iNets - See you at 11 PM

No read receipts, no reactions, no endless history. Messages are encrypted on your device, and the server has no table to store them.

See you at 11 PM.

iNets brings back the feel of a 1999 instant messenger and runs it on a modern phone. There is no shortage of fast, convenient chat apps. This is the other kind.

■ The server doesn't know your conversations

Messages are encrypted on your device before they are sent. When the other person is online, the server only relays them and writes nothing down. Only when the other person is offline does the server hold the encrypted text, and it deletes that the moment delivery is confirmed. There is no table for conversation logs at all.

We are just as plain about what the server does hold:

• Who is connected to whom (your contacts)
• How many messages arrived, and from whom, while you were offline
• Whether you are online, and when you last logged on (to the minute, never to the second)

What we don't have, we can't hand over. That is the design.

■ The feel of 1999

• It opens with a dial-up handshake and "CONNECT 56000bps"
• You find people by number (UIN). Numbers are never reissued
• Step away and leave a word behind: dinner, bath, going to bed
• Every conversation opens its own window. There is no thread list
• Grey windows, blue title bars, dotted letters, and sound effects

■ What we decided to leave out

Read receipts, typing indicators, stickers, reactions, infinite scrollback, group chats. None of these are missing — we decided not to build them. A little inconvenience is closer to how conversations felt back then.

■ About history

Messages stay only on your device, a fixed number of them for each person you talk to. When new ones arrive, the oldest fall off. Nothing stays on the server.

The app is in Japanese, English, and Korean, and follows the language your phone is set to.

See you at 11 PM.