Introducing: Gossamer
I wrote a chat app that I saw a need for.
What Is Gossamer Chat?
There’s a situation almost everyone has been in. You meet someone at a party, a networking event, a bar. The conversation goes well. Then comes the moment: do you exchange numbers? You’re at a booth or table, and want people to reach out to you, but is it safe to put your phone number out there?
You’re at the club, you find yourself attracted to someone. You want to take it beyond the club, but you’ve been burned before. We’ve all heard stories of “I gave this person my phone number, now they won’t leave me alone. Every time I block them, they message me from somewhere else.”
It’s a bigger ask than it seems. A phone number is semi-permanent. It’s connected to your identity in ways you can’t fully control. Giving it out means trusting a stranger with a piece of your real life before you know whether they deserve it.
Gossamer is built around that moment. It’s a messaging app that lets two people start talking without either of them giving up anything personal first, no phone number, no email address, no username, no social profile, nothing permanent. Just a QR code to scan, and you’re connected.
How It Works
When you open Gossamer for the first time, the app generates a cryptographic key and creates what we call a ghost account. There’s no form to fill out. No verification email. No “choose a username.” The account exists only on your device, identified by a public key, and it stays there.
To connect with someone, one person shows their QR code and the other scans it. That’s the entire handshake. The app links your ghost accounts together into a private thread, and you can start messaging immediately.
If the person doing the scanning doesn’t have Gossamer installed yet, their phone opens a browser page that routes them to the Apple App Store or Google Play, depending on their device. Once they install the app, the connection token they arrived with connects them automatically.
Every message goes through Gossamer’s backend, but the backend never learns who you are. Requests are signed with your private key, which never leaves your device. The server verifies the signature and routes the message. It knows two accounts are talking. It doesn’t know anything about the people behind them.
The Core Experience
The main screen shows your active threads. Each thread represents one connection, started from one QR scan. You can message back and forth like any chat app.
The important difference from a regular chat app is what happens when you want out. Either person can end a thread at any time, with no explanation required. The other person can’t reopen it, can’t send follow-up messages, or contact you through any other channel. Because there is no other channel. When it’s over, it’s over.
This is by design. Gossamer is not trying to be your primary messaging platform. It’s for the early, uncertain stage of knowing someone, when you want to communicate but you’re not ready to hand over something permanent.
Both the free and pro versions include QR code scanning and display, unlimited threads, the ability to end any thread instantly, and a printable code sheet you can leave on a table at a coffee shop or hand to someone at a conference. No Ads.
While we’ve tried to provide translations to support as many people as possible, there is an important note here: Only the UI is translated, we NEVER touch the messages.
Gossamer Free
The free version is a complete, functional app. You get everything; your identity in the Gossamer system, and you can share it however you want. Scan someone else’s code to start a thread with them, or show yours and let them scan it. The flow is symmetric.
Gossamer Free is available on the App Store and Google Play at no cost. There are no ads, no analytics SDKs, and no data collection beyond what’s needed to deliver messages.
Gossamer Pro
The Pro version adds two features aimed at people who share their QR code regularly or who want more control over the content they send.
My Codes is a managed stack of QR codes. Instead of a single identity code, you can create multiple codes and label them however you like. Each code is a distinct token that starts its own thread when scanned. This is useful if you’re handing out codes in different contexts and want to keep those conversations organized, or if you want to retire a code that’s been distributed too widely without disrupting your other active threads. You can print all your codes at once for batch distribution.
My Notes is a one-way sharing tool. You write a note, a piece of information, a message, a URL, and the app generates a QR code or shareable link for it. Anyone who scans that code can read the note in their browser, without installing the app. You control what happens after they read it.
Notes support several expiration modes: one-time (the note deletes itself after the first read), time-limited (expires after 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days), read-counted (available for 3, 10, or 25 reads, then gone), or permanent. If you want to share your Wi-Fi password at an event, post a note at a conference booth, or send someone information that should disappear after they’ve seen it, My Notes handles that without requiring the recipient to create an account or install anything.
What Gossamer Doesn’t Do
Gossamer has no public profiles. You cannot search for other users. There is no friends list, no follower count, no social graph. The app doesn’t know your contacts, your location, or your device’s advertising identifier.
The backend logs nothing that could identify you. Account IDs are hashed before they appear in any log. There is no support for phone number or email signup, and there are no plans to add either.
This is a deliberate product decision, not a technical limitation. The whole point of Gossamer is that the person on the other end of your QR code learns only what you choose to tell them in conversation.
Who It’s For
Gossamer is useful anywhere the standard “exchange numbers?” question feels like too much. Dating apps and in-person meetups are the obvious case. But it also works for freelancers who want to give a client a way to reach them without handing over their personal number, for anyone selling something locally who doesn’t want strangers calling them forever, or for anyone who’s been burned by giving out contact information to someone who turned out to be a problem.
The QR code is a low-stakes opening. It says: I’m willing to talk. It doesn’t say anything else until you decide it should.
Gossamer is free to download on iOS and Android.
Gossamer Pro is $4.99, one time fee, no subscriptions, no ads.
I have a Gossamer specific presence on Bluesky
My “Company” website I release software under.