Description
Olvid is a French end-to-end encrypted messenger that needs no personal data at all, no phone number, e-mail or name, and never asks for the address book; contacts are added directly, person to person.
The company was founded in Paris in 2019 by two French cybersecurity experts. Its security doesn’t rely on a central directory of users: people exchange identities directly, for example by scanning a QR code, which Olvid says protects messages even if its servers were hacked. In May 2021 ANSSI, France’s national cybersecurity agency, gave Olvid’s Android app a CSPN first-level security certification; French press reports describe it as the only private messenger with that certification. At the end of 2023 the French government told ministers and their offices to replace WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal with ANSSI-certified apps, which in practice meant Olvid.
The app runs on Android, iPhone, iPad, macOS, Windows and Linux, without a SIM card. Messages, attachments, group chats, receiving calls and Olvid Web are free. In November 2026 an in-app purchase of €4.99 a month added making calls and using several devices, each with a free one-month trial; business plans cost €9.90 per user a month excluding VAT. Olvid has no ads and says it is financed by these paid options.
Strengths
- It needs no phone number, e-mail or name, and never reads the address book.
- Its security was certified by ANSSI, and the French government chose it for ministers’ phones.
- Messaging, attachments and groups are free, without ads, and it works on phones and computers.
Weaknesses
- Placing calls and using several devices costs €4.99 a month after a one-month trial.
- Adding contacts person to person is safer but slower than finding friends by phone number, and few people use it yet.
- The CSPN report found dates from 2021 and covers Olvid 0.9.2 for Android; no newer certification was confirmed by the sources read.
Who it is for
People in France who want a messenger that knows nothing about them, and associations or companies that need a secure tool certified by the French state.