Installing Surf Messenger.
It runs in a browser. Adding it to your home screen gives it its own window, an icon in the launcher, and a start that needs no network.
One account
If you are signed in on Surf you are signed in here, with the same conversations.
Maya Chen
End to end encrypted
Adding it to your home screen
One address on every platform.
iPhone and iPad
- 1Open web.surfmessenger.com in Safari.
- 2Tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
- 3Open it from the home screen from then on.
Safari is the only browser on iOS that can add a web app to the home screen.
Android
- 1Open web.surfmessenger.com in Chrome.
- 2Open the menu, then Install app.
- 3It appears in your app drawer with the rest.
Other Chromium browsers on Android offer the same thing, sometimes named Add to Home screen.
Desktop
- 1Open web.surfmessenger.com in Chrome or Edge.
- 2Use the install control at the end of the address bar.
- 3It opens in its own window.
The installed window has no address bar and no tabs.
What installing changes
The same app, with a few things a browser tab cannot do.
- It opens in its own window and starts on the messenger.
- Long-pressing the icon offers Requests and Starred.
- The interface is cached, so it opens with no network and says when a request cannot go out.
- A call arrives as a notification you can answer or decline without opening the app first.
A new device starts empty
Worth knowing before you install it somewhere new.
Only your devices can open your chats, so a browser you have not used before starts with no history. Approve it from a device you already use, or restore your backup with the recovery key. Up to five devices at once, and the least recently used one is dropped after that.
Before you start
- What you need
- A current browser with IndexedDB and Web Crypto
- What it costs
- Nothing, on every platform
- Account
- The Surf account you already have
- Languages
- Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish
- Right to left
- Arabic lays out right to left throughout