A European alternative to Discord and social media
Play, talk
and share.
Voice rooms, screen sharing and communities, the way you already know them. Everything is end-to-end encrypted with post-quantum cryptography: safe today, and against the quantum computers of tomorrow. No ads, no algorithm, no email.
Ambassadors
Bring your community.
Do you have a community on Discord, on TeamSpeak, on Root, on your own server or in another app? Bring the admin and the community to Orwell, and test the app with us. You test it, and the people who make the app listen to you.
What the community gets
Direct contact with the people who make Orwell, in a private channel. A channel of your own, and your requests go first. Your name in the tribute section of the site. The ambassador badge in the app, next to your name.
What we ask
Bring the community, or part of it. Use the app for real for one month. Tell us what breaks and what is missing, without a filter.
Create an account, go to the Orwell channel and write "I want to be an ambassador" with the name of your community. We answer there.
Apply with my community See the programme
Already testing with us:
- Lucky 7
- BJJ (O Avestruz)
- Castro
- Chris
- Conde Nado
- D1OGO
- Dagadbm
- DavidHPZ
- Deathghost
- DronePT
- Easymoneysniper
- jealousfu
- KakashiGTX
- KINGOR
- Kyros
- LagartoNervoso
- MaggiedoAço
- Milhano
- Zé Pato
- Narizman
- Paulo
- R4K
- Rodri
- TheLastBaron
- Uhhl
- YFF
Orwell is at version 1.3. There are still things to do, and that is why ambassadors matter.
Use it on your phone, no app store
There is no app in the app stores. You put the browser app on your home screen. It gets its own icon, opens in its own window and you always get the latest version. It is the same app as orwell.pt/app.
Android in Chrome
- Open orwell.pt/app in Chrome.
- Tap the three dots, next to the address bar.
- Choose "Add to Home screen". In some versions of Chrome, this option is called "Install app".
- Confirm with "Install". The account you already had in Chrome is still there.
iPhone and iPad in Safari
- Open orwell.pt/app in Safari. In other browsers the option may not exist.
- Tap Share, the square with the arrow pointing up. On iOS 26 it can be inside the three dots button.
- Scroll down the list and choose "Add to Home Screen". If you see the option to open it as a web app, leave it on.
- Tap "Add".
- Create or import your account inside the new icon. iOS keeps the icon's data apart from Safari's data, and an account created in Safari does not show up there.
Before you install
No notifications while the app is closed. To reach your phone at that point, they would have to go through Apple or Google. That is a privacy decision we have not made yet. While the app is open, alerts arrive as they do in the browser.
You add your phone to your computer account from the computer. On the computer, go to Settings, "Devices", "Add device". A code appears. On the phone, on the start screen, choose "Yes, pair this device" and scan the code with the camera, or paste the link. Both screens show six words. Continue only if they match. The phone sees conversations from that moment on and does not have the account key: adding or removing devices is always done on the computer. Do not import the computer's .enclave file on the phone to keep using it on both. One account open in two places breaks the channel encryption, for good.
On iPhone, iOS 15.4 or later. Earlier versions have no encrypted calls. With Lockdown Mode on, Orwell does not work, because that mode turns off the place where the account is stored, and the calls.
The design was born on the computer. It works on the phone, but some screens are still cramped. We are adapting them.
Orwell vs Discord, point by point
The right-hand column shows what Discord itself publishes about itself.
| In practice | Orwell | Discord |
|---|---|---|
| Email to create an account | Not asked for. | Required. |
| Phone number | Never. There is no field for it. | Asked for to verify the account, and required by communities with high verification. |
| ID document or selfie to prove your age | Never. | Where the law requires it, with a selfie or an ID document, and for age-restricted spaces. |
| Ads | None, anywhere. | Sponsored Quests and video ads, on desktop and on mobile. |
| An algorithm deciding what you see | None. The board is in order of arrival. | Recommendations and sponsored content ahead of everything else. |
| End-to-end encryption for text | Always. There is no way to turn it off. | No, and it says it has no plans for it. |
| End-to-end encryption for calls | Yes. Voice, video and shared screen. | Yes, since 2024. |
| Who holds the keys | Only the devices of the people talking. We hold none. | Discord, for everything that is text. |
| What the server can read | Nothing you say. It stores the messages encrypted, and a two-letter reply is the same size as a paragraph. | All the messages. That is how content moderation works. |
| Selling your data to third parties | We have no data to sell. | Says it does not sell it, and uses it to choose the ads it shows you. |
| In a data leak, what gets out | We do not store emails, phone numbers or ID documents. | In October 2025 about 70,000 photos of ID documents got out, through a customer support provider. |
| Who decides what you can say | Your community, through the roles it creates. We cannot read, so we cannot decide. | Discord, with global rules applied to content. |
| Where it lives, and which law applies | European Union (Paris). Portuguese law and the GDPR. | United States. |
| Price | Free. There is no paid version and no locked feature. | Free, with Nitro as the paid tier. |
So how do we pay for this? We set up this system for people who want it all to themselves. That work is what we live on, and not your attention.
Want to know how?
Encryption built for groups
We use the open standard RFC 9420, built for large groups. When someone joins or leaves, the keys change. Whoever leaves can no longer read what comes next. Whoever joins cannot read the messages from before they joined. They get the channel's board, posts, rooms and roles.
Post-quantum by default
The key exchange combines the classic method with ML-KEM, which resists quantum computers. Anyone who stores your messages today to open them in the future with one of those computers cannot read anything.
A server that does not read
The server keeps the encrypted messages for 30 days and delivers them to whoever holds the key. It does not know what they say. A two-letter reply is the same size as a paragraph. Times are stored to the minute, and not to the millisecond.
The account is a key pair
We do not store passwords, so there is none to steal. The password you choose opens the account on your device and never leaves it. There is no email to match against other data, and no password reset that anyone can trick.
Calls pass through us encrypted
Voice, video and screen pass through a machine of ours that relays them. The encryption uses a key of the channel itself, and that machine has no key at all. Only people who could already read the channel's messages can join the call. Encrypted voice already works in Chrome, Firefox and Safari. A browser that cannot encrypt the call connects directly to the others, without going through our machine.
Several devices, one account
Each device you add to the account gets keys of its own. What must not happen is the same account file being opened on two devices at the same time. The channel keys stop matching and there is no way to repair them afterwards. That is why the app warns you before it lets you try.
Orwell was made and is run by users like you. No company is waiting for your data. You do not even need an email to sign in.
Support
Help keep Orwell online.
I'm a solo developer from Portugal, building Orwell independently. No company, no investors, no ads: just me and the people who use it every day. A few collaborators look over the code. Every euro goes to the server, the licences and the legal costs, and gives me time to keep improving Orwell and other public-interest projects. The first goal is €2,200.
If you can't donate, share Orwell.