OSHI vs Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp and Briar
One table, five messengers, the same criteria. OSHI is the French answer to Telegram — the same breadth of features, with encryption on by default and a network that keeps working when the network stops.
The short version. Telegram gives you features but its cloud chats are not end-to-end encrypted. Signal gives you the best-audited encryption but needs the internet and your phone number. WhatsApp gives you everyone you know, and gives Meta your metadata. Briar gives you true off-grid messaging — and has no iOS app at all. OSHI is the one that does the off-grid part and ships on the App Store.
Head to head
| Criterion | OSHI | Telegram | Signal | Briar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| End-to-end encrypted by default | Yes — X25519 + AES-256-GCM + Double Ratchet | No — only in Secret Chats, 1:1 and device-bound | Yes — Signal Protocol | Yes — Signal Protocol | Yes |
| Works with no internet | Yes — Bluetooth + Wi-Fi mesh, multi-hop, plus LoRa radio | No | No | No | Yes — Bluetooth + Wi-Fi |
| iPhone app | Yes — on the App Store | Yes | Yes | Yes | No — Android and desktop only |
| Phone number required | No — identity is a key | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Voice calls | Yes — encrypted, peer-to-peer where possible | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Bots | Yes — and a bot can run on the device, so it answers with no network | Yes — every bot is an HTTP endpoint on someone's server | No | Business API only | No |
| Offline maps | Yes — downloadable regions, routing with no signal | No | No | No | No |
| Long-range radio (LoRa) | Yes — Meshtastic-compatible | No | No | No | No |
| Open source | Yes (MIT) | Clients yes; server proprietary | Yes | No | Yes |
| Independently audited | Not publicly audited yet | MTProto is custom crypto, criticised by researchers | Yes — repeatedly | Protocol audited; the apps are closed | Yes |
| Who owns it | Independent, built in France | Telegram FZ-LLC, Dubai | Signal Foundation, US non-profit | Meta | The Briar Project, non-profit |
| Price | Free | Free, with a paid Premium tier | Free | Free | Free |
What each of them is genuinely better at
A comparison that only flatters the author is worth nothing. Here is where the others win, plainly.
Signal
The best-audited encryption in the category, by a distance, and the protocol everyone else — including WhatsApp, including us in spirit — ended up copying. If your threat model is a well-funded adversary and you always have a network, Signal is the safe recommendation and we will say so.
Everyone you need to reach is already on it. No encrypted messenger has ever beaten that with cryptography alone, and pretending otherwise is how privacy apps talk themselves out of being used.
Telegram
The richest feature set in messaging — channels, bots, huge groups, a real platform — and it is fast everywhere. That is exactly the bar we set ourselves. What we do not copy is cloud chats that are not end-to-end encrypted.
Briar
Briar did off-grid messaging first, and did it properly: no servers at all, Tor when online, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when not. We took the same idea seriously. The gap is reach — Briar has no iPhone app, so half of a group simply cannot join.
The column nobody else fills
Look at the table again and one line has a single answer in it: an app that keeps working with no internet and exists on iPhone. Telegram, Signal and WhatsApp all stop at the edge of the network. Briar crosses that edge but stops at the edge of iOS.
That is not a feature list, it is a situation: a festival where the cell towers are saturated, a protest, a mountain hut, a flight, a power cut, a country that switched the internet off. In those moments the question is not which app has better encryption — it is which app still sends the message. OSHI relays it phone to phone over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and over LoRa radio when the phones are kilometres apart.
The rest of the time it behaves like the messenger you already know: fast, online, with calls, media, groups, bots and maps.
Online and offline. Most apps pick one. Telegram is excellent online and useless without a network. Briar is remarkable off-grid and absent from the App Store. OSHI is built to be ordinary on a normal day and irreplaceable on a bad one.
Questions people actually ask
Is OSHI really "the French Telegram"?
It is built in France and it aims at Telegram's breadth — groups, channels-style broadcasting, bots, media, calls. The difference is the default: your conversations are end-to-end encrypted whether or not you remember to open a special kind of chat, and they keep moving when the network does not.
If Signal is better audited, why not just use Signal?
If you always have a network and you want the most scrutinised cryptography available, use Signal. We are not competing for that sentence. We are for the case where there is no network, or no phone number, or no desire to hand one over.
How far does the mesh actually reach?
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi give you a room, a building, a crowd — and messages hop from phone to phone, so the range is the chain, not the radio. With a LoRa module the same conversation crosses kilometres of open ground with no infrastructure at all.
Has OSHI been independently audited?
Not yet, and we say so in every comparison on this site rather than hiding it in a footnote. The code is open source and on GitHub; read it, or have someone read it for you. Signal and Briar have audits we do not have, and that is a real advantage of theirs.
Try the one that still works when the network doesn't
Free, open source, no phone number.