free · open source · yours to run
One friend runs a server. Everyone else installs the app and joins with an invite. Text and voice rooms, DMs, shared photos, and a buddy list that shows who's around.
No company in the middle, and nothing to sell you.
Your account lives on your friend's server, not with a company. No email, no phone number.
One person in the group runs Linger's server, on a small rented server or a computer at home. They're the host.
On Windows, Linux or an Android phone. It's free, and there's nothing to buy later.
The host sends you an invite link. Paste it into the app, pick a name and a password, and you're in.
The real app, with pretend friends. Click around.
:shortcodes: work, and the host can add the server's own.
Fifty seconds, with music made for it. It was recorded on version 0.4.5, so a few things have moved since.
No unread counts. No streaks. No red dots. Nothing that turns your friends into a to-do list.
Nothing is held back to sell to you later. There is nothing to buy.
Not opt-in, not anonymous, no crash reports. The app only talks to GitHub, to check for updates.
Nothing decides what you see or reorders your friends to keep you scrolling.
Nobody can ping the whole server at once.
Linger never looks at which apps you have open. If you want people to know what you're up to, put it in your status.
No federation, no directory of servers, no account that spans them. Each server is its own small place.
The person running the server can read everything on it.
Messages, files and voice all pass through the host's server. There's no end-to-end encryption. Traffic is encrypted on its way there, but the files and the database sit unencrypted on the host's disk.
So run your own server, or trust the person who runs yours. If you need protection from your host, use Signal.
Linger 0.4.9
Released October 7, 2026. What's new. You'll need an invite link from your host, and the user guide walks through each step.
Linger_0.4.9_x64-setup.exe · 7 MB
Windows will warn you ("Windows protected your PC"). Choose More info, then Run anyway. The installer isn't code-signed yet; that's a choice for now, not a broken download. Updates are signed, and the app checks the signature before installing one.
Or the .msi installer (10 MB).
One line adds Linger's repository, so updates come with your system:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/itsMattGuenther/Linger/main/packaging/arch/setup.sh | bashsudo apt install ~/Downloads/Linger_0.4.9_amd64.debzypper install it):
sudo dnf install ~/Downloads/Linger-0.4.9-1.x86_64.rpmchmod +x ~/Downloads/Linger_0.4.9_amd64.AppImageLinger_0.4.9_android-arm64.apk · 20 MB
Download it on the phone and open it. Android asks you to allow installs from your browser the first time. It isn't in the Play Store yet.
Not yet. There's no Mac or iPhone download. On a Mac, Linger builds from source for now; the development guide has the steps.
One person hosts. Here's what that takes.
Then one script. It asks for your server's name, checks it points at the computer, and prints a setup link to paste into the app, which makes you the host. Updating later is one more command, and it backs up the database first.
# fetch the setup script and run it $ curl -fLO …/deploy/setup.sh $ bash setup.sh … asks for your server's name … prints a one-time setup link # later, when there's a new version $ ./update.sh
Linger is open source. Anyone can help.
Everything is on GitHub: the app, the server, the plans and every release.
Start with CONTRIBUTING.md. The docs say what Linger is, and what it will never be.
Issues are public, so leave out message text, other people's names, server addresses and invite links.
TASKS.md is the queue: what's being built, and what's waiting.
Licensed AGPL-3.0: if someone runs a changed server for other people, those people get its source.
To linger is to stay somewhere with no agenda and no obligation to be doing anything.