Eleven
Everything you’d expect.
A few things you wouldn’t.
Eleven does the chat things properly, then adds a few things no other messenger has. The full list, in plain words.
The chat things, done properly
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Groups and one-to-ones
A space for your whole crowd, groups inside it for every topic, and private chats when it’s just the two of you.
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Photos, videos, and files
Share pictures and clips that look great and open fast. Photos leave out where they were taken — location details are stripped before anything leaves your device.
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Reactions, replies, and threads
React with any emoji, reply to exactly the message you mean, and split side conversations into their own threads.
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Edit and delete
Typos happen. Fix a message after you’ve sent it, or take it back entirely.
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GIFs and link previews
Search GIFs right from the message box, and see a tidy preview card when someone posts a link.
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See who’s around
A quiet dot shows who’s online. Typing indicators too.
Made for real life
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Everywhere you are
Any browser, a native Mac app, and an iPhone app. Start on one device, pick up on another — what you’ve read stays read everywhere.
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One tap to sign in
No passwords. Your device signs you in the way it unlocks itself, and one sign-in opens every space you belong to.
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Call people what you call them
Rename anyone just for yourself — your “Mum” can stay “Carol” to everyone else. Your names follow you into notifications and mentions.
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Notifications that respect you
You get pinged when someone writes to you — never by marketing, never by your own messages, never while you’re already reading. Notifications unlock on your device, so they stay private in transit.
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Make it yours
Six themes from warm dusk to cool lagoon, light and dark, and a text size that suits your eyes.
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Feels native, weighs nothing
The iPhone app is smaller than a single photo. The Mac app is a 15 MB download. Neither will hog your battery or your disk.
More than chat
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Little apps, right in the chat
Shared to-do lists, and reminders that nudge the group at the right moment. Built in, not bolted on.
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Apps built by asking
Ask for “a packing list for the trip” or “a habit tracker” and a small app appears in your space, made just for your group. No app store, no accounts, no ads.
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Helpers on a schedule
“Send us a news round-up every morning.” “Remind everyone about training on Thursdays.” Set up helpers that work for your group, and only your group.
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Eleven, the helper
Every space comes with Eleven — a built-in helper that answers questions, sets things up, and builds those little apps for you. Ask it anything.
Your space, your rules
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A place of your own
Every space is its own little world with its own address — not an account in someone else’s system. No directory, no discovery, no strangers wandering in.
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Invites, not sign-ups
The only way in is a link from someone already inside. Same security model as your front door.
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Open groups and access levels
Let members discover and join groups inside your space, or keep some behind an access level — members, committee, family only. You decide.
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Charge for membership, if you like
Running a club or a community? Put a price on an access level and members subscribe — no Stripe account needed, on a commission you choose between 5.5% and 11%, everything included.
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Safe for kids
A grown-up runs the space and decides who’s in it. There’s no feed, no follower counts, and nothing designed to keep anyone scrolling.
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Yours to move
Don’t want anyone hosting your chat — even us? Run Eleven on your own machine. It’s one small program, and it’s designed to make that easy.
Eleven is…
Familiar and easy
You shouldn’t have to learn how Eleven works. Click a link and you’re chatting. It’s one click to save your chats so you don’t lose them: no signup required.
Open
Eleven is not run by a corporation or a big organisation. Get started easily if you’re invited to an existing space through the Eleven apps.
Secure
In a world where too many apps end up “not secure”, Eleven is designed to be “secure enough”. The basic principle is: if the server got hacked, nothing on the server should expose anything. And that’s how it is. Private chats are completely secret to the two participants, group chats are secret to the group. That’s it.
Web-based
Eleven stores messages on a server on the web. This allows freedom to use Eleven on different devices. Browser window? Check. PWA with push notifications? Check. Eleven doesn’t shy away from being a web application.
Native
Even though Eleven is entirely web-based, starting with iOS and Mac, Eleven’s apps are native where it matters: in the feels. They’re fast, quick to download, and don’t hog your system resources.
Tracking-free
There are no trackers associated with Eleven at all. Anything that personally identifies you remains secret. That’s it.
AI-enabled
Frustratingly, all of the above attributes mean that no corporation has so far been compelled to produce an app like Eleven, with world-class user experience, and absolute respect for the human using the product. AI enables the production of the kind of product that we wish big tech had, at a fraction of the cost.
Eleven is built with the latest AI models, and audited by them too, including a security review by Claude Fable. We’re in beta with the source open, so nobody has to take our word for any of that. Check the code yourself.
Additionally, AI agents can optionally be added to Eleven to do some interesting (or stranger) things.
How it compares
The honest version, in one table. Where the others do something well, we say so.
| Attribute | Eleven | Apple Messages | Slack & Teams | Discord | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you need to join | An invite link. That’s it. | Your phone number | An Apple device | An account and usually a work email | An account |
| Who can read your messages | Only the people in the chat — even a hacked server reveals nothing | Chats are encrypted (credit where due), but Meta sees who talks to whom, and when | Encrypted between Apple devices; everyone else gets plain texts | The company running your workspace can | Discord can |
| Ads and tracking | None. There’s nothing to track with — no analytics at all | Ads have arrived, and your activity feeds Meta’s business | No ads — as long as everyone buys Apple | No ads; you (or your employer) are the customer | Free tier funded by upsells and data-hungry bots |
| Where it works | Any browser, native Mac and iPhone apps | Phone first, desktop second | Apple devices only | Everywhere, heavily | Everywhere |
| Who runs it | An independent team building a co-op — or you, on your own machine | Meta | Apple | Salesforce and Microsoft | A venture-backed corporation |
| What it costs | Free to start; plans from €5.50 a year | Free — Meta earns it back elsewhere | Free with your (Apple) device | Free tier, then per-person monthly fees | Free, with constant upsells |
The Signal / Matrix / SimpleX comparison is on the nerdy stuff.
Try it this minute
Free to start, no account, no phone number.