Ricochet Refresh is an open-source project to allow private and anonymous instant messaging

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Ricochet Refresh Logo
Screenshot of Ricochet Refresh

Essential Features

What sets Ricochet Refresh apart:


Ricochet Refresh screenshot

Metadata Resistant

Nobody knows who you talk to or what you say

Anonymous

None of your contacts know your location or IP address

Decentralised

There are no servers to trust, monitor, or hack

Easy to use

Your messages are automatically secure and private

Native File Transfer

Built-in secure file transfer from within the app

Open Source

The source code is available for inspection and development

About Ricochet Refresh

Ricochet was launched in 2014 as a different approach to instant messaging that doesn’t trust anyone in protecting your privacy.

Ricochet Refresh uses the original Ricochet open-source software but has improved on it substantially, such as upgrading its security and making it compatible with Tor Onion Services v3 instead of the older v2.

We believe software like Ricochet is important to protect freedom of expression for whistleblowers, activists, and journalists worldwide.

How does Ricochet Refresh work?

Ricochet Refresh is a peer-to-peer messenger app that uses Tor to connect clients. When you start Ricochet Refresh it creates a Tor hidden service on your computer. The address of this hidden service is your anonymous identity on the Tor network and how others will be able to communicate with you

Ricochet Diagram

To start a chat with someone you need to add the address of their Ricochet Refresh hidden service to your contacts. When you start a chat with one of your contacts a Tor circuit is created between your machine and the your contact's machine. A Tor circuit consists of a series of hops between your machine, Tor nodes, and your contacts machine. It is this use of multiple nodes that provides anonymity, no single node knows both the origin and destination.

To find out more about Tor check out the Tor Overview documentation.

If you are developer and would to like find out more about contributing to Ricohet Refresh please visit our GitHub Repository

Acknowledgements

Creation of innovative free software needs support. We thank the NGI Assure Fund, a fund established by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet programme, under the aegis of DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement No 957073

Get Involved

Network Contribution

Refreshing Ricochet is a big project and we can't do this alone. If you're an open source developer, we want you to help us continue to update and improve Ricochet Refresh.

You can contribute to our GitHub Repository, whether that's with code, by alerting us to bugs you've found, or your suggestions for new features.

Alternatively, if you want to volunteer your time in another way, please contact us.

Get Ricochet Refresh

Ricochet Refresh V3

Below you will find the latest version (3.0.21) of Ricochet Refresh (V3).

If you are developer, or are comfortable compiling from source, the latest sourcecode for V3 can be found on GitHub

All releases are GPG signed by 07AA 9DAA 7088 B94A F3D4 0084 D83A 26FD F505 0FE0
SHA256 Sums  sig

Windows

System Installer

32-bit (x86)  sig

64-bit (x86-64)  sig

Instructions

  • Download and run the installer
  • Run Ricochet Refresh from the Start Menu or Desktop shortcuts

Portable Archive

32-bit (x86)  sig

64-bit (x86-64)  sig

Instructions

  • Download and extract the archive to desired path
  • Run the ricochet-refresh.exe executable

macOS

DMG Image

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Instructions

  • Mount the downloaded .dmg image
  • Drag the Ricochet Refresh.app icon into your Applications folder
  • Run Ricochet Refresh from Spotlight

Linux

Portable Archive

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x86_64  sig

Instructions

  • Extract the archive, and run the ricochet-refresh binary

Debian Package

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Instructions

  • Install the deb using apt or dpkg
  • Run Ricochet-Refresh from your desktop environment or ricochet-refresh from the command-line

AppImage Package

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Instructions

  • Run the downloaded .appimage file

About Blueprint for Free Speech

Blueprint for Free Speech is a charity that provides research and analysis in support of freedom of expression for all people, as described the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

To ensure these fundamental rights are upheld, we seek a world where protections for free and independent media, freedom of speech, freedom of information, institutional transparency, and support for whistleblowers, are all enshrined in law.

Find out more about Blueprint for Free Speech at our Website

Contact Us

Contact the team on Twitter: @r2refresh

More information about Blueprint can be found at our website blueprintforfreespeech.net.

You can contact the team at ricochet@blueprintforfreespeech.net, our email PGP Key is 7A0F C89F 858F 3740 918C F954 5D89 F618 4742 8EFD. The repository for this website is also on GitHub.