are enough. They are unique because each country has its own international phone code, and the program gets full access to them. No wonder Facebook bought WhatsApp. A social graph is an important part when improving advertising algorithms.

Viber

You probably saw messages like: "John Doe is now using the phone number XXXX". How does the messenger "understand" it? A person, perhaps, threw a SIM card away and purchased a new one to hide from his ex or evil boss. Or he moved to another country because the phone code changed, and we can't find out how. This happened because of social graphs, and the messenger matches them automatically.


Is it possible to make your own messenger with a private server?


Phone

It looks like the situation is monopolistic without any way out. However, it's not. You can run your own messenger with a private server and without binding a phone number. It works in the same way as Telegram or Viber, but only with your teammates in the contact list. No ads. Message history on your server. Full autonomy and control.

Everything is for a free or affordable price. Sounds not very promising, right? :)


How to launch own messenger in 15 minutes?


First, download a free version of MyChat corporate messenger.

Install the server to which you will connect. The messenger server runs on Windows, almost any computer is suitable, even a slow one. You can have Windows Server or a desktop, it doesn't matter.

Launch MyChat Server, then download MyChat for Android fromGoogle Play or Huawei AppGallery, it depends who is the vendor of your phone.

Specify the IP address of your server in the application and register a new user. Phone number not required. If you already have a Windows application and you work with it, scan a QR code, to enter the chat instantly without entering the server address, login, and password.

If you do not use the Windows application, you can scan the QR code from the server lobby in the browser, there will be a ready server address, but you need to create a user yourself:

MyChat lobby

To connect not only via WiFi internally but via the internet too, you need to have an external static IP address for the server and set up ports (port mapping) on your router. External IP is given by your internet vendor.

Or you can rent VDS on Windows, and run MyChat Server. A couple of cores are enough, 1-2 GHz, and a few gigabytes of memory.


How much it costs?


It's free for up to 20 connections to the server. If you have more people, purchase the license that is really affordable. After all, this is your privacy and independence from any public internet services.



Служба поддержки