Qexx: message encryption

You want to send an address or a private thought so that a stray glance at the screen reveals nothing. Qexx promises a "fully encrypted world where your secrets stay safe".

It is a Telegram mini app and bot, and its directory description speaks of encrypting text, image and audio messages. 🔐

Here is what that kind of encryption means in practice and which questions to ask any service making similar promises.

What Qexx does

According to public directory listings, the bot turns a message into an unreadable string of symbols and restores it to its original form. It handles text, pictures and audio.

Everything starts with the /start command: the bot switches on and opens the mini app, where the work with messages takes place.

What a secret exchange looks like

1. Open the bot and send /start.
2. Enter or upload the message you need to protect.
3. Receive the encrypted result and send it to your contact in any way you like.
4. Pass the key separately, through a different channel.
5. Your contact decrypts the message the same way.

The last step matters more than the rest. A key sent in the same chat as the ciphertext gives no protection: whoever sees one sees the other. 🗝️

Encryption is not the same as privacy

Encryption protects content. Privacy is wider: who knows that you are talking, when, and how often. Even a perfectly encrypted message shows that you sent something to a certain person.

In ordinary Telegram chats, encryption runs between you and the company's servers. End-to-end encryption is switched on separately, in secret chats, and works on two devices only.

What to ask any encryption tool

A bot you hand text to for encryption technically sees that text before it scrambles it. Trust in the owner therefore matters more than a nice slogan.

• Where encryption happens: on your device or on the bot's server.
• Which algorithm, and whether its code is open for review.
• What is stored: whether the bot keeps original messages and keys.
• Who the owner is and where to ask questions.

What it fits and what it does not

For games, playful ciphers and small notes you would rather not show a random person, the bot is a fit. The mini app is handy because there is no separate program to install.

For bank passwords, documents and topics where a leak brings serious trouble, the responsible choices are different: a password manager, secret chats and tested open source programs. ⚠️

If you still send something important through a third-party app, do not put all the details into a single message. Split them into parts and send them at different times.

A good rule: before serious use, test the full loop on a sample phrase. Encrypt it, decrypt it on a second device and confirm the result matches the original.