How Frendy's encryption actually works
Not a marketing claim — a walkthrough of the cryptography, the exact primitives, and the honest boundary of what it protects. Every step below matches the source code.
Grounded in the source · Last updated: July 2026
What the server can never see
Frendy is end-to-end encrypted. Messages, media, your keys and your PIN are encrypted on your device before anything leaves it. The server stores and relays ciphertext it cannot read — and neither can we.
The cryptographic core
The same primitives on Android, Desktop and iOS — there is no weaker path on any platform.
ECDH on P-256
Each conversation derives a shared secret with Elliptic-Curve Diffie–Hellman on the NIST P-256 curve, hashed with SHA-256 into an AES key. The server never sees it.
AES-256-GCM
Every message is sealed with AES-256 in GCM mode — authenticated encryption, so any tampering is detected and the message is rejected.
Wrapped per member
A group key is encrypted individually to each member via ECDH. No shared password, and no plaintext key ever travels over the network.
A message's journey
Encrypted on your device
Plaintext is encrypted with the conversation key before it touches the network.
The server sees only ciphertext
What we relay and store is an opaque blob — no text, no media, no key.
Opened only by the recipient
Only the intended device holds the key needed to decrypt it.
Forward secrecy & post-quantum Live
Frendy uses the Signal-style Double Ratchet with X3DH and post-quantum key agreement (PQXDH with Kyber-1024). Forward secrecy — a compromised key cannot unlock past messages — is live on Android and Desktop: private messages, edits and media files all travel on one-time keys, and group chats use Sender Keys with periodic rotation. iOS is still catching up on feature parity.
Login security — two-factor
Accounts can be protected with TOTP two-factor authentication, so a stolen password alone is not enough to sign in.
Verified, not asserted
Every security claim on this site is grounded in the source code and checked by automated tests, static analysis, and independent reviews by multiple AI models. Cryptographic round-trips — encrypt→decrypt, ratchet state, PQXDH/Kyber — are covered by tests, not just documentation.
The honest boundary
End-to-end encryption protects your content in transit and at rest on our servers. It does not hide the fact that two accounts communicate (metadata), and it cannot protect a device that is itself compromised — malware, an unlocked phone, or a screenshot taken by the other party. We minimize metadata and never store what we do not need, and we tell you the limits plainly.