About the project
Ugolok is a messenger with no single company and no single server in charge. Instead, it runs on top of the open Nostr protocol: anyone can run their own server (a relay), and people on different servers can still message each other.
Why this matters
- No one can simply switch it off. If one server gets blocked or stops working, people can move to another one without losing anything: an account is held by a pair of cryptographic keys, not a password in someone else's database.
- Conversations are encrypted so that even the owner of the server the messages pass through can't read their content.
- You can run your own server if you don't want to depend even on the project's servers — Ugolok is specifically built to make this possible.
Who it's for
- People who want to talk to loved ones without worrying that someone else will take an interest in the conversation.
- People for whom it matters that communication keeps working even under active restrictions and blocks.
- People who simply don't want to depend on one company and its rules.
What Ugolok can already do
- Private messages with end-to-end encryption and protection against reading messages after the fact (see the "Privacy" page).
- Channels — something between a social media post and a group chat, with flexible control over who can read and comment.
- Files and attachments — with their own encrypted storage.
- Voice calls.
- Quick connect — a temporary room for text and voice with no sign-up and no key exchange in advance; it disappears when everyone leaves.
- Search across your whole history — contacts, messages, posts and comments; attachments in a chat can be filtered by type (images, video, audio, documents).
- Interface in 12 languages, with a choice of accent color and scale.
- The ability to run your own server and fully control your own data.
Ugolok is a living project that keeps changing and growing. This help section grows along with it.