DChat vs Session vs Signal
Feature by feature, taken from each project's own published documentation and dated, so you can check every row yourself.
The short answer
DChat is the only messenger here that gives you a complete communication app with no phone number, no email and no company account. Group video calls up to 25 people, 50 MB attachments, live location, message editing, multi-device linking, and a non-custodial wallet with payments sent straight inside a conversation. No operator can read your messages, suspend your account or reset your recovery phrase, because no operator holds your keys. Free on Android, web and desktop.
Session also skips the phone number, and routes messages over an onion network. The trade shows up in the product: no group calls at all, a 10 MB attachment cap, and calls that are still beta and switched off until you enable them.
Signal is the established name with strong cryptography and a large user base. It requires a phone number, which ties your account to a SIM and to the carrier that issued it.
The table
Every row is checkable. Sources and the dates they were read are listed at the bottom.
| DChat | Session | Signal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Everyday private messaging with friends and family | Everyday private messaging with maximum anonymity | Everyday private messaging on the largest network |
| Crypto knowledge needed to use it | None | None | None |
| Sign up without a phone number | Yes | Yes | Required |
| Sign up without an email address | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Central messaging servers | None - Swarmchat, a network of staked nodes registered on a public chain | None - staked nodes, registered on a public chain | Yes - servers run by Signal |
| Node operators are publicly verifiable | Yes - in the block explorer | Yes - on the Session network | N/A - single operator |
| Group video calls | Yes - up to 25 participants | None | Yes |
| Voice and video calls on by default | Yes | Beta - opt-in, off by default | Yes |
| Attachment size limit | 50 MB | 10 MB | 100 MB |
| Built-in non-custodial wallet | Yes | No | No |
| Payments inside the conversation | Yes | No | Limited - region dependent |
| Live location sharing | Yes | No | Yes |
| Edit a sent message | Yes | No | Yes |
| Multi-device linking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Published cryptographic specification | Yes - every primitive and parameter | Protocol blog posts | Yes |
| Operator can read your messages | No | No | No |
| Operator can reset or suspend your account | No - nobody holds your keys | No | Tied to a phone number |
| Runs on its own independent network | Yes - public chain and relay nodes | Yes - node network | No - runs on operator servers |
| Platforms | Android, web, desktop | Android, iOS, desktop | Android, iOS, desktop |
Metadata, line by line
Encryption hides what you say. This is everything around it. Broken out rather than scored as one verdict, because that is where the real differences are.
| What the network can learn | DChat | Session | Signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone number tied to your account | None | None | Required |
| Email address tied to your account | None | None | None |
| Your address book uploaded | Never | Never | Contact discovery |
| Who sent a message, visible to the network | No - sealed sender | No - onion routing | No - sealed sender |
| Group membership recorded publicly | No - kept off the chain | No | No |
| An account database that could be seized | None exists | None exists | Phone number registry |
| Your IP, hidden from the network | No - private routing planned | Yes - onion routing | No |
| Your IP, exposed to the person you call | On direct calls | On direct calls | On calls with contacts |
Every direct connection exposes an IP to the other end - that is how direct calling works anywhere, and it applies to any peer-to-peer messenger including twinme. Onion routing is the one axis where Session is genuinely ahead of us, and private routing is coming. On the other seven rows we match or beat both.
Which one fits you
DChat, for everyday private messaging with no account behind it
For talking to friends and family every day, the way you already do. Sign up in seconds with no phone number, no email and no password, and nothing to buy or connect. Everything a modern messenger has - group video calls, albums, voice messages, live location, reactions, edits, disappearing messages, multi-device linking - plus a wallet for people who want one, out of the way for people who do not. Nobody can read your messages, freeze your account or reset your phrase, because nobody else holds your keys. We publish our exact cryptographic primitives and parameters, which most closed messengers never do, and our roadmap below is published the same way.
Session, if hiding who you talk to outranks everything else
Session routes messages over an onion network, which hides the link between sender and recipient at the network layer. If that specific property is your priority, it is the strongest of the three. You accept a slower app, no group calls, and a 10 MB attachment cap in return.
Signal, if you want the name everyone already knows
Mature, widely deployed, strong cryptography, and most people you want to talk to can already be found on it. You give it your phone number, and your account lives or dies with that number.
Metadata protection
Encryption hides what you said. Metadata is everything else.
Sealed sender
An ephemeral key generated fresh for every message wraps the whole envelope, so a relay forwards your message without learning which account sent it. Our flood-based network makes this possible: every node already holds every message, so delivery never depended on knowing the sender. Networks that assign message storage by recipient address have to know the destination to route at all.
Nothing to collect in the first place
No phone number, no email, no password, so no identifier ties your account to your real identity. Your address book is never uploaded. Group membership is never written to the chain. Message content never touches the chain. There is no account database and no advertising network correlating anything. The full picture.
Sources
Every competitor row comes from that project's own published documentation, read on 2 August 2026. Where a project's own docs and a third-party summary disagree, we use the project's docs.
- Session: getsession.org/faq - onion routing, group size, the 10 MB attachment cap, calls in beta and off by default, and the absence of group calls.
- Signal: support.signal.org - always end-to-end encrypted, complete client and server source on GitHub, safety numbers.
- DChat: our own cryptographic specification, security page and architecture guides.
Spotted something out of date? Tell us at contact and we will check it and correct the page.
Try it yourself
No phone number, no email, no password. You are chatting about a minute after you install it.