Frequently asked questions

MILITAR is a private messaging club with end-to-end (zero-knowledge) encryption. You only get in by a member's invitation. No ads, no tracking, no phone number.

No. Messages are encrypted and decrypted on your own device. The servers only see sealed envelopes they cannot open: that's the zero-knowledge model.

No. MILITAR does not require your phone number to work. Your public identity is a code, not your phone.

You need a member to sponsor you with an 8-character invitation code. Each member has 5 codes to give access to whoever they choose.

No. With federation, the encrypted message is deposited in the mailbox of a node (which users themselves can run) and the central only acts as a directory. You can also enable ephemeral messages that self-destruct.

ECIES encryption: ECDH key exchange over the P-256 curve, the AES key derived via HKDF-SHA256 with the ephemeral key bound as AAD, and AES-GCM symmetric encryption. The private key never leaves your device.

A node is a mailbox that stores encrypted messages and files. Anyone can run one on a Linux VPS or even a Raspberry Pi at home: it's a single Python file, no dependencies.

Your private key lives on the device. You can export a backup of your keys to migrate phones. Without that backup, you recover the account but not the old history: that's the price of nobody else holding your keys.

Yes, personal use is free. The project is sustained by business plans and by those who contribute nodes to the network.

MILITAR asks for no phone number, does not centralize messages or their metadata (node federation), is invite-only, and lets you self-host your own mailbox. See the comparison for details.

For now there is an Android app. The iOS version is planned (coming soon).

No. It's the same app and the same download for everyone. Professional features (company-logo branding, centralized administration, auditing…) are enabled by your account type. Privacy and encryption are identical for personal and professional use.

Background alerts are OPT-IN: the first time, the app offers to enable them (or from the menu → "Background notifications"). Once active, it rings even if the app is closed and restarts when you power on your phone. IMPORTANT: on many Android phones (Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, Samsung, Realme…) the system kills background apps to save battery. For reliable alerts you must, in your phone Settings: 1) allow MILITAR to AUTO-START, and 2) remove BATTERY OPTIMIZATION for MILITAR (set it to "unrestricted"). While the service is active you will see a permanent "MILITAR active" notification: that is what Android requires so it can alert you without relying on Google.

Yes. Open the conversation and, in the chat menu (⋮), tap "Block user"; you can also do it from the web chat (🚫 button in the header). While the block is active neither of you can send messages, and you will see the "Blocked" mark in the list. It is reversible anytime with "Unblock user". The block is enforced on the server, so it also cuts delivery through the nodes.

Yes, for instant alerts we use FCM (Google's push) because it is free and very reliable. But the push is ALWAYS EMPTY: it only "wakes up" your phone so it syncs and decrypts locally. Google does NOT see your message content (it is end-to-end encrypted), only that your device needs to wake. We also have our OWN Google-free path (self-hosted ntfy server) as a backup/private option. So alerts arrive instantly without draining battery by polling.