Show HN: WhatsApp Clone – No Setup or Signup
Screen8774
11 points
8 comments
March 08, 2026
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Discussion Highlights (4 comments)
Screen8774
IMPORTANT: Lets get a few things out of the way first. My app is not better than Whatsapp in any way. It hasnt been reviewed or audited. This app works by exchanging IP addresses... This app is NOT for anonymous comms. The project is experimental and far from finished. It's presented for testing, feedback and demo purposes only. Use responsibly. --- By leveraging WebRTC for direct browser-to-browser communication, it eliminates the middleman entirely. Users simply share a unique URL to establish an encrypted, private channel. This approach effectively bypasses corporate data harvesting and provides a lightweight, disposable communication method for those prioritizing digital sovereignty. Features: - P2P - End to end encryption - Signal protocol - Post-quantum cryptography - Multimedia - file transfer - Video calls - No registration - No installation - No database - TURN server This project isnt finished enough to compare to existing tools like Simplex, Signal and WhatsApp... This is intended to introduce a new paradigm in client-side managed secure cryptography. Allowing users to send securely encrypted messages; no cloud, no trace. Technical breakdown: https://positive-intentions.com/docs/technical/p2p-messaging... Demo: https://p2p.positive-intentions.com/iframe.html?globals=&id=... Docs: https://positive-intentions.com/docs/technical NOTE: The app is currently working without setup, but as I look towards going into a saas-direction, I don't think I can avoid user registration.
poly2it
> "The Signal Protocol in rust that compiles to WASM for browser-based usage." Is this safe to do? Are all secure operations browser-safe and separate? Does this avoid side channels? The browser is famously challenging for safe encryption.
dTal
Couldn't make it work with a friend sitting next to me. The QR codes led to the website but didn't add a contact. Manually adding the ID resulted in the number abruptly disappearing with no feedback and no effect.
poisonborz
This looks like a good faith project, and OP surely put in time (2y+) and effort. Yet I would have discouraged them to make such a project at this time. OP seems like a well meaning but young, at the start of their career. A proper modern messaging app takes a great technical effort (even while the core concept itself is extremely primitive and could be coded in 10m) and even with that in mind, for end-users it's not really about technology, but trust - on long, long term. And you can't gain that as a blank page dev with no open source karma (or posing as such to stay anonymous). Putting in so much effort to chase the holy grail of a new concept of a messaging app is like a film student who wants to cram in all their ideas in life to make something epic in movie no. 1. There are some who can stroke genius on first try, but the current project doesn't strike me as such. Props for making a product that is coherent and looking useful on the surface level, but I wish you'd put efforts in something smaller in scope first (or contributing to something already existing) and gaining more of a foothold first before tackling a messaging project.