Users might need to set up their own servers

Feb 20, 2015 16:56 GMT  ·  By

The Ubuntu Touch platform is about to receive a new messaging client called Tox, that aims to provide the most secure environment possible for its users.

Tox is an open source instant messaging app that's encrypted and that uses the P2P protocol. The developers say that it provides first grade privacy for the users.

The Tox developers have been working for some time on an app for the Ubuntu phones and they seem to make good progress. The nature of their Tox client, which requires to the device to call a specific method multiple times, won't really work with the Ubuntu OS, so they had to take a different approach. It wasn't enough to adapt their normal API, so they are now making a custom Ubuntu app.

"We decided to build our own server which is basically a Tox client which redirects messages. That adds a lot of complexity but we think it's worth the effort as otherwise a Tox client doesn't make sense on Ubuntu for phones. The downside is that everyone will now have to run their own server, either in the cloud or on their Raspberries, or find someone who is willing to host it for them," said Niklas Wenzel, one of the Tox developers.

For now, it means that users will need to have both the app and a personal server running, but the developers are working on a way to bypass this issue. It remains to be seen how will users be able to run a P2P powered messaging service on the phone.