Vardum

A look at tryvardum.app

Vardum builds privacy-first software and devices designed to keep user data on their own devices rather than on company servers. The company offers three main products: Vardum Messenger, an end-to-end encrypted messenger with post-quantum cryptography that requires no phone number or email and is currently in public beta on iPhone and small-group beta on Android; Vardum Phones, Google Pixel devices running GrapheneOS and pre-configured with Vardum, available in three packages from A$1,100; and Vardum AI for Android and Vardum Desktop, both in internal testing and featuring local AI that runs on the user's device rather than on cloud servers.

Every message is encrypted on the phone before leaving it, and the company stores only ciphertext without the keys. Vardum emphasizes transparency through a public claims register where every security capability is labeled as implemented, new, or not claimed. The messenger includes features like burn-after-reading messages, unopened message expiry, encrypted vaults with steganography, a 24-word identity with no name or email, and separate decoy and duress passwords.