oHiYo
oh, hi — the encrypted home for your people.
Encrypted private chats. Discord-like community spaces. Managed or self-hosted — with an exit.
Your conversations aren't yours.
Group chat became where we actually live online — and we handed all of it to platforms that read it, sell around it, and lock the good parts behind a paywall.
- ✕Plaintext on someone else's serversDiscord stores your DMs and every server message in the clear. The company — and anyone who compels it — can read them.
- ✕The good stuff is rentedBigger uploads, custom emoji, HD video, themes, and community perks are split across Nitro and Boosts. You pay monthly to decorate a place you don't own.
- ✕You can't host it or trust itClosed source, closed servers. No self-hosting, no audit, no exit. Your community is a guest.
Take the parts people love about Discord — and give communities privacy, portability, and ownership.
End-to-end encrypted DMs and group chats built on the Signal Protocol, wrapped in a full community platform: servers, voice, video, screen-share, roles, polls, events, rich embeds, and one-tap managed servers you can export or self-host.
oHiYo vs Discord
| Ohiyo | Discord | |
|---|---|---|
| End-to-end encrypted DMs | ✓ Signal Protocol · integration-tested | ✕ plaintext on servers |
| End-to-end encrypted group chat | ✓ sender keys + epoch rekey · integration-tested | ✕ none |
| Encrypted voice & video | ~ media E2EE path built · live SFU hardening | ~ DAVE, 2024, calls only |
| Self-hostable & open source | ✓ Rust server + React/Tauri clients | ✕ closed SaaS |
| Managed server with an exit | ✓ Instant Servers + raw Server Pack export · shipped | ✕ no portable server export |
| Custom & build-your-own themes | ✓ free theme editor · shipped | ~ limited / paid |
| Video previews & YouTube embeds | ✓ inline video + youtube-nocookie embeds · deployed | ✓ mature embeds |
| Encrypted backup & recovery | ✓ self-custody code · shipped | ✕ none |
| Privacy boundary documentation | ✓ public threat model · live | ~ policy, not portable architecture |
Six pillars, one home.
Your own server, in one tap.
We host it so it just works — and the control plane only manages infrastructure metadata. Owners can create, sleep, wake, export, graduate, or delete an instance from the app. When you leave, the raw Server Pack carries the SQLite snapshot, uploads, manifest, and checksum proof.
$9.99/mo · per person
- A fancier avatar, bigger emoji, HD — for one person
- Real server perks paywalled again behind Boosts (~$4.99 ea)
- 20 people who all want HD ≈ $200/mo, forever
One server · the whole crew
- Managed community home for everyone, with private E2E chats and no Nitro gates
- Or run it free (it naps when idle), export it, or self-host for $0
- Cost-per-person only drops as you grow
One Discord Nitro buys one person a fancier avatar. The same budget can run a whole Ohiyo home — with owner-scoped controls, export paths, and a self-host graduation guide instead of lock-in.
No hand-rolled crypto. The real thing.
Asynchronous key agreement — message someone who's offline, forward-secret from the first byte.
Per-message keys with forward secrecy & post-compromise recovery, via the audited libsignal.
Every membership change bumps an epoch and rekeys; a removed member can't read a single future message.
Out-of-band verification across all of a contact's devices; a swapped key raises a loud banner.
Desktop seals keys in an AES-256-GCM vault; recovery is a self-custody code (PBKDF2 → AES-GCM).
For E2E DMs and group chats, the server relays ciphertext: sealed envelopes between devices, membership enforcement, and no readable message body. Rust integration tests prove a removed member loses future access and a pinned identity can't be silently swapped.
Built like it's going to be attacked.
and shipping daily
+ 27 E2E suites
app + public site
on the server
From live product to public launch.
Package trust
- Add Apple Developer ID + Windows signing so installers open cleanly
- Run the hosted E2E suite against the production-like stack
- Keep tightening the media path: LiveKit, TURN, device switching, call QA
Operate the hosted layer
- Turn billing handoff into a repeatable operator workflow
- Harden abuse, suspension, export, and graduation runbooks
- Keep improving onboarding, media embeds, and importer proof moments
Beyond the first launch
- Stronger metadata privacy: sealed sender-style routing where practical
- Federation between self-hosted instances
- Bots & plugins, sandboxed against the E2E core
Own your conversations.
The warmth and reach of Discord, the privacy model of Signal for private chats, and servers your community can actually leave with.
Ohiyo · free & open · built in Rust + React + Tauri