What is Cwtch?

A decentralized peer-to-peer messenger (Meaning unless you somehow bring down the tor network, it will be able to send messages)

Who is it for?

I think Cwtch is ideal for people who like the idea of Briar, but find the app itself very limiting. Such as, by not allowing profile exports, or sharing files other than images.

Features

File sharing
Text messaging (Including markdown editing)
Group chatting
Anonymous profile creation

This might seem limited, but keep in mind that nobody knows who you are, where you are, who are you talking to, etc. All thanks to the TOR network. This is an advantage to Jami, another awesome peer-to-peer messenger, which sends messages over the clear net.

How to use Cwtch to its full potential

If you have already installed the app, you must’ve noticed that some of the features I’ve mentioned are missing. This is because you need to enable Experiments first. Let’s do it.

Click on Settings

Enable every single experiment

Sounds simple enough, and it is. No idea why it took me so long to figure out

As a bonus tip, I will show you how to create a group chat. Thanks to the anonymous nature of Cwtch, group chats are handled a bit differently than with most messengers. One person needs to host a server on his machine where other people will connect. Don’t worry, no knowlegde about hosting is needed for this. It can be done via the PC version of Cwtch (At least via the GNU/Linux version).