Terminal Phone
Security and privacy
encrypted voice messaging
SHOW HN2026
322points
85comments
#126of 4,366 in 2026
Top 3%of 2026 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
8 positive, 13 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 10 critical, out of 33 comments about the project. Thread score +0.03.
Idea: 6 for, 0 againstDesign: 0 for, 6 againstPrivacy: 1 for, 2 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Onion address as identity is an elegant design
From 2 comments
Using a v3 onion address as both the cryptographic identity and the NAT traversal layer is such a clean architectural choice. No STUN/TURN servers, no hole punching, you just…
Pinkert on HNNeat concept — using a .onion address as identity is elegant because it sidesteps the whole "how do you bootstrap trust" problem that kills most P2P communication tools. The…
codingrot17 on HN
Walkie-talkie model suits Tor latency
From 2 comments
The real world delay is about 2-3 seconds your spot on. I initially started with a full duplex version but it was absolutely terrible. Walkie talkie kinda forces the recieve,…
smalltorch on HNNeat concept — using a .onion address as identity is elegant because it sidesteps the whole "how do you bootstrap trust" problem that kills most P2P communication tools. The…
codingrot17 on HN
Objections
Too many cipher options in the curated list
From 2 comments
> 21 curated ciphers are available Why!? That sounds like approximately 20 too many.
lxgr on HN> No other reason than because we can! Then maybe your scientists should spend some time to stop and consider whether they should ;) But seriously, I'd just limit this to one…
lxgr on HN
Base64 encoding adds overhead and is an odd choice
From 1 comment
Interesting to implement this as a shell script. Still: Using a line based protocol and base64 encoding the audio data? Not my first choice. The README doesn't mention it, but I…
Tepix on HN
Encryption layered over Tor seems redundant
From 2 comments
Interesting to implement this as a shell script. Still: Using a line based protocol and base64 encoding the audio data? Not my first choice. The README doesn't mention it, but I…
Tepix on HN>No other reason than because we can! great attitude for approximately everything except, perhaps, cryptography. especially since the initial encryption is mostly redundant, i…
john_strinlai on HN
Shared secret instead of PKI limits use
From 1 comment
Looks awesome in many ways. The use of a shared secret instead of PKI limits the real-world applications pretty severely, but adding PKI support doesn't seem too difficult. If…
mrexcess on HN
Requests
Group call support
From 1 comment
Forgive my ignorance, but can this be setup for a group like how a group can all be on the same frequency with walkie talkies? Or it is strictly one to one. Either way, it’s a…
chasd00 on HN
Reduce latency with streaming or single-hop Tor
From 3 comments
Why not stream anyway? adding to the latency by turning it to audio messages sounds more frustrating. At some point a message would be better. Modulo cool project love show HN etc.
medi8r on HNthere are ways to help with lag a bit, you can choose the number of hops a HS uses when meeting up. but of course that comes with downsides
jetbalsa on HNSince you're not realtime you could also have a configurable playback speed on the rx side or processing that removes gaps to make it go faster. This would improve the latency…
nullc on HN
PKI support
From 1 comment
Looks awesome in many ways. The use of a shared secret instead of PKI limits the real-world applications pretty severely, but adding PKI support doesn't seem too difficult. If…
mrexcess on HN
Questions
Whether both parties must be online at the same time
From 1 comment
Interesting to implement this as a shell script. Still: Using a line based protocol and base64 encoding the audio data? Not my first choice. The README doesn't mention it, but I…
Tepix on HN
Which cipher and key exchange are used and how authentication works
From 1 comment
Neat concept — using a .onion address as identity is elegant because it sidesteps the whole "how do you bootstrap trust" problem that kills most P2P communication tools. The…
codingrot17 on HN
Alternatives named
Veilid network for lower latency
From 2 comments
Could you use tor to establish a better realtime link using a different protocol like Veilid while maintaining the relative anonymity and security?
observationist on HNSorry if I was unclear, this stuff does get tangled, lol. I was talking about setting up a parallel veilid connection - a private route exchange between the two ends that goes…
observationist on HN
Mumble over Tor
From 1 comment
The problem is the UDP packets from the application will ultimately be in a TCP wrapper over tor. Which will add even more latency. I know you can set up mumble over Tor but it's…
smalltorch on HN
letscage
From 1 comment
I tried using https://letscage.com for this. Almost same design but in rust
m00dy on HN