← Back to home
Comparison · Comms

Session vs Threema

Side-by-side trajectory, velocity, and editorial themes.

S
Session
COMMS
0.0

Session shipped a protocol rewrite and a paid tier, then went publicly broke — the founder is asking users to bail it out.

◆ Current state

Session is simultaneously in its most ambitious technical phase and an open funding crisis. Protocol V2 — re-implementing forward secrecy and layering post-quantum cryptography on top of Session's onion-routed transport — has been announced, and the Session Pro paid tier exited beta planning into a December development update. Then in March, cofounder Chris McCabe published a personal appeal saying the project cannot continue developing without user support, and the public feed has been quiet since.

◆ Where it's heading

The product roadmap that was meant to fund itself via Session Pro is colliding with the underlying problem the appeal makes plain: the Loki/Oxen-era token economics and donations aren't covering ongoing development. Protocol V2 and Pro are the bets that have to land for Session to remain viable; if Pro doesn't convert a meaningful share of the user base, the next twelve months are about scope reduction, not feature growth. The Feb 1 APT key rotation in January suggests the core infrastructure is still being maintained — for now.

◆ Prediction

Watch for either a hard Session Pro launch and conversion announcement, or a more explicit wind-down / handoff post. A long stretch of silence after a funding appeal usually resolves one way or the other within a quarter; the absence of any new posts since mid-March is itself a signal.

T
Threema
COMMS
5.0

Threema leans on enterprise OnPrem features while sharpening its anti-WhatsApp, anti-Signal positioning.

◆ Current state

Threema's recent activity splits between shipping and positioning. Concrete product work: a new in-app Survey Feed in the Threema Channel, the Liquid Glass iOS 7.1 redesign, DualLock for OnPrem chats on a lost or stolen device, and screenshot prevention in Threema Work for iOS. Most of the remainder is editorial — #DeleteWhatsAppDay, Zero Trust explainers, commentary on the politician-targeting Signal/WhatsApp attacks — aimed at sharpening the privacy positioning.

◆ Where it's heading

The growth story is increasingly the OnPrem and Work tiers. DualLock and anti-screenshot are explicitly enterprise security controls that put distance between Threema and consumer Signal. The publishing cadence around competitor incidents and privacy theory suggests Threema is courting decision-makers spooked by the recent Signal/WhatsApp narrative more than chasing consumer growth.

◆ Prediction

Expect more enterprise-shaped controls on OnPrem — finer admin policy, audit trails, additional device-loss safeguards — paired with continued public-positioning posts timed to competitor incidents. Consumer-side product investment looks deprioritised relative to the Work tier.

See more alternatives to Session
See more alternatives to Threema