You own your data.
Encrypted on your device. Messages, documents, files — the surfaces our encryption boundary covers. The keys live with you; we never see them. The same wording the app shows on first launch, because the property is the product.
Privacy as a property of the data, not a vendor promise.
Locked before it leaves your device.
Messages, documents, and files are encrypted on-device under keys your phone or laptop generated. The private key never reaches our server.
We hold ciphertext. You hold keys.
Our database stores scrambled bytes and operational metadata. There is no master key in a vault in our office. Nothing for an insider, a breach, or an external request to decrypt.
One trust model. Across everything you do.
End-to-end encryption applied not just to messages but to documents, files, group rooms, and email-bridged recipients — for work threads, family logistics, medical records, financial planning, anything that should stay yours.
The same foundations that secure Bitcoin.
Applied to your conversations.
We use the same cryptographic foundations that secure Bitcoin — elliptic-curve keys, SHA-256, 24-word seed phrases — but applied to messaging with forward secrecy, sealed-sender metadata protection, and Argon2id key stretchingthat's an order of magnitude harder to brute-force than what Bitcoin wallets use.
SHOW THE PRIMITIVES →HIDE
The trust model, side by side.
Encryption claims sound similar. The trust model is where workspace tools split apart.
Koaich | Slack | Notion | Google Workspace | Microsoft Teams | Discord | Signal | SMS | Facebook Messenger | LinkedIn messages | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E2E encrypted messages by default | Yes | No | n/a | No | Only 1:1 calls (opt-in) | No (DAVE for voice only) | Yes | No | Yes (since late 2024) | No | Yes (Signal Protocol) |
| E2E encrypted documents | Yes | n/a | No | CSE on Enterprise Plus only | Customer Key on E5 only | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| E2E encrypted files | Yes | No | No | CSE on Enterprise Plus only | Customer Key on E5 only | No | Yes (attachments in chats) | n/a | Yes (in E2E chats) | No | Yes (attachments in E2E chats) |
| Can the vendor read your content? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes (default tiers) | Yes (default tiers) | Yes | No | Yes (carrier reads all) | No (content); Yes (metadata) | Yes | No (content); Yes (metadata) |
| Send to a non-platform recipient via email (encrypted) | Yes (encrypted digest) | No | Shared link (cleartext) | Yes (cleartext) | No | No | No | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Group key rotation on member churn | Yes (Sender-Key rotation) | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | n/a | Yes (Signal Protocol groups) | n/a | Yes (Signal Protocol) |
| Message TTL / auto-expiration | Yes, every message | Workspace retention policies | No | Retention policies | Retention policies | Premium, channel-level | Yes | No | Disappearing messages (opt-in per chat) | No | Disappearing messages (opt-in per chat) |
| Per-vault key isolation | Yes | No (workspace-wide) | No | No | No | No | n/a | n/a | No (account-wide keys) | n/a | No (account-wide keys) |
| Recovery without vendor-held keys | Yes (Shamir + WebAuthn) | No (password reset by vendor) | No | No | No (AD reset) | No | Yes (PIN) | n/a | Encrypted backups (opt-in PIN) | No (password reset) | Encrypted backups (opt-in PIN) |
| Operator business model | Subscription (no ad-targeting) | — | — | — | — | — | Non-profit (no ads) | Carrier subscription | Advertising (Meta) | Advertising + premium (Microsoft) | Advertising (Meta) |
| Account identity tied to broader profile | No (Koaich account only) | — | — | — | — | — | No (phone or username) | Phone number (carrier-bound) | Yes (Facebook profile) | Yes (LinkedIn profile + Microsoft) | Yes (phone number, Meta-linked) |
| Cloud backup encrypted end-to-end | Yes (by design) | — | — | — | — | — | Yes (Signal-managed) | n/a (carrier-stored) | Opt-in (PIN required) | — | Opt-in (PIN required, since 2021) |
| Contact list visible to vendor | No (encrypted client-side) | — | — | — | — | — | No (kept on device) | Yes (carrier address book sync varies) | Yes (Facebook contacts + uploaded) | Yes (entire network is the address book) | Yes (full phone-book upload by default) |
| Contact lookup uses keyed HMAC (vs. cleartext email) | Yes (email_hmac) | — | — | — | — | — | Yes (private contact discovery via SGX) | n/a | No (cleartext) | No (cleartext) | No (cleartext phone numbers uploaded) |
| Sealed-sender (vendor can't see who sent the message) | No (roadmap — see PRD) | — | — | — | — | — | Yes | No (carrier sees everything) | No | No | No |
| Post-quantum hybrid key agreement (1:1) | Yes (hybrid) | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | Yes (PQXDH) | No | Not announced | No | Not announced |
CSE = Google's Customer-Side Encryption (Enterprise Plus only). Customer Key= Microsoft's E5 customer-managed keys.
DETAILED COMPARISONS →Worth answering.
Can you read my data?+
What if I lose my phone?+
Does it work for people who aren't on Koaich?+
When does it launch?+
Run your life. Privately.
Visit app.koaich.com. Add to your home screen. Done — no app store, no middleman.
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