A WhatsApp alternative that never asks for your number.
Both encrypt your messages by default. The differences are what it takes to sign up, whether the backup is sealed before you think to ask, and what pays for the app.
Encrypted messaging without a phone number, without ads, and with a backup that is sealed from your first message. Funded by donations, not by Meta.
Side by side.
- Made by
- MetaSurf Platforms Inc.
- How it is paid for
- Business messaging fees, ads and subscriptionsDonations
- Phone number to sign up
- RequiredNot asked for
- Messages encrypted by default
- Yes, with the Signal ProtocolYes
- Ads
- In the Updates tab, not in chatsNone
- Chat backup
- End-to-end if you turn it onEnd-to-end from the first message
| Surf Messenger | ||
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Meta | Surf Platforms Inc. |
| How it is paid for | Business messaging fees, ads and subscriptions | Donations |
| Phone number to sign up | Required | Not asked for |
| Messages encrypted by default | Yes, with the Signal Protocol | Yes |
| Ads | In the Updates tab, not in chats | None |
| Chat backup | End-to-end if you turn it on | End-to-end from the first message |
Rows describing WhatsApp reflect what WhatsApp publicly documents, checked in September 2026. They can change, and this page is the version we can defend today.
What changes.
An email address, not a phone number.
Sign up with an email and a password, a passkey or a Google account, through a Surf account. We do not ask for a phone number and do not store one, so there is no number for a contact or a group to see.
The backup is sealed before you think to ask.
The encrypted backup is on from the first message, sealed on your device and opened by a recovery key you write down. Nobody can reissue that key, including us, which is the point of it and also the one way to lose your history.
Nothing to advertise around.
There are no ads anywhere in the app, in the chat list or outside it. It is funded by donations.
Questions people ask.
- How is it different from WhatsApp?
- Both encrypt every chat by default. Surf Messenger asks for no phone number, seals the backup from the first message, shows no ads anywhere, and never fetches a link preview inside an encrypted chat.
- Can I move my WhatsApp chats over?
- No. There is no import for WhatsApp history. Your conversations there stay there, and new ones start here.
- Do the people I message need Surf Messenger too?
- Yes, and a Surf account, because Surf Messenger is the messaging of the Surf social network on its own domain. It is the same account and the same conversations in either place.
- Does it cost anything?
- No. Encryption, groups, calls, search and backups are all on a free account. Creating a community, turning read receipts off, transcribing voice notes and hosting a live game are Sapphire features.