A private messenger without a phone number.

Almost every popular messenger starts the same way: type your phone number, wait for a code. It feels harmless, but it quietly makes your phone number the key to your whole messaging life. Frozen Chat was built the other way round. There is no phone number field anywhere in the system, not at sign-up, not in settings, not on our servers. You pick a username and that is your account.

Why a phone number is a privacy problem

A phone number is not just a way to reach you. In many countries a SIM card must be registered with a legal name and ID, so the number links your account to your identity at the carrier. It is also the same number you give to shops, banks, delivery drivers and websites, which means it is already in countless databases and data leaks. When a messenger is built on phone numbers, all of that becomes connected to who you talk to.

• Anyone with your number can look you up and often see your name, photo or status.
• Groups expose it. Join a group and strangers in it may see your number.
• Contact uploads spread it. Other people's apps upload your number when they sync their address book, even if you never signed up.
• SIM swapping. If someone convinces your carrier to move your number to their SIM, they can receive your verification codes.
• Changing it is painful. A new number often means a new account or a migration.

We go deeper in our article why a messenger shouldn't need your phone number.

How Frozen Chat works without one

Setting up takes a few minutes and needs nothing that identifies you. The full walkthrough with screenshots is in the getting started guide, but in short:

1. Download the app for Android from the download page.
2. Get a licence key on the pricing page. You pay with cryptocurrency, and checkout needs no name, no e-mail and no account.
3. Choose a username. The app tells you straight away whether it is free.
4. Save your 24 recovery words and set a recovery PIN. They replace the SMS reset that phone-number apps rely on.
5. Add people by username or QR code and start chatting.

No phone number, and no hidden phone number either

Some apps now let you hide your number behind a username. That helps with the people you chat with, but the number is still on the account and still with the provider. In Frozen Chat there simply is no number to hide. The server looks up usernames by a keyed hash and has no field for a phone number or an e-mail address, so it can't be asked for one, leaked or matched against another database.

Your contacts stay on your phone

Frozen Chat never reads or uploads your address book. That means it can't automatically show you which friends are already using it; instead, you exchange usernames or scan each other's QR code. It is a small step that keeps your social graph private, and it means nobody ends up in our systems just because they are in your contacts.

Private by design, not just by policy

Not having a phone number is one part of the picture. Every message, file, voice note and call is end-to-end encrypted on your device using the Signal protocol with post-quantum PQXDH keys. Groups use MLS (RFC 9420). Sealed sender hides who sent a message from the server. Servers keep no access logs and no IP addresses, and this website runs no analytics or trackers. The security page explains what the server can and can't see, and the limits we know about.

Who it is for

• People who don't want their number spread across group chats and other people's address books.
• Journalists, activists and researchers who need to keep sources and contacts separate from their identity.
• Freelancers and small teams who want to talk to clients without giving out a personal number. See secure messaging for business.
• Anyone with a second phone, a tablet or a phone without a SIM: Frozen Chat works over Wi-Fi alone.

The trade-off: you hold the keys

Without a phone number there is no SMS code to fall back on. If you lose every device, your Recovery Key and recovery PIN are the only way back in, and we can't reset them because we never have them. Write the 24 words on paper and keep them somewhere safe. If you want a second copy of your chat history, link another device. It is a little more responsibility, and it is exactly what makes the account yours.

How it compares

Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram all require a phone number to sign up, as of October 2026. Read our side-by-side comparisons with Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram.