A censorship-free X — you are your key.

Install (60 seconds)

1. Tap Download for Android above and open the file.
2. Android asks to allow installing unknown apps — allow it (it's a signed build; verify the hash to be sure).
3. Open ӾChat, create a wallet, and back up your seed — it is your account; lose it and it's gone.

Verify it's the real build

SHA-256 of xchat-alpha.apk:

The whole app is open source and the build is reproducible — you can rebuild this exact APK yourself from the repo.

Why it's different

Run a relay — one command

A relay is a helper for the network. It keeps a share of everyone's posts and hands them out when someone asks for them. The more people run one, the harder ӾChat is to switch off, because no single computer matters. You don't need to be technical, and you don't need a server — a spare laptop is fine. It runs quietly in the background and starts itself when you log in.

1. Open Terminal — on a Mac press ⌘ Space, type terminal, hit Enter. On Linux, any terminal works.
2. Tap the button below, paste into the window (⌘ V), press Enter.
3. Wait a minute or two. When it finishes it prints your relay's web address — that's it.

Keeping it up to date. Run sh ~/.xchat-relay/install-relay.sh --status any time — it tells you if it is running, whether people can reach you, and whether a newer version exists. To update, one command: sh ~/.xchat-relay/install-relay.sh --update. It asks you nothing and keeps everything that is yours — your payout address, your keys, your stored posts.

What it does to your computer. Everything goes into one folder (~/.xchat-relay). Nothing else is touched. It cannot post as you or touch your money — a relay only stores messages other people already signed. It also opens a free, private doorway so people can reach it from outside, which means no router settings and no accounts to create. Changed your mind? Remove it completely with sh ~/.xchat-relay/install-relay.sh --uninstall. If you'd like to see what the command does before you run it, it's plain, commented text you can read.

Want your own node as well? A relay helps everyone. A node helps you: it's the part your app talks to directly. With your own, your feed is put together by your machine instead of someone else's, and your tips go through in seconds rather than waiting in a queue on a public server. It's the same command with one word added — and it still brings everything it needs with it, so there is nothing else for you to install. When it finishes it prints your node's address — put that into the app under Settings → Endpoint, and the app starts using your machine instead of someone else's.

One more thing worth knowing. Your relay works straight away, but at first nobody can find it — you would have to send people the address yourself. That's because the free doorway gets a new address every time it restarts, and an address that keeps changing can't be published anywhere. Two commands fix that for good:

1. --setup-worker gives your relay an address that never changes. Free, and it sets itself up.
2. --setup-operator creates the key that publishes that address so the app can find you. This one needs a tiny amount of XNO, once — far less than a penny. It tells you where to send it, and a free faucet will do.

Run them one after the other:

At any point, sh ~/.xchat-relay/install-relay.sh --status tells you in plain words whether it's running and whether people can find you.