Speek.Chat, an instant messaging application based on the Tor network

about Speak.Chat

In the next article we are going to take a look at Speak.Chat. This is a free and open source instant messaging application, which is based on the Tor network services. The program is currently available for Gnu/Linux, OS X and Windows.

Speek.Chat en a peer-to-peer instant messaging system. When logged in, contacts connect to the user, not to an intermediate server, and it's all done through the Tor network. The encounter system makes it extremely difficult for anyone to know our identity from our address.

Speak it does not have a server, it does not store metadata, it does not require ID or phone number and all messages, including file transfers, are end-to-end encrypted and routed through the Tor network. This is what makes it possible for IP addresses to never be public, so users can remain anonymous.

Users are only identified through public keys. Each user can share his public key with others (through other means) to establish the connection. By sharing the key, we can send a request to add the user with whom we share the key to the contact list to start chatting.

General features of Speak.Chat

Speak.Chat preferences

  • This application It will allow us to chat without exposing our identity or IP address to anyone's eyes.
  • The chat It will allow us to send messages, audio, icons, files or images.
  • Nobody will be able to find out who our contacts are or when you talk to them, because it also does not store metadata of any kind.
  • As with metadata, our messages and data are never stored on any server, allowing us to converse without intermediaries.
  • It's a multiplatform program, which is also very easy to use, because it does not require technical knowledge of any kind.

user id to share

  • Once we close the app, all our messages will be deleted.
  • The program point-to-point encryption, using TLS/SSLv3, routed through the Tor network.
  • As indicated in their GitHub repository, Speek.Chat is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Tor Project.

A look at the protocol you use

This peer-to-peer instant messaging application, uses a communication protocol to communicate two instances of Speek.Chat, which are made through a Tor service connection.

Tor Connection Status in Chat

The protocol with which it works is defined in three layers:

  • The connection layer describes the use of an anonymized TCP-style connection for peer-to-peer communication.
  • The packet layer separates the connection into a series of packets delivered to the channels. This allows multiplex different operations on the same connection, and packages the data for channel-level analysis.
  • channel layer parses and handles packets based on channel type and the state of that specific channel.

It can learn more about the protocol that uses this application in the documentation that they have published in their GitHub repository.

How to use Speak.Chat in Ubuntu?

This application can be found available for different operating systems. Ubuntu users can get the latest version of this messaging program from the project release page. In addition to using the web browser to download the AppImage package, we can also open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run wget in the following way to download the latest version published today:

download Speak.Chat

wget https://github.com/Speek-App/Speek/releases/download/v1.6.0-release/Speek.Chat-1.6.0-x86_64.AppImage

When the download is finished, we are going to go to the folder in which we have saved the package. Once in it there is nothing more than right click on it and go to the 'Properties' option. In the window that will open, we will click on the "Permissions" tab. In it we can mark the checkbox in which you can read 'Allow executing the file as a program'. Once this is done, all that remains is to close this window, and we can right-click on the file to select Run and start the application.

change permissions of the Speek.Chat file

Since we are using an AppImage file, If after trying it you don't want to continue having it on your system, it will only be necessary to remove the .Appimage package.

As indicated in their repository on GitHub, the entire app is open source and they are open to contributions. For more information about this project, you can read information about Tor or learn more in detail design from Speak.Chat.


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