Anony Bean vs SimpleX: the most private messenger you have to install
SimpleX has no user IDs at all and hides who talks to whom. It also needs an app, a database and a conversation you keep. Anony Bean is a tab, a stranger and 60 seconds.
If you are looking for a SimpleX Chat alternative, start by admitting the obvious: on pure privacy engineering, SimpleX wins. It is the only messenger of its size with no user identifiers at all, not even random ones, and it has been audited. Anony Bean does not try to beat that. It wins a different job: being somewhere you can talk to a stranger in ten seconds and leave nothing behind.
What SimpleX gets right, and we do not
SimpleX has no user IDs. No phone number, no username, not even a random identifier. Messages look like random noise to the servers that carry them, and those servers cannot tell who is talking to whom. From version 6 it adds private message routing, a two-hop design that stops the destination server from learning your IP address.
It has been audited twice by Trail of Bits, in 2022 and 2024. It is recommended by Privacy Guides. It is open source with reproducible builds, it supports post-quantum cryptography, and anyone can host their own servers. If your threat model is a patient adversary doing traffic analysis over years, SimpleX is the right answer and Anony Bean is not.
We are also not going to pretend the gap is small. Our relay cannot read room content, but it does see room membership, session handles, message timing and ciphertext sizes. Yours does not.
What that design asks of you
The price is an app. SimpleX is software you install on iOS, Android or desktop. It keeps your contacts, groups and message history in an encrypted database on your device, behind a passphrase you must not lose. To talk to one new person you create a one-time invite link and send it to them through some other channel, show them a QR code, or find them in a directory of communities.
None of that is a flaw. It is the cost of a durable, metadata-resistant line between two devices that intend to keep talking. It is simply not the shape of a conversation you want once, with someone you will never meet again.
Where Anony Bean wins
Anony Bean is a URL. Nothing to install, no app store, no permissions, no passphrase, and no database on your device. You open a tab, land in a public channel or get paired one-to-one on Roulette, and every message, photo, file and poll expires 60 seconds after it is sent. Room state lives in relay memory and nowhere else, so there is no history for anyone to seize, sync or leak.
- No account, no install, no app store and no device permissions.
- Every message, photo, file and poll expires 60 seconds after it is sent.
- Room state lives in relay memory only: no chat database, and nothing on your device to protect.
- Public channels and Roulette pairing let you talk to a stranger immediately, without exchanging a link first.
- Photos are stripped of metadata in the browser before encryption, with uploads capped at 2 MiB.
- No analytics SDK, no advertising tag and no tracking cookies, and participants never connect directly to each other.
- A 120-second anti-lurker rule disconnects sessions that never speak.
- Reporting and blocking from a room's roster, plus reporting on timeline posts.
| Anony Bean | SimpleX | |
|---|---|---|
| Install required | No, it is a URL | Yes, iOS, Android or desktop app |
| Account or user IDs | None; a random session handle you never keep | No user IDs at all, not even random |
| What the operator sees | Room membership, session handles, timing and ciphertext sizes | Servers cannot see who talks to whom |
| Your IP address | The relay sees the connection | Destination servers do not; private routing adds a hop |
| Message history | None; relay memory only, and expiry after 60 seconds | Encrypted database on your device, kept until you delete it |
| Disappearing by default | Yes, 60 seconds on every message | Optional timers; the project argues recipients may keep what they receive |
| Meet a stranger now | Public channels and Roulette pairing, no link needed | Share a one-time invite link or QR, or browse a community directory |
| Both people online | Yes, rooms are live | No, messages queue and deliver later |
| Calls and groups | No calls; public channels and secret rooms | Voice and video calls, secret groups |
| Independent audit | Not yet | Trail of Bits, 2022 and 2024 |
| Open source | No, private repository | Yes, with reproducible builds |
| Run your own server | Single relay operator | Anyone can host SMP and XFTP servers |
The honest limits on our side
Anony Bean has not had an independent cryptographic audit, and it is not open source. It runs on a single relay operator that sees connection metadata even though it cannot read room content. There are no calls, no offline delivery, and both people have to be present at the same time. Screenshots cannot be prevented, and a compromised device or modified site release can expose plaintext. The site is 18+, and accepting the terms is not age verification.
Anony Bean wins the job SimpleX was not built for: a conversation that starts in a URL, needs no app, keeps no history, and is gone in 60 seconds.
Install SimpleX for the people you will still know next year. Open Anony Bean for the five minutes you would rather not have on any device at all. Both are honest answers. The question is the only thing you really have to answer.