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Signal Alternative Without a Phone Number: Honest Look

Signal is a good messenger. Its encryption protocol has been studied for years, the code is open, and the nonprofit behind it has a long track record. But registration requires a phone number — and that's exactly what some people can't or won't provide. If you searched for "Signal alternative without phone number", here is a plain comparison of four options: Signal, WhatsApp, Session and MurMur. Weak points included.

Why the phone number matters (and when it doesn't)

A phone number in Signal is not a privacy disaster on its own: the server stores very little and hides sender metadata. But your number is your identifier. Anyone who knows it can find your profile, and to create an account you need a working SIM — which in some countries means registration tied to your real identity. For most people this is a non-issue. For others it's the dealbreaker that starts the search. Both reactions are reasonable.

Signal vs WhatsApp vs Session vs MurMur

	Signal	WhatsApp	Session	MurMur
Sign-up requires	Phone number	Phone number	Nothing — a generated Session ID	Nothing — npub key pair, no phone or email
E2EE by default	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Calls	Voice and video	Voice and video	Voice (1:1)	Yes
Metadata — who sees connections	Server stores very little, but the account is tied to your number	Meta collects usage metadata at scale	Traffic goes over an onion network	Rust relay in Europe routes traffic but can't read message content
Installation	App stores or APK	App stores	App stores or APK	PWA in a browser — no store at all
Message storage	Delivered, not kept on the server long-term	On device; cloud backups optional, encrypted only if you enable it	Cached on distributed network nodes	End-to-end encrypted; the relay can't see what it forwards

What the table can't show: maturity

"E2EE by default" and "no phone number" are not the whole story. A messenger is also its implementation quality, how long it has survived real attacks, and who checked the code.

• Signal has been audited repeatedly and runs on its own well-studied protocol. It's the safest default for most people.
• WhatsApp uses Signal's protocol, but the client is controlled by Meta, and metadata feeds a company whose business is advertising. Encryption protects message content, not who talks to whom.
• Session has no phone number at all and routes traffic through an onion network. Open source, maintained by a foundation.
• MurMur is a young project. The code is open (github.com/Oleg2796996/murmur) and the relay is a small Rust service in Europe that never sees plaintext — but there has been no independent security audit yet, the review community is small, and a PWA depends on the browser platform you run it in. We'd rather say this plainly than pretend it isn't so.

Who MurMur is a good fit for

• You want an account with neither a phone nor an email — npub keys instead.
• You can't or won't install store apps. MurMur is a PWA: open the site, add it to your home screen, push notifications work.
• You need calls, not just text.
• You prefer to read the code yourself rather than trust marketing: it's on GitHub.

When Signal is still the right choice

• You want a protocol and clients that have survived years of audits and real-world attacks.
• A phone number isn't a problem for you.
• Your contacts are already there — messenger value is mostly network effect.
• For sensitive work, maturity beats novelty.

FAQ

Is a messenger without a phone number less secure?

No. Security depends on the protocol and its implementation, not on the identifier. If anything, an account that isn't tied to your SIM is a privacy plus. The real caveat is maturity: newer projects have fewer independent eyes on the code, and MurMur hasn't had an external audit yet.

What is an npub key?

In MurMur your account is a key pair (npub), not a phone number. No phone, no email — registration is generating keys.

Does Session require a phone number?

No. Session generates a random Session ID that acts as your address.

Can I use MurMur without installing an app?

Yes. It's a PWA: it runs in the browser and can be added to the home screen. Push notifications are supported. It does depend on your browser and OS, which is a trade-off of the PWA approach.

Why does WhatsApp have E2EE but still collect data?

End-to-end encryption protects message content. Metadata — who contacts whom, when, how often — is separate, and that's what feeds Meta's systems.

Try MurMur

MurMur runs at murmurchat.org — open it in a browser: no phone, no email, no store. Source code: github.com/Oleg2796996/murmur. And one last honest note: if you want the most battle-tested option today, Signal remains a strong default. Choose by your threat model, not by slogans.

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