Berty Messenger vs hellotern
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Berty Messenger
This app offers secure, end-to-end encrypted messaging without central servers. It allows communication even without an internet connection, ensuring anonymity and protecting user metadata from surveillance.
- End-to-end encrypted messaging
- 100% decentralized P2P network
- Completely anonymous user profiles
- Metadata protection
- Offline communication via Bluetooth
- Group chats and media sharing
- Voice message sharing
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Berty makes privacy the easy option. Berty is an encrypted and offline peer-to-peer messenger with NO central server. Connect with or without an internet connection, message for free, and avoid surveillance and censorship. DISCLAIMER: Berty is fresh off the development line and hasn’t been audited yet. Please keep this in mind when exchanging data. END-TO-END ENCRYPTED MESSAGING In some countries, even a lol or a like can get you sent to jail. Berty is end-to-end encrypted - not even our developers could access your data, let alone corporations or governments. 100% DECENTRALIZED Just like blockchain technologies, Berty doesn’t pass your data through central servers - the place where internet service providers, hackers, and governments can intercept your data. Instead, Berty’s network is distributed, based on P2P direct messaging. COMPLETELY ANONYMOUS Berty couldn’t care less about who you are. You don’t need to provide your real name, an email, or a date of birth. You don’t even need a SIM card! PROTECT YOUR METADATA You might not know what metadata is, but WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat all collect it. This data can reveal a lot about you - so you’ll be glad to hear Berty is a messaging app alternative that collects as little metadata as humanly possible. COMMUNICATE WITHOUT TRADITIONAL NETWORKS Berty is made to work in the most challenging network conditions in the solar system. If governments, hackers, or natural disasters shut down cellular or internet networks, users can still make vital instant communications over Berty’s proximity Bluetooth feature. JOIN GROUP CHATS Berty is a full-featured instant messaging app. Create groups, chat securely, and share media with friends, family, and colleagues. SHARE VOICE MESSAGES Instantly send encrypted voice memos and audio files on Berty’s decentralized network. FREE FOREVER Privacy is a right for everyone, so Berty doesn’t profit from keeping you safe online. Created by an NGO, Berty will always be free and relies on the generous community to fuel development. TOGGLE BETWEEN ACCOUNTS Create different accounts to split your messaging identities by work, school, family - however, you want to categorize your messages! The Berty messaging app, built on the Berty Protocol, is designed, developed, and deployed by the French non-profit NGO, Berty Technologies. But Berty isn’t just decentralized in terms of its architecture - it’s also owned by the community, not a corporation interested in profits. The progress of Berty relies on developers testing and feeding back on our open source code, generous funding from funds and individual donors, and online and offline advocacy in the community. Documentation on Berty: https://berty.tech/docs Source Code: https://github.com/berty Join Berty’s Discord: Follow Berty on Twitter: @berty
hellotern
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Tern is a private messenger for the people you actually talk to: end-to-end encrypted rooms, voice and video calls, and small communities, with the intelligence running on your phone, inside the encryption, instead of on a server that reads along. NO ACCOUNT, NO PHONE NUMBER Open Tern, pick a name, create a room. Share its invite code or link and the people you invite are in. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to verify, nothing to sell. ENCRYPTED END TO END, INCLUDING CALLS Messages, photos, voice notes and files are sealed on your device with modern group encryption (MLS) and stay sealed through the relay. Voice and video calls are encrypted frame by frame on your phone; the call server forwards packets it cannot decode. CALLS THAT HOLD UP One-to-one and group voice and video calls, ring everyone in a room at once, add someone mid-call, switch from voice to video, picture-in-picture, call history, and a Test call engine button in Call diagnostics for when a network is being difficult. ROOMS THAT FEEL LIKE HOME Channels and threads, pinned messages, polls and events, voice rooms you can hop in and out of, a Space Home that shows who is around, disappearing and view-once media, stickers you cut out yourself. INTELLIGENCE THAT STAYS ON YOUR PHONE Catch Me Up summarizes what you missed, in eight languages, from your own device. Search finds the message you half-remember. Voice notes are transcribed locally. No message leaves your phone to make any of this work, and everything AI-generated is labelled as such. CALM BY CONSTRUCTION No feed, no algorithmic ranking, no streaks, no autoplay. A chronological view is the only view. You are always caught up when the messages end. WHAT WE CANNOT SEE Tern's relay stores sealed envelopes it cannot open and forwards call packets it cannot decode. Notifications are content-free nudges. There are no ads, no trackers, and no third-party analytics in the app or on hellotern.com. Tern is free. Details of what the app can and cannot do, and how the encryption works, are at hellotern.com.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: hellotern at every 8 days against Berty Messenger's every 2 months. Berty Messenger's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Berty Messenger ships an update every 2 months, hellotern every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Berty Messenger | hellotern |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.1 (23 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 30.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 23 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 167 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Berty Technologies | Saad Maan |
In-app purchases
Berty Messenger
No in-app purchases
hellotern
No in-app purchases








