Olvid
Olvid is a private and secure end-to-end encrypted messenger.
Contrary to most other messaging applications, Olvid does not rely on a central directory to connect users. As there is no user directory, Olvid does not require access to your contacts and can function without any personal information. The absence of directory also prevents unsolicited messages and spam.
Because of this, from a security standpoint, Olvid is not "yet another secure messenger". Olvid guarantees the total and definitive confidentiality of exchanges, relying solely on the mutual trust of interlocutors. This implies that your privacy does not depend on the integrity of some server. This makes Olvid very different from other messengers that typically rely on some "Trusted Third Party", like a centralized database of users or a public blockchain.
Note that this doesn't mean that Olvid uses no servers (it does). It means that you do not have to trust them: your privacy is ensured by cryptographic protocols running on the client-side (i.e., on your device), and these protocols assume that the servers were compromised from day one. Even then, your privacy is ensured
Help and documentation
If you need help using Olvid, first have a look at our FAQ at https://olvid.io/faq/. We also have a few short tutorial videos available in English and in French.
If you are looking for technical documentation, have a look at our technology page where you can find some technical specifications and the reports of the audits Olvid went through to get its CSPN certifications.
Send us feedback
If you find a bug, or have any feedback about Olvid, please contact the team at Olvid at [email protected]. They will be glad to hear your suggestions.
Building Olvid from the sources
Olvid is available on Google Play or can be compiled from the source. You will get the same app, with the exact same features, but building it from the sources will require a little more work
To build Olvid, you will need the latest version of Android Studio.
- clone this repository
- open the project located in
obv_messenger
in Android Studio (we know, this is weird, but for historic reasons the root project is not at the root of the repository!) - prepare an emulator or plug in your phone and press "Run app"
Compiling and running Olvid should work straight out of the box. If you run into issues, please contact us at [email protected].
⚠ WARNING⚠ : if you want to run Olvid on your device and already have Olvid installed from Google Play, make sure to change theapplicationId
or add anapplicationIdSuffix
in theproductFlavors
of the mainbuild.gradle
to avoid overwriting your app. Or at least, test your build on an emulator before overwriting your app😂
Getting Google push notifications
Unfortunately, even if you have Google Services installed on your device, you will not be able to get push notifications for versions of Olvid built from the sources. The Olvid server uses specific credentials to send push notifications, and these credentials are tied to the signature of the "official" Google Play version of Olvid.
You may activate the "Maintain a permanent WebSocket connection" option in the privacy settings of the app in order to be notified instantly of new messages.
Structure of the project
Olvid is built of two main components:
- a cryptographic engine, written in pure Java (no Android APIs) located in the
obv_engine
folder - an application layer, using the Android APIs for the graphical interface and OS integration , locate in the
obv_messenger
folder
The engine is in charge of all the encryption, contacts and groups management, and network communications, while the application layer implements the instant messaging functionalities on top of the engine.
As of now, the code is not fully documented and contains very few comments. Still, some aspects of it are very advanced and might be hard getting into. We encourage you to read the code, understand it and make your own modifications and additions. But keep in mind that some mechanisms are rather "fragile" and might break easily
Contributing to Olvid
Olvid, as a company, has not yet put in place all the necessary processes to easily accept external contributions. In particular, a Contributor License Agreement should be made available at some point in time. Until then, please contact us at [email protected] if you would like to contribute.
License
Olvid for Android is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3. The full license is available in LICENSE
.
Olvid for Android
Copyright © 2019-2021 Olvid SAS
Olvid is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3,
as published by the Free Software Foundation.
Olvid is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
along with Olvid. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.