Session - Private Messenger Reviews

by Reece O'Bryan

Please make sure to label all of your buttons with alternative text as well as any images. I am unable to use and navigate your app using voiceover with iPhone. Please update this and resolve this major issue and I am sure that this will be a five star review in the future. For now I will have to use Signal.
I heard about Session and was really excited, until figuring out it is inaccessible. There is no way to create messages, no easy way to copy your this app and I can’t even navigate to any sort of menus if they exist, which I am sure that they do at the very least for some basic settings.
Update: still nothing new with the new update. Could you please make some of these basic edits to your UI?
Update: still patiently waiting.

by Judge J

Is Session a high school project? Certainly seems like it…

Session seemed promising and then something changed a few weeks ago, perhaps a super buggy update??? Not only for my use, but those I’m chatting with as well.

Some problems:

1) very difficult to start multi-user chat groups; some individuals do not get notifications or access to the chat even though they have been absolutely correctly added to the chat group;

2) when attempting to post links natively from websites and other Apps through this app, all that shows in the this app chat is a file icon, which has zero functionality. Performing the same action on WhatsApp, Skype or Signal works flawlessly.

3) When I send a message TO someone, a notification comes up that I RECEIVED a message?

This this app App definitely is not ready for prime time.

by Troublemaker 😝

Session worked for the first two days that I had it. Today, the third day, it started bugging out. It spammed my sister and my phones with notifications, only to find out that we didn’t even have any text messages. Session won’t even let my sister talk to me as it continues to say this recipients key isn’t valid. This makes no sense at all, and every time I go onto Session to text her, my text never go through. Session has many issues and glitches at times and it takes forever to send messages.
It does have a very interesting layout and it was a cool concept when getting it at first, but dealing with these issues is just not worth the unique design. I do have hope for Session changing in the future, especially with reviews like this one, but like I said it is only a hope and not a guarantee.

by J4dtoo

This is a half baked version of signal. The idea of no phone number is great, but please stop the this app updates messages every few minutes. How many times would you like me to read the same articles. With the link from within Session , is this a way to expose the user’s ip address ? No voice or video chat. Being a fork of signal, why not include that functionality and add some ?
Thank you for the feedback. What I do like so far is the clean user interface. I will continue to use Session and as things improve I will keep updating my feedback. Hopefully it can get to 5 stars soon.

by Zaklye

hi there! Just tried it today and appreciate the privacy policy. Just met one big bug: I can’t see the group chat which I was invited to, and several friends who use iphone and ipad also met this problem. However, interestingly, I can see the group chat which I created. Wish to see this bug solved. I use it in China. Thanks!
Btw, I will definitely give five stars once this bug solved.

by Anonymous User 23579

Session sounds great on the surface. A more private version of Signal that doesn’t require your phone number or the phone numbers of your contacts. But who is the Loki Foundation? Who’s funding Session? How can they afford to offer their service for free with no advertisements? What’s in it for them? Based in Australia. Australia has an anti encryption law. Not the best choice for privacy. I guess we’ll have to wait until Session and its service are fully audited by an independent and reputable auditing firm and that firm releases the full and complete audit report online before we can somewhat trust it.

by Phoenix2000

I love the privacy features this app offers, but part of the point of privacy is being able to not have a single “identity” that is used for everything.

Since this doesn’t support creating and using multiple identities for different people or groups, it fails in that aspect.

Other missing features:

- Ability to enable media/pictures auto-save to the camera roll on a per-conversation basis.
- Ability to set the name and photo that I choose to identify that conversation by, rather than forcing you to use whatever the other person has set. (Duplicate names, practical jokes, etc)
- Ability to save a transcript of a chat, with or without including media.
- Ability to clear the history of a particular chat.
- Ability to secure individual chats with a passcode. The whole app too.

by Lexie Kitten

for the last 2 1/2 hours I keep getting notifications that Session is resetting. I haven’t gotten any messages from my friend and it is going insane on his end as well. this isn’t the first time Session has done this... it has happened at least 3 times and this is AFTER the updates including the one a couple weeks ago. it is annoying to have it go crazy. please fix it

by Kiran Zhang

For some reason, when you create a group and start a group chat, only some people can read the group message. Some people can't read and send messages. It seems that it has not been added to the group, But in fact, they are already in the group.

by Beesleyrc

Love the fact this app doesn’t require a phone number. I also love the fact I don’t have to create a password, I just have to backup my seed phrase. Overall amazing messenger, only draw backs are some bugs.

1. I keep getting notifications from Session while I’m already in Session .

2. I get notifications from text messages I send.

by Cheapazz

Really appreciate the developers made a simple, secure messaging app that doesn’t exploit data mining. I have high hopes they won’t lose sight of this, and avoid becoming like Signal, with annoying FB / WhatsApp gimmicks. Will revise Session to a more deserved 5 star rating if the developers make it more landscape oriented instead of solely being portrait.

by CletusGlory

this app overall does a great job at providing a secure messaging tool. The one item it is missing is the ability to revoke a device. If a computer or device is stolen it is possible for someone to gain access. If there were a way to revoke a device from another device with the this app on it, this concern could be alleviated.

by Devydee IPhone 5s

As far as true anonymity and secure end to end encryption goes this really is “IT” unfortunate that Session is buggy and randomly crashes from time to time I really hope that in the future they will allow password protection and Touch ID functionality to open Session .

by Twoshae9

Knowing the vulnerabilities of conventional messengers, I’m very happy to see this app come from Loki. I’ve been on boarding friends, it’s pretty easy to set up, and very intuitive to use thereafter. Great to see that privacy doesn’t have to be insanely complicated! Thanks for all the hard work!

Update: I’ve been having trouble getting notifications to work. Messages won’t appear until I open Session . Not sure if this is a bug, or stupidity on my part. Turned on notifications in settings for phone, and in app.

Update on update: issue seems resolved, and very well explained as to why push notifications weren’t used. The option to use them is now available. Really amazing work to this app, and Loki. Keep it up!

by Lilotter45

I have had Session since the day it was released and have been very pleased, and impressed, with its performance. I ran into some minor issues with push notifications being delayed on the earliest versions, but these were quickly remedied with new updates.

This isn’t the most feature-rich messenger out there and the this app IDs may not be for everyone, but if you’re looking for a well-performing app that subverts the big tech companies harvesting your data, you won’t find better. I fully expect that with time it will only get better.

I’ve been a believer in the Loki project since it got started and am really impressed with this product running on the network. As others have said, this is surely the future of secure communication.

by Nintron711

Doesn’t have tons of a fancy features like stickers or calling (but those are coming in the future!!!), however, what it does have is incredible privacy without any effort on the user. It works like you’d expect SMS to, and doesn’t just go down for hours like some other messengers ;)

by Livinglegit24

Web 3.0 is the future. Decentralization is the future. Big shoutout to the devs of this project. What would be the cherry on the top is support for video calls ¹, iPad Support ² and fixing the notification issue ³ that happens from time to time with the mobile version. Sometimes notifications are not received. Replace iMessage, Facebook, WhatsApp & Instagram Messenger today. Highly recommend.

by Ekulaj

This almost has everything I want. Still with this latest update I’m having a bug where the message doesn’t populate. Or the person I’m talking to isn’t getting my messages. I know there is a lot of tech going on here but if this can’t support a normal back and forth conversation I won’t be able to use this much longer. The frustration will be too much.

I’m still gonna give you a 5 star review because I’m confident you’ll figure it out. Just please make it soon.

Now things on my wishlist,
1. A loading or progress meter for downloading photos or audio messages.
2. In the “all media” section make a tab for Audio. So it’s easier to find.
3. Time stamps in the chat would be nice next to the message or when you swipe left to reply to a message.

by Natedagg

It’s high time we can interact without some corporation or entity somehow learning everything about us, and this app delivers.
No phone number or email on signup, which took 0 seconds. Nobody in my business or my personal life. I’ll be migrating my small business team here and then chipping away at my friends as well, starting at the early adopters.

It’s a new app and I wouldn’t call it a finished product at this point. But if you value your privacy and data more than the bells & whistles that haven’t yet arrived, then it’s already there.

by Penthasilia

Private, encrypted, simple. I love that it doesn’t use a phone number so work or light social contacts aren’t seeing your status at all. Too many apps gathering too much data. Truly hope that this takes the place of telegram and others that love to back door in less privacy. Amazing app, amazing concept and can’t wait to see more from the team.

by Aldenwilletts

i really want this to work as i think good encrypted apps are hard to find. especially ones that don’t take any personal information and relay over tor network. however, i do not see any messages i’ve received in Session , regardless of having gotten a notification for receiving it. i sent to test messages to friends and they’ve approved and sent back but it still says that they have to approve the messages. when i get a notification for a message and then open Session , there is nothing there. please help me or fix this.

by CaliLftCst

Hey Just downloaded Session and set it up in one minute, and started using it. Sending pictures and text. It has familiar keys for ease of use. It has some unique features to assure safeguarding your information. And who doesn’t want that now after all this data breach and selling of your data.

by Salami Telephone

Seems like there was a breaking change in app versions. An identity created on version 1.0.1 could connect with a identity created on 1.0.2 but then would be unable to reply as it still said pending requests. Reinstalling Session and creating a new identity fixed this

by Jemtree

Super easy to get set up and use!! I have so much peace of mind that I can have conversations without greedy dataminers stealing my info! I had a few issues at first, but after an update and tech support help-- it's working awesome! Thanks so much!!

by Pupimeister

I am extremely impressed with the sleek way Session came out on version one . No problems so far, super excited!