Locked on your phone
Before a message leaves your device, Pigeon scrambles it with a key that only you and the other person have.
Security
Your conversations belong to you.
Every message, photo, and call on Pigeon is locked on your device before it goes anywhere. Only the people you’re talking to can open it. Not us, and not anyone in between.
How it works
Three steps, every message.
This happens automatically. There’s no setting to turn on and nothing to manage.
Carried sealed
Our servers, or nearby phones over Bluetooth, pass along a sealed envelope. Nobody along the way can open it.
Opened only by them
Their device unlocks it. If anything looks wrong, Pigeon refuses to show the message rather than guess.
Honest about it
What we can and can’t see.
Running a messenger means handling a little information. Here’s exactly where the line is.
Never
What you write, the photos and files you share, and what you say on calls. We don’t hold a key that could open them.
Only to deliver
Which account a sealed envelope is going to, and when it was sent. That’s what a mail carrier needs to know, and nothing more.
Not forever
Undelivered envelopes expire. Once your devices pick them up, we have no reason to keep them around.
Nearby
Same lock, different road.
When there’s no internet, Pigeon can pass your message between phones over Bluetooth. It’s locked the exact same way. Phones that help carry it along can’t read it. They just hand it to the next phone.
- You choose when Nearby is on.
- New contacts are confirmed face to face with a safety code.
- A message can hop through about thirty phones, each about a room apart.
- When you’re back online, everything syncs up on its own.
Nearby reaches people close by, not across town. It isn’t a replacement for calling emergency services.
More protections
Small things that add up.
Safety numbers
Scan a code with a friend to confirm you’re really talking to them, and not an impostor.
App lock
Require your face, fingerprint, or PIN to open Pigeon, even when your phone is unlocked.
Disappearing messages
Set a chat to clear itself after a while. Free for everyone, in every chat.
Encrypted backups
Backups are locked with a passphrase only you know. Lose it, and even we can’t open them.
Quiet notifications
Alerts just say “New message.” Your words never pass through Apple or Google.
Locked files
Photos, voice notes, and documents are encrypted before upload, just like your messages.
Want the full technical picture?
Protocols, the server’s view, how the Bluetooth mesh routes, our threat model, and what isn’t finished yet.