Hermes.X — Messenger

Account

Handle (on-chain name)

—

—

Your handle is your on-chain BNS name — not changeable in-app. Register a new one at sirius.x.

Profile

Published to relays as Nostr kind:0 metadata — anyone can see it, change anytime.

Display handles as

Just a preference — the on-chain name is always the same.

Phone discovery

I'd rather add it manually (unverified)

We hash the number locally and publish a Nostr claim for the hash. Anyone who already knows your number can find you. Verifying via Telegram adds a signed proof that you own this number — matches then show a green check.

Chat folders

Folders are local to this device. A chat in a folder stays out of "All chats" — same rule for both.

Notifications

Not configurable yet. Hermes relies on the OS/browser notification state and the open tab for new messages.

Coming: sound toggles, mute per-contact, badge counts, Web Push for background delivery.

Privacy and Security

Discoverable by phone number

Let others find me by my phone number

Publishes a hash of your number to the Hermes relays. The relay never sees the raw number.

Reciprocal by design: someone appears in your Contacts imports only when both of you have each other's number AND they've opted in here. Same rule as number-based messengers like WhatsApp — but with no central directory.

Encryption

End-to-end encrypted · NIP-17 gift-wrap over NIP-44 v2

Relays only ever see opaque ciphertext — not the message, not who you're writing to, not when the message was really sent (NIP-59 jitters the timestamp up to 2 days).

Coming

Block list · Read-receipt toggle · Device PIN lock · Auto-sign-out timer · NIP-46 bunker-based sessions.

Data and Storage

Message history + contacts live in this device's localStorage. Nothing uploaded except opt-in cloud backup.

Coming: clear cache, export conversation to file, auto-delete after N days.

Language

English only for now.

Coming: German, French, Russian, Greek, Spanish — same set as the hermes.x site.

Active Sessions

This device

—

Signed in now · hermes.x

Each Hermes install signs with the same Nostr key, so there's no "revoke this session" at the relay layer. Signing out clears this device's local copy of the key.

Coming: NIP-46 bunker-based session delegation so a session can be revoked without rotating the main key.

Contacts

From this device

Checking browser support…

From a .vcf export

Why no "Allow access" toggle? The web Contact Picker shows the OS prompt every time you tap, and only shares the contacts you pick in that moment. There's no "always allow all" grant on the web — the browser doesn't offer one. A persistent sync needs a native app.

Picked / imported numbers only leave this device as a hash. The relay sees the hash, not the number, and only returns a match if someone else published that same hash via their own phone claim.

Backup

No seed phrase stored for this account.
(created-elsewhere / vault / mnemonic signins don't retain the words)