This app deserves 5 stars for the privacy features, including the encrypted voice/video calls. Much better and more reliable than Session, and we can trust that it’s going to be around long term. But there are numerous UI/UX bugs in this app that make it awkward to use. If they’re VC funded, they should have the bandwidth to solve these very basic issues that should come up with normal usage. Once those are fixed, this would be a clear 5 star app.

Should have an option for the non tech savvy people because while this app is EXTREMELY GOOD at its job, i had to play around with the settings so it wouldn’t lag or take forever to send a message let alone half the time I did trial and error to figure out what everything meant. If not, add a developer or advance user interface/option and have short explanations about what certain buttons and settings do. Other than that PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING BESIDES IMPROVEMENTS. It’s already perfectly made and manageable, it’s just a bit too overwhelming for some people who aren’t familiar with servers and relay nodes. Thank you creators and developers and I hope we keep this project strong!!

There is a lot to love about this app and security but storage is a huge issue on the iPhone. The database grows but never shrinks and there is no way to shrink the database without deleting the app and app data. If you delete the app data you also permanently lose your contacts and chats. Very difficult to back up a large database so not many options but to start over. Simplex should shrink the database dynamically.

I love the concept of this app and think it has amazing potential, however there are several bugs and/or features that need to be addressed. I know there’s a long backlog on GitHub containing the bug/feature requests, but the biggest issue in my opinion is with push notifications not working half the time when the app is in the background and seemingly not at all when it’s closed. This applies to audio/video calls & messages. If this can be fixed, along with a more updated user interface & support for all emoji reactions - I’ll upgrade my review to a 5.

Update to my review below. Noticed that if my recipient hasn’t opened the app in a few days, then messages I send her don’t get delivered. So while the privacy and anonymity features of this messaging app are better than Signal or any other such app I’ve seen, it appears to be still a work in progress as not everything works as expected. I hope the devs work out the bugs and soon. Love the concept of no user IDs and no personal information used. No registration. No phone numbers. No email addresses. Multiple profiles. In these regards it’s better than Signal. However, calling needs some work. When calling, would be nice to hear a ringing tone. Would be nice to have option to launch speakerphone while the call is ringing before being picked up. Also, there is a delay of a few seconds after caller picks up before I can hear the caller. The caller is saying “hello” after pickup and I can’t hear them until a few seconds after they pick up. This is with relay calls enabled. Didn’t try with relay disabled. But Signal has no such issue with relay calls enabled. I hope it continues to improve and gains popularity because in concept it’s excellent.

Great concept and the basic stuff works for me in a functional sort of way. However, the interface makes navigating through the thread of messages using iOs Voiceover nearly impossible. I have to swipe (navigate to next item) about 10 times to get from one message to the next. I don't know what Voiceover is having to go over since none of it is spoken, but this interface is extremely inefficient, time consuming, and not at all how messaging apps should be. iMessages, Signal, etc, all the messages are right next to each other. Just one swipe from one to the next. Also, the date is spoken too soon after the message. On the outside where your connections are listed, it also takes 3 swipes to get from one to the next when it really only needs one. There are a few unlabeled elements and a lot of things have weird labels. I feel accessibility has not been given a high enough priority. I love, absolutely love what this app is supposed to do, but in the state it's in right now, I can't use it. Thank you for all the work you've done so far and I'm looking forward to future improvements.

5 stars but I can see security issue arising from how the app handles self deleting messages .. it is confusing to say the least. One simple (optional) global setting for all chats that sets default self destruct timer for all chats on both sender/receiver (or if two users set different timer should force lowest value of the two and notify chat participants). Message control is critical part of security onion and should not be overlooked. Also, the app should use more secure iOS data protection class (NSFileProtectionCompleteUnlessOpen) to protect against local forensic attacks (cellbrite, greykey). This overlooked feature of iOS allows apps data to be encrypted while device is AFU and is better & safer than rolling your own crypto for local app level encryption.

I’ve tried this app on multiple platforms & one thing is quite consistent… the poor user experience for those like me who are visually impaired. Messages won’t read via VoiceOver when swiping to them, unless screen recognition mode is enabled, but that’s not always reliable, not to mention the improper way to handle things. Lots of unlabeled buttons and odd names for the ones that are labeled. Don’t get me started on the accessibility fails of the desktop apps, as those are a far more frustrating experience. Really starting to wonder if this exclusionary design is intentional or just incompetence on the dev team’s part.

Good alternative to Signal and it has a few extra features. Signal uses phone number which kinda defeats the purpose and adds a layer of restriction when making an account. Signal also block certain phone numbers from receiving verification texts.Three stars for now because the app is broken on iOS26. Even after a full removal and reinstall it fails to open the keyboard when taping a text entry field and just freezes.

Loving it so far, fast and very easy to use. The only thing I feel is missing that I need is the ability to either include images with the groups welcome message or the ability to pin certain selected photos in the group so new joiners are able to see them as well without them being resent. Other than that great experience so far, keep up the good work !