I like Session’s anonymous aspect for privacy and security purposes, but it makes the app less practical for discovering new people to chat with. And maybe that’s the point. The current iteration of the Session app is best for chatting without leaving a digital trail behind. Session is not for cultivating an audience like Telegram or finding new friends, like WhatsApp.
Texting
(Credit: Session/PCMag)
You must know your friends’ user ID, or they need to be physically nearby for you to scan their QR code to add them to your contact list. That means you probably will use Session to talk only with people you know and trust, which, for those with privacy concerns, is for the best. The app hosts communities (explained more in a moment), but to join most of them, you need to know the Community’s URL or have its QR code to participate.
You can chat one-on-one using Conversations, which are standard E2EE private messages. Like Signal and WhatsApp, Session places conversations in speech bubbles, and you can add reaction GIFs or your own media files to the chat window. I like that the first time a new chat partner sends you a file attachment, GIF, or photo, you have to consent to accept it by tapping on the file in the chat window.
You can enable disappearing messages with a wide range of durations, which is helpful. Android users get in-app alerts if a chat partner takes a screenshot of the conversation window. People using iOS devices do not receive these notifications.
Messages can sometimes take a long time to get to the other party, and media files often load slowly, too, but that’s a small price to pay for ultra-private, secure, decentralized end-to-end encryption. Chats on centralized E2EE messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp appear in an instant, but those single-server or clustered servers are more vulnerable to attacks and outages.
Group Chats and Communities
You can add people to a Session group chat by tapping Create a Group in the app menu and clicking on the Contacts you wish to add. Group chats are E2EE and support up to 100 participants. The group chat window is identical in functionality and appearance to the Conversation window.
Go to the Communities tab if you want to interact with a larger group and possibly strangers. Communities are self-hosted, so the messages are stored on someone’s server. Here, messages are only encrypted in transit to the server, making that chat method less private.
(Credit: Session/PCMag)
While testing, I could only view activity in a few Session-led Community channels, which were announcement hubs for new app features. As noted earlier, if you want to find a more active Community channel on Session, you need the Community’s URL or QR code. Again, the focus is on privacy and protection.
The app doesn’t have a lot of fun stuff like the animated stickers and avatars found in Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram’s chat functions. However, since Session is primarily for talking to people you already know, maybe you’ll make your own fun. Session also doesn’t have passive, large-scale broadcasting features like WhatsApp’s statuses or Signal’s stories.
Voice and Video Calls
(Credit: Session/PCMag)
You can opt into voice and video calling via the Privacy menu. When you enable calling within the app, a pop-up alert informs you that your IP address will be visible to the person you’re calling and a Session server, so it’s not an anonymous mode of communication.
To start a call, open a conversation with a contact and press the phone icon. The audio and video quality for both the iOS and Android apps was clear. Currently, group calling is not an option for Session users.
