DarkWire for Linux

Fixed: adding a contact or connecting could fail without a message on some computers.

• On a computer with many network connections (a VPN, Docker or virtual machines, for example), the connection details didn't fit in one push message, so pairing or connecting failed silently. DarkWire now leaves out the extra local addresses; only one is ever used.
• DarkWire is now also available for Mac.
• If you have 0.12.17 or later, DarkWire offers this update itself.

Report a problem, straight from Settings → About.

• New: Settings → About → Report a problem opens the form on darkwire.nl in your browser, with DarkWire and its version already filled in.
• If you have 0.12.17 or later, DarkWire offers this update itself.

Open-source licenses in Settings → About, and DarkWire can no longer run twice on the same data.

• New: Settings → About → Open-source licenses lists every library and component in DarkWire, with its full license text.
• Fixed: with your data on a USB drive, DarkWire could be started twice on the same data, which could split or damage your messages. Now the second start says "DarkWire is already open" and opens nothing.
• DarkWire for Windows now also comes as a portable version.
• If you have 0.12.17 or later, DarkWire offers this update itself.

Lock your data with a password instead of the keyring, and DarkWire is now also available for Windows.

• New: Settings → How your data is locked. Instead of your system's keyring, which opens by itself when you log in, DarkWire can lock your data with a password you type every time it starts. Then someone who gets into your account, or a program running as you, can't open your data. Until you've typed the password, DarkWire receives nothing, also when it starts by itself when you log in. The password can't be recovered: make a backup file first.
• On a computer without a keyring, DarkWire used to hang without ever showing a window. Now it explains what's wrong, and for a new profile it offers to lock your data with a password instead.
• Moving your data back from a USB drive now asks whether to keep the drive's password or use the keyring.
• After you've typed your data's password (a USB drive's, or the new one), the app lock no longer asks for its PIN straight away.
• DarkWire is now also available for Windows 10 and 11.
• If you have 0.12.17 or later, DarkWire offers this update itself.

Contacts that can no longer be reached are marked, and DarkWire stops trying them.

• When a contact's notification address no longer exists (for example, they removed their notification app or cleared DarkWire in their browser), DarkWire stops trying to wake their device. The contact gets a red mark in Contacts, and you see "Can't reach this contact" when you tap them and in their chat. Your messages wait, and go out as soon as they can be reached again.
• Until now DarkWire kept trying such a contact forever, every few minutes and sometimes every few seconds.
• If you have 0.12.17 or later, DarkWire offers this update itself.

Reach contacts who use DarkWire in a web browser.

• New: your contacts can now also use DarkWire in a web browser: DarkWire for the web, which anyone can host on a server of their own (see the Download page). DarkWire reaches them like any other device.
• The push that wakes a contact's device now goes out as text, because Chrome, Edge and other browsers built on Chromium drop anything else. Update DarkWire on all your devices, and ask your contacts to update too: DarkWire for Android 0.20.196 and DarkWire Desktop 0.18.43 and older can't read these pushes, so they may not get your messages until they're updated.
• Pushes now leave from DarkWire itself instead of from its window: Google's push service refused them from the window.
• If you have 0.12.17 or later, DarkWire offers this update itself.

Link DarkWire to your phone, and a destruct code that wipes DarkWire at the lock screen.

• New: link to your phone. Choose Link to your phone, on the start screen or in Settings, and scan the QR code with your phone (DarkWire 0.20.196 or newer: Settings → Linked computer). DarkWire then shows your phone's chats, contacts and groups, and everything you do goes through your phone. Your contacts see your phone, not a separate contact. Messages and contacts arrive first, then your files, newest first.
• If this computer has a profile of its own, linking doesn't cost it: it's set aside, offline, while you're linked, and comes back when you unlink. Unlinking keeps your phone's copy on this computer, hidden and encrypted, until you delete it in Settings → Stored phone copies. Linking the same phone again brings it back.
• New: a destruct code, under App protection. It's a second PIN or password. Entered at the lock screen instead of your own, it wipes this profile: the groups where you're the admin are deleted, you leave the others, each contact is asked to remove you, and your automatic backups are deleted. On a linked computer it only removes your phone's copy.
• If you have 0.12.17 or later, DarkWire offers this update itself.

Keep DarkWire on a USB drive, lock it with a PIN or password, and add your own profile picture.

• New: keep everything on a drive. In Settings → Where your data is, you can move your messages, contacts, received files and settings to a USB drive or any other folder, protected by a password of at least 8 characters. Plug the drive into another computer with DarkWire, open it from the start screen, and you carry on where you were. You choose whether a computer remembers the drive or keeps no trace of it. Pulling the drive out locks DarkWire at once, and Close and eject the drive (tray or Settings) ejects it safely. You can move everything back to the computer at any time.
• New: app protection. Lock DarkWire with a PIN of 6–8 digits or a password. It locks after a time you choose while the window is hidden or minimized, and at once when you lock your computer. You can also hide who's calling until you unlock. Your protection settings travel with your backups.
• New: your own profile picture, set in Settings. Drag and zoom to crop it, and group pictures work the same way.
• Settings now has what the phone has: message retry, contact names, blocked contacts, file sending and conversation list options. Message previews are now off by default, like on the phone, and notifications follow that setting.
• Select several conversations and delete them at once, for both you and the other person.
• Click a contact's picture to see it larger.
• Settings is easier to scan: more spacing, buttons on the right, and the cards after the first three are in alphabetical order.
• If you have 0.12.17 or later, DarkWire offers this update itself.

DarkWire for Linux now tells you when a new version is out and installs it for you, signed and checked.

• New: updates. DarkWire checks every 7 days by default (you choose, or switch it off, in Settings → Updates). A new version shows in a bar in the window, as a desktop notification and in the tray menu, which also has Check for updates.
• Every Linux package is now signed with DarkWire's own update key. DarkWire only installs an update that is signed with it and matches the signed size and SHA-256. The Download page shows each file's signature and how to check it yourself.
• The .deb is installed by your system, which asks for your password first; then DarkWire restarts. An AppImage replaces itself and restarts when you choose.
• This version still has to be installed from this page. From here on, DarkWire updates itself.

Voice and video calls, groups, backups and Transfer: DarkWire for Linux now does nearly everything the phone does.

• New: voice and video calls with your contacts. A call fills the window, with a Full screen button. Microphone, speakers and camera follow your system, or choose them in Settings → Calls; the Devices menu switches them during a call.
• New: groups, the same groups as on the phone, with everything the phone has. Join by holding the group's QR code up to your webcam, by reading it from a picture, or by pasting its code. Share a group with its QR code, Copy code or Save QR as picture.
• New: backups. Make a backup file in Settings and restore it on another computer or on a phone, and the other way round. Automatic backups to a folder you choose work like on the phone, but only while DarkWire runs.
• New: Transfer. Move your profile between this computer and a phone (the computer shows a QR code, the phone scans it) or another computer (paste the code), straight over the encrypted connection, without a file.
• New: read receipts (✓ arrived, ✓✓ read), contact pages with everything about a contact at a glance, and one-click Confirm for someone who added you with your code.
• Settings moved behind the gear icon and opens in the big pane, next to your conversations.
• Not in this version yet: automatic updates. Until then, new versions come from this page.

The first DarkWire for Linux: chats, files and contacts, end-to-end encrypted, straight between your computer and your contacts' devices.

• Chats with your contacts and files both ways. A message that hasn't arrived yet says so, and DarkWire keeps retrying it.
• Add a contact by letting them scan the QR code on your screen, by pasting their code, or by scanning their QR code from a picture.
• Your contacts' names and profile pictures, just like on the phone.
• Everything DarkWire stores on your computer is encrypted. The key is kept by your system's keyring.
• Keeps running in the tray when you close the window, so messages keep arriving. Starting at login is a switch in Settings, off by default.
• Not in this version yet: voice and video calls, groups, backup and restore, and automatic updates. They follow in later versions.