bubble DE

Private Bubbles · End-to-end encrypted

Highlights for your Bubble

Bubble is a small app for private circles. Share what made your day special, with a feeling as an emoji. Only your Bubble sees it, and if you like, it is gone again after 24 hours.

Android test version View the source code

Version 1.1.0 as an APK for 64-bit ARM phones. Bubble is still in development. The app is currently in German.

Today
AnnaFamily · 2 h ago 😍 In love
⏳ 14 h

Sunrise at the lake

Mia and Tom 💬 2

How Bubble feels.

Like the stories row of a social app, just for the people who really matter to you.

  • Bubbles instead of followers

    Small private circles for family, flatmates or your running group. Whoever is in sees your highlights. Nobody else.

  • How are you feeling?

    Every highlight can carry a feeling as an emoji, if you like. A bad day is never judged.

  • Heart bubble and comments

    Hearts show faces and names instead of a big number. Hearts and comments disappear with the post.

  • 24 hours or permanent

    Each Bubble decides how long highlights stay. Every post shows its lifetime: ⏳ 24h or 📌 permanent.

  • Invite with a QR code

    Friends join with a QR code, a link or a short code like 7KQ2M-9XH4T. No contact lists, no suggestions.

  • Photos without location

    Photos are resized and re-saved on your phone. Location and camera data are removed in the process.

Privacy

Privacy is non-negotiable.

Everything you share is encrypted on your device. The server only passes on encrypted blobs and cannot look inside.

  • End-to-end encrypted

    Every Bubble has its own key. Messages are signed and encrypted with ChaCha20-Poly1305.

  • No email, no phone number

    Your identity is a key pair on your device. There are no accounts.

  • A “blind” relay

    The server only stores encrypted data under random-looking IDs and permanently deletes 24h posts.

What the relay knows and what it doesn’t

knows

  • Mailbox IDs, number and size of messages
  • Expiry time of 24h posts
  • IP addresses during a request (not logged or stored)

doesn’t know

  • Names of Bubbles or people, content, photos
  • who is in which Bubble
  • the content of your backups
How the encryption works

No doomscrolling

Bubble doesn’t want you to stay longer than you need to. So it leaves out what makes other apps addictive.

  • No endless feed, only the highlights of your Bubbles
  • No streaks and no leaderboards
  • No unread counters
  • No “X hasn’t posted yet” nudges

Self-hosting

Your server, your rules.

The relay is a small ASP.NET Core service with SQLite. It runs with Docker on amd64 and arm64, even on a Raspberry Pi. In the app, you simply enter its address.

Self-hosting guide 
docker compose up -d --build

Where Bubble stands.

Bubble is an open development project. This is what exists today, and what we are thinking about next.

  1. Now

    MVP

    Bubbles, text and photo posts, end-to-end encryption, 24h or permanent, backup code.

  2. Vision

    Story editor

    A 9:16 story canvas with photos, text, stickers and templates.

  3. Vision

    Push notifications

    A notification when there is something new in your Bubbles.