PyBLØCK 1.4 for iPhone is on TestFlight: everything new
POST-QUANTUM ENCRYPTION
Post-quantum encryption: new private conversations between PyBLØCK 1.4 phones use hybrid post-quantum key agreement (ML-KEM-768 + secp256k1 ECDH), so messages recorded today can't be decrypted by a future quantum computer. Look for the PQ mark in the chat header.
SAFER WALLET AND CHAT
• Every way of moving funds (send, separate, ricochet, mesh, Gebo, Collaborative Send, Lightning payments and channels) needs your confirmation right then.
• Sending needs a passcode on the phone; without one the app explains how to set it. Receiving and your balance are not affected.
• Pictures from people who are not your contacts are no longer shown by themselves: tap to view them, with a one-time warning. Only JPEG, PNG and GIF images are opened.
• Lightning (Laguz): the connection is sealed with your spending password; with the wallet locked, Lightning shows as locked until you unlock it.
• Group pictures show only when the group was created by you or one of your contacts.
• New "Staying safe" section in Settings.
• The monthly WHALE sticker pack shows under THIS MONTH.
PRIVATE GROUPS (BETA)
Private groups are a beta: off by default and still being reviewed.
• Turn on "Private groups (beta)" in Settings › Chat, and a PRIVATE GROUPS section appears in Direct messages.
• Tap NEW GROUP to create an encrypted group of up to 256 people, choose a name and invite contacts.
• Each person you invite gets an invitation card in a sealed private message and enters the group when they tap ACCEPT.
• Admins can make an invite link or QR under INVITE BY LINK, choosing how long it is valid (1 hour to 30 days), how many uses it has, and whether the admin approves each request.
• A link or QR holds no group key: whoever finds it only sees the group name and the admin, and cannot read anything until an admin approves.
• Requests from a link show under REQUESTS TO ENTER, where the admin taps APPROVE or DECLINE (declining sends nothing).
• Tap SCAN to read a group QR; the card shows the group name, the admin, the admin's safety runes to compare in person, and an ASK TO ENTER button.
• New members read the group from the moment they enter; nothing sent before that is shown to them.
• You can send text (up to 2,000 characters), photos and voice notes.
• Swipe right on a message to reply to it, or long-press it for Reply, React, Edit, Copy and Delete.
• React with a rune; tap your rune again to take it back.
• You can edit your own text messages for up to one hour after sending them.
• Deleting your message removes it for everyone; an admin can also remove any message, which then reads "removed by an admin".
• Use the mention button in the composer to mention a member.
• Admins can set disappearing messages for the group: off, 1 hour, 1 day or 1 week.
• The creator can turn on "Only admins write", so members read and only admins write and react.
• The creator can make other members admins with MAKE ADMIN, and admins can remove members with REMOVE.
• Admins can add, change or remove a group picture with a square cropper (pinch and drag), and members see it in the inbox, the conversation header and the group sheet.
• The group's keys change whenever someone enters or leaves, every week, and whenever an admin taps ROTATE KEYS.
• The group sheet shows each member's safety code, the same one their private conversation with you shows, so you can check it is the same person.
• LEAVE GROUP deletes the group's keys and messages from your phone and tells the admins.
• Notifications say "New message in a private group" and never show the text; turn on "Show names" to see the group and sender, or use Mute.
• Groups with more than 20 members start muted, and only mentions of you ring.
• The relay carries group messages without being able to open them, and never learns the group's name or who is in it.
• Once you are in a group, its messages also travel over the Bluetooth mesh between members nearby, and bridges can post them to the internet.
BLUETOOTH MESH
• Private messages to a contact go to their phone over Bluetooth when your phone has no internet and the contact's phone is in direct reach.
• A message delivered this way shows "sent nearby · MESH" under your bubble, and turns into the plain check mark once a relay has it.
• When your phone gets a connection again, a message delivered nearby is also posted to the relay, so your other devices and history get it.
• If a phone nearby is a bridge with internet, a message delivered nearby is also handed to it, so it reaches the relay sooner (following your "Send through bridges" setting).
• When the contact is not in reach, a message waits and goes to them as soon as they walk up, or goes through a bridge if one is in reach.
• Delivery confirmations come back over the mesh the same way.
• The mesh status sheet counts the private messages sent and received nearby.
• A phone that is not your contact never learns who a waiting message is for, and is never handed it.
• Links come back faster after Bluetooth is turned off and on, and a silent link no longer blocks a contact from reconnecting.
• Messages in the mesh room that arrived before their sender's announcement are now shown instead of being lost.
• Phones on a weak link now recover the setup message that groups over the mesh, carried mail and bridges depend on.
PRIVATE CHAT AND POST-QUANTUM
• New private conversations between 1.4 phones are post-quantum, and existing conversations switch over by themselves shortly after the contact writes again from 1.4.
• The DM header shows a PQ mark next to TOR when the conversation is post-quantum.
• The encryption sheet says whether a conversation is post-quantum, and if not, why (the contact's app doesn't support it yet, forward secrecy is off, or the app is waiting for a new key).
• If a contact goes back to an app without post-quantum support, the conversation shows a one-time line saying messages to them are no longer post-quantum.
• Post-quantum has no switch of its own: it comes with forward secrecy, which is on by default.
WALLET
• Your wallet keys are now protected by Face ID or your passcode at the system level; every way of moving funds needs your confirmation right then.
LIGHTNING (LAGUZ)
• No changes in this release.
CHAT ROOMS, STICKERS AND UI
• On iOS, the keyboard stays open after SEND in private chats, groups and rooms, and the words you sent no longer come back into the field.
• The composer always clears after you send, even when the message is queued.
• Private chat headers and the inbox show your contact's name while offline, instead of a short key.
• Long names in a conversation header use the full width, and the TOR and MESH badges move to a second line when they don't fit.
SETTINGS
• Settings › Chat has a new "Private groups (beta)" switch, off by default.
• The Bluetooth mesh section has a new switch, "Deliver private messages to contacts nearby", on by default; turning it off stops sending and receiving private messages over the mesh (your contact's phone learns that you are nearby when it is on).
FIXES
• Private chat keeps working, both ways, after you change your chat identity (for example to your own Nostr key) and after you switch back.
• Messages no longer show "couldn't be opened here" when your contact keeps writing right after you sent a message of your own.
• A message that arrives twice (for example once through a bridge and once from the relay) is shown once, without a "couldn't be opened" line or a reset request.
• A bridge no longer posts the same private message more than once.
• A private message that no relay answered is kept and sent again by itself when the connection comes back, for up to a day.
• Tapping a "not delivered" message sends it again.
• A bridge's answer now reaches your message, so it no longer stays in "sending" after the bridge posted it.
• Messages sent while the app was reconnecting offline no longer keep a stuck "sending" mark after they arrived.
• Your contact's delivery confirmation now marks a stuck message as delivered.
• After a chat wipe or a chat identity change, nothing written under the old identity is sent anymore, by relay, bridge or mesh.
• A bridge stops contacting the relay as soon as "Be a bridge" is turned off or the chat is wiped.
WHAT DIFFERS BETWEEN IOS AND ANDROID
• Install: iOS 1.4 is a TestFlight beta (link below); Android 1.4.2 is out as an APK from the app's own update or the download page.
• Mesh in the background: on Android, Background mode runs with a fixed notification ("Bluetooth mesh on · N nearby") and a STOP action.
• Mesh in the background: on iOS, a phone in the background is found only by other iPhones that are looking for it (not by Android phones), scanning is slower, and swiping the app away stops the mesh until you open it again.
• Languages: both apps are in English, Spanish, Italian and Chinese.
• The keyboard fix after SEND is iOS only; the long-press on a photo opening its actions is Android only.
• Everything else in these notes (groups, post-quantum, mesh delivery, fixes) works the same on both, and iOS and Android phones talk to each other.
WHAT ONLY WORKS BETWEEN 1.4 PHONES
• Post-quantum conversations need both phones on 1.4 with forward secrecy on; with an older app the conversation stays classic and the encryption sheet says so.
• Private groups need every member on 1.4: someone on an older app shows "needs to update the app" and cannot be added.
• Private messages over the mesh need both phones on the final 1.4; 1.4 test builds before the release used a different signal for this and won't exchange private messages over the mesh with it, so update both phones.
KNOWN LIMITATIONS AND BETA CAVEATS
• Private groups are a beta, off by default and still being reviewed: use them for testing, not for anything you can't afford to lose.
• One device per person in a group for now.
• Entering a group (invitation, request and welcome) needs an internet connection once; after that, group messages also travel over the mesh.
• Group notifications are produced by the app on your phone (when it is open or in its background refresh); there is no push for groups yet.
• Changing your chat identity takes you out of every private group, and you need a new invitation to be added again.
• Group links work as pyblockb:// links and QR codes only; https:// group links are not supported yet.
• If someone copies a member's phone without being noticed, they could read that group until its keys next change (at most a week, or at once when a member is removed or an admin taps ROTATE KEYS).
• Post-quantum protects the content of a conversation; who writes to whom, when, and message sizes stay protected only by classic cryptography, and signatures stay classic.
• Messages sent without forward secrecy (plain sealed messages) are not post-quantum.
• A post-quantum ratchet, which also heals a conversation after a phone's keys are stolen, is planned for 1.5.
• Private messages over the mesh go only one hop, straight to the contact's own phone; they are never passed through other phones.
• Your contact's phone only answers over the mesh if you already have a conversation with each other.
• When a message is delivered over the mesh, your contact's phone learns that you are nearby.
• Photos and voice notes in private chats and groups are stored on the server, so sending them still needs internet.
• The mesh works only while the app is open, unless Background is turned on in the mesh settings; Background stops by itself after 8 hours with nobody in reach or when the battery is below 15% and not charging.
• The mesh is off inside hidden spaces.
• Wi-Fi Aware (faster transfers between phones nearby) is not in 1.4 on either iOS or Android; it is planned for 1.5.
TestFlight:

Join the PyBLOCK Blake2b beta
Available on iOS
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