Privacy has never been more important. With coronavirus giving governments an excuse to ramp up surveillance, the need for private and — decentralized — applications is growing. 

Encrypted messaging apps like Telegram, Signal or WhatsApp give people the chance to have a degree of protection over the information they send to others. 

But such apps are centralized, and this can prove troublesome. Open-source platform, Elastos, is hoping to change that.  

Enter Hyper IM

Elastos, which employs a peer-to-peer network for communication, decentralized data storage services, and a decentralized ID (DID) system for all digital assets, today welcomes a new instant messaging app. And it claims to be the world’s first decentralized, completely private one. 

Hyper IM debuted Wednesday on elastOS, the flagship application of the Elastos ecosystem. The app, which is also available on Android and soon iOS, uses a decentralized protocol. This means that messages sent on the app do not pass through a company’s servers (like they do with Telegram or WhatsApp.) 

By running across a distributed network of nodes (that’s computers, in plain English), the app works independently of the development team. 

Hyper IM also integrates the DID functions of Elastos. That is, decentralized IDs issued by public blockchains — and not Facebook or Google ID.  

The Hyper app is not therefore responsible for protecting account information, and instead only allows private information exchange. A phone number is not even needed for ID purposes as it is for other messaging apps. 

How can I get it? 

Hyper IM can be snapped up from their website for those using the elastOS network, and soon Google Play and the Apple App store. 

And the Hyper team said that the app will soon be available on desktop, and that file transfer functions for non-text messages. The open source code will also be released soon. 

Hyper Product Lead Peter Strauss said: “Hyper has come a long way in integrating Elastos’ core tech components, and continues to have its sights set on a goal it shares intimately with Elastos: preserving privacy and enabling users to truly own the data they generate on the internet.”

Exciting stuff.