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.

The purpose is the opposite: to protect the user from the attack, not the attacker. The person who needs encryption is the one whose network is intercepted, whose phone is stolen, whose data is leaked or whose contact is impersonated. The terms of service expressly forbid unlawful use and, although we cannot read messages, we do suspend accounts and withdraw invitations on signals that require reading nothing.

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.

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.

Long-press the contact in the chat list and choose "Report". You can block them at the same time (ticked by default). Only the reason is sent, never your messages: they are end-to-end encrypted and we cannot read them. What counts is not the number of reports but how many different people report the same person, and the possible consequence is account suspension.

Yes. For instant delivery we use FCM (Google's push), because it is free and very reliable. But the notification is ALWAYS EMPTY: it only "wakes" your phone so it can sync and decrypt locally. Google does NOT see the content of your messages (it is end-to-end encrypted), only that your device needs to wake up. A Google-free channel (self-hosted ntfy) is planned for anyone who would rather not depend on it, but it is not deployed yet: today instant delivery goes through FCM. This way notifications arrive at once without draining the battery by polling.