# Session messenger

13 Hacker News commenters recommended Session messenger and 20 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Decentralized encrypted messenger that creates an account without a phone number, recommended as a Signal alternative. Critics say it lacks forward secrecy and has flawed cryptography.

## Why people recommend it

- Easy onboarding without phone number (2 comments): "Session is a decentralized Signal fork that creates the account on the device without associating it with a phone number." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50315677)) "I wish more apps had this easy onboarding process." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47706748))
- Alternative to Signal (3 comments): "I'd recommend downloading software like Signal, Session, VeraCrypt, etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46350467)) "some options i can recommend are matrix,simplex,session etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46328589)) "it seems to be the leading alternative to Signal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46085221))
- Decentralized and encrypted messaging (2 comments): "Both Session and Briar are decentralized technologies where you would never be able to approach a company" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46789489)) "Briar and Session are the better encrypted messengers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787002))

## What people warn about

- Lacks forward secrecy (4 comments): "Session lacks forward secrecy. This is very serious- it's silly to compare Session to Signal when Session is flawed in its cryptography." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46790443)) "the developers have implemented many features insecurely and have also removed forward secrecy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50316094)) "too bad Session removed forward secrecy and became useless" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46281106))
- Insecure or flawed cryptography (4 comments): "Session lacks forward secrecy. This is very serious- it's silly to compare Session to Signal when Session is flawed in its cryptography." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46790443)) "the developers have implemented many features insecurely and have also removed forward secrecy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50316094)) "Both Session and SimpleX are trivially vulnerable to storage DoS as well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46789186))
- Doubtful funding and crypto-linked origins (4 comments): "A collection of strongly opinionated crypto experts running on hopes more than money is no way to run" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47703226)) "they pivoted after being crypto bros with a failed token. It's just more grift." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47703309)) "Our product makes no money, has no use case and we need $1M to survive." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47703348))
- Hard to set up or use (2 comments): "I have built bare minimum hello world bots in simplex and session and I think both had a lot of troubles to go through" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46352927)) "I could never get it to work and I've tried several times." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47705022))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Signal](https://hackerapproved.com/p/signal.md): 486 recommend
- [Bitchat](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bitchat.md): 56 recommend
- [Element](https://hackerapproved.com/p/element.md): 50 recommend
- [Briar](https://hackerapproved.com/p/briar.md): 50 recommend
- [Delta Chat](https://hackerapproved.com/p/delta-chat.md): 48 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Session messenger", https://hackerapproved.com/p/session/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).