What it is
A phone that does
three things
OBSIDIAN is a free, open source Android system for Google Pixel phones. It is stripped back to what private communication actually needs, and nothing else. There are three apps on it: a chat app, Tor Browser and a camera, plus a Monero wallet you can use or ignore.
Obsidian Chat
It works over Tor, so messages do not touch the normal internet on their way out. They are end to end encrypted, and new ones arrive sealed until you tap them open.
A name, not a number
You pick a username. There is no phone number, no email, and nothing to recover if you lose it, because nothing about you is kept to recover.
Locked on the phone too
The app has its own PIN, on top of the phone's screen lock, so picking the phone up is not the same as reading the messages.
Emergency wipe
Hold the button on the chat screen for three seconds and the phone erases itself back to factory settings.
The wallet is optional
Cake Wallet comes on the phone for holding or spending Monero without a bank or an exchange account. We never create a wallet, never see a seed and never touch the money: you open it and set it up yourself, or you leave it alone and it does nothing at all.
One thing to know before you use it. Everything else on this phone goes over Tor; the wallet talks to a Monero node of your choosing, which sees that a wallet asked it something, as any Monero wallet must. And the emergency wipe erases the wallet with everything else, so write the seed down somewhere safe or the money goes with the phone. The app says so beside the button.
What is not there
This matters as much as what is. Each of these is removed from the system, not switched off in a menu where it can be switched back on.
No calls or texts
The dialler and the messaging app are not in the image.
No app store, no side loading
Nothing else can be installed, so nothing else can ask for your contacts or your location.
No location
It is switched off and the switch is taken away.
No unlocked phone
A screen lock is required before the chat app will open at all.
Installing it
It takes about twenty minutes and erases the phone. You do it yourself, from your own computer, in Chrome, Edge or Brave: the installer works out which phone you have, downloads the right build, checks it, and puts it on. Or download the file and run the script included with it. Either way, nothing about you is sent anywhere.
Which phones
Five phones can be installed today: the Pixel 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. The Pixel 8 is the one we have run on the real phone; the others are finished builds whose installs have been checked end to end and which we would like tested. The phones page says where each one stands.
Early days, said plainly
These are test builds, signed with test keys. The phone works, but it shows a warning each time it starts and the bootloader stays unlocked, so it is for trying OBSIDIAN rather than for protecting anyone yet. It is free software under GPL-3.0 and the source is public, so you do not have to take any of this on trust.