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Night Drop

Anonymous, end-to-end encrypted 1:1 chat over Tor
New in version 0.2.0
Night Drop 0.2: the relay is optional. Remove it to chat directly, pairing by QR code; messages wait on your device until your contact is online. The relay can no longer link messages from different contacts.

0.2 cannot message 0.1 apps: contacts on 0.1 are told to update.

New: screenshots and screen recording blocked by default, invites shared without the clipboard, a notice while Tor reconnects. Photos and videos lose location and device details. Plus security fixes throughout.
Night Drop is a privacy-first 1:1 messenger. Like a night deposit box: every message is a sealed envelope, dropped for one person only, opened by no one in between.

* Anonymous identities only — no phone number, no email, no account. Your identity is a keypair held on your device.
* End-to-end encryption with the Signal Double Ratchet: only the sender and receiver can read a message.
* Peer-to-peer over Tor by default. There is no clearnet path — the only network egress is the Tor network.
* Local-first storage: messages live on your device. Optional server storage is opt-in, capped at 24 hours, and shows a persistent warning in the chat while active.
* An untrusted store-and-forward relay carries offline delivery only. Any relay ever holds nothing but opaque, already-encrypted blobs under unlinkable handles — no keys, no plaintext, no identities, no logs.
* Authorization before the first message: a stranger cannot message you until you approve them (scan a pre-authorized QR, or exchange a short code whose secret words block a man-in-the-middle).
* Safety-number verification (scan or compare) to confirm no one is in the middle.
* User-owned encrypted backups: the recovery password is generated on your device, shown once, and never sent to any server. Lose it and the backup is unrecoverable — by design.
* No analytics, no crash reporters, no ad SDKs, no Google Play Services, and no third-party push service.
* No automatic update check on F-Droid installs. Other builds (sideloaded, or the desktop AppImage, which have no update channel of their own) ask the Night Drop onion site over Tor, at most once a day, whether a newer version exists — and only tell you. The app never installs anything, and does not hold the permission that would let it.

Night Drop is free software (AGPL-3.0-or-later) and built to be reproducible: anyone can rebuild the release from source and confirm it matches, byte for byte.
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Versions

Although APK downloads are available below to give you the choice, you should be aware that by installing that way you will not receive update notifications and it's a less secure way to download. We recommend that you install the F-Droid client and use that.

Download F-Droid
  • Version 0.2.0 (4163) suggested Added on Oct 22, 2026

    x86_64

    This version requires Android 7.0 or newer.

    It is built and signed by the original developer, and guaranteed to correspond to this source tarball.

    Permissions
    • view network connections
      Allows the app to view information about network connections such as which networks exist and are connected.
    • take pictures and videos
      This app can take pictures and record videos using the camera while the app is in use.
    • detect screen captures of app windows
      This app will get notified when a screenshot is taken while the app is in use.
    • android.permission.DETECT_SCREEN_RECORDING
    • run foreground service
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services.
    • run foreground service with the type "specialUse"
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services with the type "specialUse"
    • have full network access
      Allows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
    • show notifications
      Allows the app to show notifications
    • run at startup
      Allows the app to have itself started as soon as the system has finished booting. This can make it take longer to start the phone and allow the app to slow down the overall phone by always running.
    • control vibration
      Allows the app to control the vibrator.
    • prevent phone from sleeping
      Allows the app to prevent the phone from going to sleep.
    • app.nightdrop.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

    Download APK 50 MiB PGP Signature | Build Log

  • Version 0.2.0 (4162) - Added on Oct 22, 2026

    arm64-v8a

    This version requires Android 7.0 or newer.

    It is built and signed by the original developer, and guaranteed to correspond to this source tarball.

    Permissions
    • view network connections
      Allows the app to view information about network connections such as which networks exist and are connected.
    • take pictures and videos
      This app can take pictures and record videos using the camera while the app is in use.
    • detect screen captures of app windows
      This app will get notified when a screenshot is taken while the app is in use.
    • android.permission.DETECT_SCREEN_RECORDING
    • run foreground service
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services.
    • run foreground service with the type "specialUse"
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services with the type "specialUse"
    • have full network access
      Allows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
    • show notifications
      Allows the app to show notifications
    • run at startup
      Allows the app to have itself started as soon as the system has finished booting. This can make it take longer to start the phone and allow the app to slow down the overall phone by always running.
    • control vibration
      Allows the app to control the vibrator.
    • prevent phone from sleeping
      Allows the app to prevent the phone from going to sleep.
    • app.nightdrop.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

    Download APK 47 MiB PGP Signature | Build Log

  • Version 0.2.0 (4161) - Added on Oct 22, 2026

    armeabi-v7a

    This version requires Android 7.0 or newer.

    It is built and signed by the original developer, and guaranteed to correspond to this source tarball.

    Permissions
    • view network connections
      Allows the app to view information about network connections such as which networks exist and are connected.
    • take pictures and videos
      This app can take pictures and record videos using the camera while the app is in use.
    • detect screen captures of app windows
      This app will get notified when a screenshot is taken while the app is in use.
    • android.permission.DETECT_SCREEN_RECORDING
    • run foreground service
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services.
    • run foreground service with the type "specialUse"
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services with the type "specialUse"
    • have full network access
      Allows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
    • show notifications
      Allows the app to show notifications
    • run at startup
      Allows the app to have itself started as soon as the system has finished booting. This can make it take longer to start the phone and allow the app to slow down the overall phone by always running.
    • control vibration
      Allows the app to control the vibrator.
    • prevent phone from sleeping
      Allows the app to prevent the phone from going to sleep.
    • app.nightdrop.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

    Download APK 37 MiB PGP Signature | Build Log

    • New in version 0.1.29
    Backups keep your address again. Since 0.1.16 they lost it, so contacts could not reach a restored device directly: make a new backup after updating. The app now reminds contacts of your address at each start, repairing earlier restores.

    Short codes shown on a phone work reliably. Code guessing is limited, declining a request revokes access, and burn messages never return as normal ones. Linux: runs on older systems.

    Night Drop 0.2 won't be able to message 0.1 apps: update when it arrives.
  • Version 0.1.29 (4153) - Added on Oct 12, 2026

    x86_64

    This version requires Android 7.0 or newer.

    It is built and signed by the original developer, and guaranteed to correspond to this source tarball.

    Permissions
    • view network connections
      Allows the app to view information about network connections such as which networks exist and are connected.
    • take pictures and videos
      This app can take pictures and record videos using the camera while the app is in use.
    • detect screen captures of app windows
      This app will get notified when a screenshot is taken while the app is in use.
    • run foreground service
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services.
    • run foreground service with the type "specialUse"
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services with the type "specialUse"
    • have full network access
      Allows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
    • show notifications
      Allows the app to show notifications
    • control vibration
      Allows the app to control the vibrator.
    • prevent phone from sleeping
      Allows the app to prevent the phone from going to sleep.
    • app.nightdrop.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

    Download APK 49 MiB PGP Signature | Build Log

  • Version 0.1.29 (4152) - Added on Oct 12, 2026

    arm64-v8a

    This version requires Android 7.0 or newer.

    It is built and signed by the original developer, and guaranteed to correspond to this source tarball.

    Permissions
    • view network connections
      Allows the app to view information about network connections such as which networks exist and are connected.
    • take pictures and videos
      This app can take pictures and record videos using the camera while the app is in use.
    • detect screen captures of app windows
      This app will get notified when a screenshot is taken while the app is in use.
    • run foreground service
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services.
    • run foreground service with the type "specialUse"
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services with the type "specialUse"
    • have full network access
      Allows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
    • show notifications
      Allows the app to show notifications
    • control vibration
      Allows the app to control the vibrator.
    • prevent phone from sleeping
      Allows the app to prevent the phone from going to sleep.
    • app.nightdrop.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

    Download APK 46 MiB PGP Signature | Build Log

  • Version 0.1.29 (4151) - Added on Oct 12, 2026

    armeabi-v7a

    This version requires Android 7.0 or newer.

    It is built and signed by the original developer, and guaranteed to correspond to this source tarball.

    Permissions
    • view network connections
      Allows the app to view information about network connections such as which networks exist and are connected.
    • take pictures and videos
      This app can take pictures and record videos using the camera while the app is in use.
    • detect screen captures of app windows
      This app will get notified when a screenshot is taken while the app is in use.
    • run foreground service
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services.
    • run foreground service with the type "specialUse"
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services with the type "specialUse"
    • have full network access
      Allows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
    • show notifications
      Allows the app to show notifications
    • control vibration
      Allows the app to control the vibrator.
    • prevent phone from sleeping
      Allows the app to prevent the phone from going to sleep.
    • app.nightdrop.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

    Download APK 36 MiB PGP Signature | Build Log

    • New in version 0.1.27
    Uses much less data and battery in the background. A bug in the Tor library made the app re-publish its address more and more often the longer it ran; in our overnight test this cuts its upload traffic by about 70%.

    Night Drop 0.2 is coming, and it won't be able to message 0.1 apps. The app now says so: update when 0.2 arrives, and ask your contacts to update too.
  • Version 0.1.27 (4133) - Added on Oct 05, 2026

    x86_64

    This version requires Android 7.0 or newer.

    It is built and signed by the original developer, and guaranteed to correspond to this source tarball.

    Permissions
    • view network connections
      Allows the app to view information about network connections such as which networks exist and are connected.
    • take pictures and videos
      This app can take pictures and record videos using the camera while the app is in use.
    • detect screen captures of app windows
      This app will get notified when a screenshot is taken while the app is in use.
    • run foreground service
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services.
    • run foreground service with the type "specialUse"
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services with the type "specialUse"
    • have full network access
      Allows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
    • show notifications
      Allows the app to show notifications
    • control vibration
      Allows the app to control the vibrator.
    • prevent phone from sleeping
      Allows the app to prevent the phone from going to sleep.
    • app.nightdrop.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

    Download APK 48 MiB PGP Signature | Build Log

  • Version 0.1.27 (4132) - Added on Oct 05, 2026

    arm64-v8a

    This version requires Android 7.0 or newer.

    It is built and signed by the original developer, and guaranteed to correspond to this source tarball.

    Permissions
    • view network connections
      Allows the app to view information about network connections such as which networks exist and are connected.
    • take pictures and videos
      This app can take pictures and record videos using the camera while the app is in use.
    • detect screen captures of app windows
      This app will get notified when a screenshot is taken while the app is in use.
    • run foreground service
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services.
    • run foreground service with the type "specialUse"
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services with the type "specialUse"
    • have full network access
      Allows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
    • show notifications
      Allows the app to show notifications
    • control vibration
      Allows the app to control the vibrator.
    • prevent phone from sleeping
      Allows the app to prevent the phone from going to sleep.
    • app.nightdrop.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

    Download APK 45 MiB PGP Signature | Build Log

  • Version 0.1.27 (4131) - Added on Oct 05, 2026

    armeabi-v7a

    This version requires Android 7.0 or newer.

    It is built and signed by the original developer, and guaranteed to correspond to this source tarball.

    Permissions
    • view network connections
      Allows the app to view information about network connections such as which networks exist and are connected.
    • take pictures and videos
      This app can take pictures and record videos using the camera while the app is in use.
    • detect screen captures of app windows
      This app will get notified when a screenshot is taken while the app is in use.
    • run foreground service
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services.
    • run foreground service with the type "specialUse"
      Allows the app to make use of foreground services with the type "specialUse"
    • have full network access
      Allows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
    • show notifications
      Allows the app to show notifications
    • control vibration
      Allows the app to control the vibrator.
    • prevent phone from sleeping
      Allows the app to prevent the phone from going to sleep.
    • app.nightdrop.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

    Download APK 36 MiB PGP Signature | Build Log

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