A quiet, end-to-end encrypted place for two

Cove is a private chat for two people. You pair once with a one-time QR code or link, messages are encrypted on your phone before they travel, and the relay carrying them only ever sees scrambled text.

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The problem

Not every conversation belongs in a mainstream messenger, where a phone number ties it to your identity and the company behind the app can, in principle, see who you talk to. Two consenting adults sometimes just want a calm, private channel for each other — no audience, no algorithm, no banner across the room. The hard part has always been trusting that the service in the middle genuinely cannot read along.

How Cove (Private Chat for Two) works

• One of you starts a cove and shows a one-time QR code (or sends the link). It carries a 128-bit random secret and a public key — and it only works for the first phone that opens it.
• The two phones do a key exchange and derive the same AES-256 keys (ECDH + HKDF). Every message is encrypted locally, before it leaves your phone. Then you compare 4 emoji to confirm nobody swapped your invite.
• A relay server passes the encrypted messages between you, but it only ever handles ciphertext — the key never reaches it, so it can never read a word.
• There are no notifications, so a message waits quietly until you open the app.

What you get

• End-to-end encryptionEach phone encrypts messages with AES-256 before they leave. Keys come from a one-time invite plus a key exchange, so only your two phones can read them.
• Zero-knowledge relayThe relay that syncs your chat only ever carries encrypted text. It never sees your pass phrase or your key, so we can never read your messages.
• Safety code and a relay you can checkBoth phones show the same 4 emoji when the pairing is genuine. A “Check it yourself” screen shows exactly what leaves your phone: the relay addresses, a hashed channel number and ciphertext — nothing else.
• No notificationsCove stays quiet: no banners, no badges. Your messages are simply there whenever you open it.
• PIN lock and sync, freeEncrypted chat, sync between your two devices and a PIN lock are all included at no cost.
• Self-destructing photos, disguise and vanish timer (Pro)A one-time US$1 adds encrypted photos that disappear after one view, a calculator disguise and a vanish timer that clears messages on both phones.

Private by design

Cove is end-to-end encrypted, not merely private by policy. Your phones agree on keys through a one-time invite (a 128-bit random secret plus a P-256 key exchange) and every message is encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM. To sync between phones, the encrypted messages pass through two small relays on Cloudflare (cove-realtime and cove-relay) — they hold ciphertext only, never your key, invite, PIN, name or phone number, so we have no way to read your conversation. Compare the 4-emoji safety code once to be sure only your two phones are in the cove.

Free vs Pro

What's new

v2.0 · 2026-09-25

• One-time invites by QR code or link: a 128-bit secret plus a key exchange; only the first phone that opens it can join
• Safety code: both phones show the same 4 emoji, so you can confirm nobody swapped your invite
• “Check it yourself”: see the relay addresses, your channel number and what was last sent — ciphertext only
• Pro: encrypted photos that disappear after one view; the vanish timer now follows on both phones
• Messages sent while offline or before your person joins now go out automatically; old pass phrases still work