Questions are part of security
Clear answers.
No fine-print maze.
Start with the essentials. For implementation detail, continue to the security and privacy pages.
The essentials
About Kintrel
Kintrel is private, multi-platform messaging built by Confederated Technologies.
Can Confederated Technologies read my messages?
No. Kintrel encrypts message content on the sending client, and the receiving client holds the keys needed to decrypt it. CTI’s relay receives ciphertext, public key material, and routing metadata—not readable message content or private keys.
Does Kintrel keep logs?
It does not keep message-content logs, and application logging is configured not to record ciphertext bodies, access tokens, or key material. Limited operational and security logs still exist so CTI can run and protect the service. They can contain timestamps, request outcomes, internal identifiers, and connection or routing events.
Is Kintrel the Signal app?
No. Kintrel is a CTI product with a custom client↔server implementation of a Signal-style protocol design. Its Thureos cryptographic core implements X3DH, PQXDH, and Double Ratchet mechanisms. Kintrel is not affiliated with or presented as the Signal app.
What happens when the recipient is offline?
The relay stores an opaque encrypted envelope for the destination device. It retries when that device reconnects, then deletes the row after acknowledgement. Undelivered ciphertext also has a bounded expiry, so the queue does not become a permanent message archive.
Why does the server need any metadata?
A delivery service must know which account and device should receive an envelope, whether the device acknowledged it, and when an undelivered item should expire. For a group or restricted channel, the relay also holds its plaintext title, parent relationship, and roster so it can enforce membership and route ciphertext. Kintrel treats those facts as sensitive operational data while keeping message content outside the server’s trust boundary.
How do groups and invitations work?
A group grows by invitation rather than by silently adding somebody. The invited person receives an end-to-end-encrypted preview and can accept or decline. Group messages use sender-key encryption on participant devices; the relay fans one opaque message out to the current roster.
What makes a Kintrel channel private?
A channel is a restricted subgroup with its own roster and sender-key conversation. A member of the parent group who is not in that roster cannot list or read the channel. The relay still knows the channel’s title and membership because it enforces that boundary and performs delivery.
Does every one-to-one feature work in a group?
Not yet. Group threads support encrypted messages, replies, attachments, search, invitations, channels, and @mentions. Group reactions, read receipts, typing indicators, disappearing-message controls, and group calls are currently unavailable; Kintrel hides or labels those controls instead of pretending they work.
What does “content leaves Kintrel” mean?
A file is decrypted before another app can open, share, save, or play it. By default Kintrel asks first and explains that it cannot delete or gate the outside copy. The reminder can be turned off on that device; separate restrictions on opening or sharing protected and disappearing files remain in force.
Does the privacy screen make screenshots impossible?
No. Desktop can cover Kintrel when its window loses focus, Android blocks ordinary screenshots and recent-task snapshots, iOS covers inactive scenes, and Windows requests native capture exclusion. Those controls reduce incidental exposure, but cannot stop another camera, every operating-system capture path, or a compromised device.
Does each linked device have access to my keys?
Each registered device is its own protocol endpoint with its own key material. The client encrypts for the intended recipient devices. A server account credential is not a master conversation-decryption key.
Which devices can run Kintrel?
Kintrel targets Android, iPhone and iPad, Windows, macOS, Linux, and the web (Chrome or Edge). Release availability varies while store listings are completed; the downloads page shows the official usable clients.
Can I send messages from the web app?
Yes. The browser client runs real end-to-end encrypted messaging with the same Thureos cryptography as the native apps, and registers a live device only when the browser provides durable per-account key and ratchet storage. Current Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge) do; where that storage is missing, the client says so and stops rather than keeping your keys somewhere a reload would erase. Use a native client on those browsers — see the downloads page.
Is sideloading the Android APK safe?
Installing an APK directly is a normal Android distribution path, but source matters. Download only from kintrel.app, never from a forwarded file, and remove the browser’s “install unknown apps” permission after installation.
Who builds and operates Kintrel?
Kintrel is built and operated by Confederated Technologies using CTI’s shared identity and cloud infrastructure. Learn more at the CTI website .
Still curious?