Wave vs Zyphr

Wave is a privacy-first messaging app built for people who value security, simplicity, and control. Chat, call, and send photos and videos without signing up, sharing personal details, or trusting centralized servers. You can start messaging instantly. Wave uses end-to-end encryption, ensuring only you and the people you're chatting with can see your messages, calls, photos, and videos. Everything is encrypted on your device and decrypted only by recipients. Powered by XMTP, Wave is built on a decentralized messaging network, reducing reliance on central servers and giving users more control over their conversations. Wave supports fast one-to-one messaging and secure group conversations in a clean, minimal interface with no clutter or distractions. Send voice notes, photos, videos, and albums of up to 10 photos and videos. Reply to messages, react with emoji, and share GIFs and stickers, including ones made from your own photos. Make one-to-one voice and video calls with anyone you chat with. Answer from the Lock Screen, keep chatting while a call floats in a small window, add live filters to your video, and find past and missed calls in call history. Stay in control of every conversation. Set messages to disappear after 30 seconds up to 7 days, unsend any message you've sent, and pin, archive, or mute your chats. Choose how much your notifications show, block anyone, and get alerts about suspicious accounts. Give your groups admins, a description, and a custom photo. Pick your own profile photo and share your profile with a QR code or a link you can reset anytime. Chat Backup saves your chats to iCloud automatically, daily, weekly, or monthly, so you can restore them when you reinstall Wave or get a new iPhone. Your backup is encrypted before it leaves your device. You can optionally connect your Bluesky account to message people you already know, or simply use Wave on its own without linking any account. Wave is designed with privacy at its core, with end-to-end encrypted messages and calls, a privacy-first architecture, and no ads or trackers.

Zyphr is a private messenger built around one idea: your conversations are yours. Messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted, video calls are secure video calls, and the server is never able to read them. PRIVATE BY DESIGN - End-to-end encrypted 1:1 chats (Signal Protocol) and group chats (MLS, the IETF standard for group encryption). - Encrypted voice and video calls (WebRTC / DTLS-SRTP) that connect directly between devices whenever they can. - Sign up with just an email, no phone number. Your email is stored only as an irreversible hash, never in plain text. Or sign in with Apple or Google. - The server relays only sealed ciphertext and helps your devices find each other. It holds no message content and no decryption keys. MESSAGING THAT RESPECTS YOU - Photos, videos, files and voice messages, each encrypted with its own key. - Disappearing messages, delayed send, and view-once secure media. - Read receipts and typing indicators you can turn off, in both directions. - On-device voice-message transcription (audio never leaves your phone). CALLS - One-tap voice and video, with a native call experience. - Call history with in-chat call records. YOURS TO CONTROL - Two-step verification and passkey sign-in. - Block and report, with username and impersonation filtering. - Screenshot protection across the app including video calls (secure video calls). - Delete your account and wipe your data anytime. Zyphr is ad-free and tracker-free.