NoChat is the rare encrypted messenger you can actually use without a phone number. No SIM card and no verification code are ever required, and if you never link a number we never have one to store.
Your phone number is the single most linkable identifier you own, tied to your real name, your address, and your billing info. The instant a messenger collects it, your account is welded to your offline identity. That's why a phone-number-free chat app isn't a feature in NoChat; it's the foundation. Signing up requires no SIM, no SMS verification, and no carrier interaction. (Linking a number later is optional, off by default, and removable at any time.) Your identity is a cryptographic key pair that lives on your device, and people reach you by username or key fingerprint.
Nothing in NoChat's signup requires a phone number: create an account with a username and password, or skip signup entirely with a one-click anonymous session. A phone option exists for people who want number-based contact discovery, and it is never the path of least resistance. You can run NoChat on a device that has no SIM at all: an old tablet on Wi-Fi, a VOIP-less laptop, a burner.
Your account is a cryptographic key pair held on your device. Contacts find you by username or by scanning a key fingerprint, both under your control, neither requiring any carrier to know you exist.
Phone-based authentication isn't just a privacy leak; it's a large attack surface. Removing it closes several doors at once.
Skipping the phone number is step one. Keeping the content private is step two. Every message in NoChat is end-to-end encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a key derived from P-256 ECDH, so the server only ever stores ciphertext; your messages stay private in transit and at rest.
Yes. No route through signup requires a phone number. Start an anonymous session in one click, or create a named account with just a username and password, and neither involves an SMS step. A phone option is offered for optional contact discovery; ignoring it costs you nothing.
A phone number is a persistent, verified identifier tied to your real name, address, and billing info. Once a messenger has it, your account can be linked to everything else that also has it. Skipping the number breaks that link at the source.
No. Signal still requires a phone number at signup, even with usernames enabled. NoChat is one of the few secure messengers that lets you skip the number entirely.
Yes. If a device can reach the internet over Wi-Fi, it can run NoChat: no SIM, no carrier required.
By username or by scanning a key fingerprint, both of which are under your control. For meetings, an 8-character meeting code is generated to share.
Because there's no phone number to recover through, recovery is based on your password or a locally stored key backup. That's more private, but it means you're responsible for backing up your key material.
Free, private by design, and built on auditable cryptography. No phone number, no email required.