A new messenger, Syntara, focused on user privacy, has appeared in Russia. The project, launched on August 6, 2026, is backed by the eponymous company Syntara — a small independent team, not a large holding, according to the developers. Syntara co-founder and CEO Alexey Ilyin stated that the team is accountable to users, not advertisers, but it is currently impossible to verify this information at the project's initial stage.
The application is already available for download on the App Store and Google Play, but is not yet available on RuStore. One profile can be used for both everyday correspondence and work dialogues. The messenger supports standard functions: sending messages, creating individual and group chats, sharing files, photos and videos, voice messages, video circles, as well as audio and video calls.
The main feature of Syntara is secret chats with end-to-end encryption. Messages in such dialogues are encrypted directly on the participants' devices, and, according to the developers, the content is not accessible to the service in decrypted form. Encryption keys are stored only on the interlocutors' devices. While screenshots of secret chats cannot be taken on Android, this is possible in the iOS version.
Access to the address book is granted only after separate user consent. During synchronization, only phone numbers and email addresses are read to find contacts, while names and photos are not transmitted to the servers, CNews writes. Uploaded data can be deleted through the application settings, and contact synchronization can be completely disabled.
The messenger works both with a direct internet connection and with an active VPN, if the network configuration allows it. Syntara's interface is minimalistic and largely resembles Telegram and "Max". The development team has already released several updates and continues to refine the service: clicking on the icon with additional applications brings up a "Coming Soon" pop-up window. As the developers themselves admit, they were not prepared for the load on the application: due to the influx of users, chats load slowly, messages do not send on the first attempt, and calls connect longer than usual.
We underestimated the interest. We had a margin of safety, but it was calculated for gradual growth, not for a wave. We could have rented capacity with multiple redundancy in advance – but that's money that a small team without advertising and subscriptions spends out of their own pocket, and until now, such a reserve would have seemed simply wasted.
Read more on the topic:
- Russian messengers multiply: Russia to launch an alternative to Max - the Molniya messenger
- After the Koreans, they switched to the Turks: Russians searching for the perfect Telegram alternative are downloading BiP
- Pre-installed Max with privacy concerns: expert comments on the lack of end-to-end encryption in the domestic messenger
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