Hibbem
Encrypted texts, sent as ordinary SMS.
Hibbem is an SMS app for Android that encrypts your messages end to end. It needs no internet, no account and no server: everything happens on your phone and theirs.
Coming soon to Android
On your phone
Is the key under the mat?
Under the blue pot. Door code is 4471.
What the carrier sees
#wIWDD9ER2R/Qfl4tk/4C8fLRruqhB9Zm7HKSobkCLtwWBMIJGKGNq1hWg7HlpHHRjhSiI14k0Ain8fZImXD0OJF09D58Ne5rzpR0MomFGGxHGdMLYVrjMRyDDOM+dr1Z7Gq8E3mfeB50IBK4qD0RLJoIZOEsmIA
One standard text of 160 characters. The carrier still sees who texted whom, and when.
What Hibbem does
Hibbem becomes your SMS app. Texts with people who also use Hibbem are encrypted; texts with everyone else stay normal texts, as before.
End-to-end encrypted
Every message gets its own key, and keys move forward all the time. A key that leaks later can't unlock older messages.
Double Ratchet · AES-256-GCM
Ready for quantum computers
Setting up combines a classic key exchange with a post-quantum one, so recorded texts stay safe if one of them is broken later.
X25519 + ML-KEM-768
No servers, no accounts
There is nothing to sign up for and nothing in the cloud. Hibbem works wherever texts work, also without mobile data.
the app has no internet access at all
Private on the phone too
Other apps with access to your texts only see "Encrypted message". The real text is stored encrypted, in Hibbem only.
keys in the Android Keystore
No surprises on your bill
You see what a message costs before you send it, and longer ones are compressed: about twice as many words per text. Hibbem never texts short codes or paid numbers by itself, and asks first, always when you're abroad.
~135 characters in 1 text, ~375 in 2
Your identity, backed up
Your identity comes from 24 words you can write down. Encrypted backups of your contacts and messages stay yours, optionally locked with a YubiKey.
24-word recovery phrase
Also in Hibbem
- Drawings, sent as lines in a text or two, or traced from a photo.
- Voice notes of up to 15 seconds (experimental).
- Spam filter on the phone: suspicious texts are marked, and their links can't be tapped.
- Blocking with Android's own list, so calls from that number are blocked too.
- "Copy code" on the notification of a login code.
- Search in a chat, encrypted messages included, without a search index.
- Delivery ticks and the cost of every message before you send it.
- Two SIMs and a monthly text limit.
- App lock and notifications without the message text.
- Encrypted backups, optionally with a YubiKey.
See it in action
Two and a half minutes on two phones, Anna's and Bob's: setting up encryption, a spam text, a drawing, a photo turned into lines and a voice note.
Two ways to start
Once per contact, your phones exchange keys. After that, every text between you is encrypted.
Meet in person
Scan each other's QR code or tap phones together. Hibbem checks both who you met and that their phone really has that number, so the contact is verified at once.
2 texts
Set up over SMS
Far apart? The keys travel as texts. Compare a safety number on a call afterwards to know it's really them.
about 23 texts
What to know before you start
What stays visible
- SMS remains the transport, so your carrier still sees who texted whom and when.
- Only people who also use Hibbem get encrypted texts; Hibbem shows clearly which chats are encrypted.
- Encryption adds a little to every message. Compression makes up for it with ordinary words, but links and codes hardly shrink, so those can cost a text more.
What Hibbem never does
- It doesn't collect, track or share anything. There is no server to send it to.
- It doesn't upload your contacts or messages anywhere.
- It doesn't use ads. Hibbem is open source under the GPL-3.0.
Where Hibbem is now
Hibbem is being tested on real phones. Tap Android or iPhone below to download the app.
Android
The app for Android 10 and newer, with drawings, experimental voice notes and support for two SIMs.
iPhone
iOS doesn't let apps send or receive texts. So Hibbem on an iPhone puts your encrypted message in Apple's Messages for you to send, and you paste the texts you get back into Hibbem. A few more taps, the same encryption, and it talks with Android phones and computers. Install with SideStore.
Ubuntu and Windows
Hibbem for laptops with a 4G modem that can send texts, with the same encryption.