Encrypted chat app Threema becomes open source

The secure chat app Threema will be open source. The makers hope that this will make it possible for other programmers to make their own builds of the app. The makers also want to make the app available on multiple devices at the same time in the future.

The makers write in a blog post that the app will be open source in ‘the coming months’. “Everyone can then independently study the security of the app and see that the source code matches the downloaded app,” write the creators. Threema had already had its app, which uses end-to-end encryption, reviewed externally, but users were not yet able to do that themselves. Threema also says it will be possible to use the chat app on multiple devices at the same time in the future. This is done without storing data centrally on a server, but the makers do not say how the technology works and when exactly it will arrive.

The makers say in the same blog post that they have also entered into a partnership with the German-Swiss company Afinum Management. Details of the partnership have not been disclosed, but the founders say all three will continue to run the company.