Iskra is free, source-available voice and text chat on a server you run. The alpha is out now: apps for Windows, macOS and Linux, a web app for PC and phone browsers, and servers for Windows, Linux an
Open an instant temporary room for voice, text, and screen sharing, and bring independently running Agents in as participants. No account, no shared workspace, no hosted LLM.
MekaHime's first AI companion, now open source. 26 emotions, her real voice, real-time replies and memory, running on your own PC. Discord mode coming soon.
Iskra is in alpha. Expect rough edges, and tell us what you find.
Why Iskra
Free, for real. Nothing is behind a paywall: big file uploads, screen sharing at full resolution and 60 fps, the soundboard, profiles and themes are there for everyone. No ads, no tracking, no tiers.
Your server, your data. Your group's server runs on a computer you choose, and everything lives in one folder you can back up, move or delete. Members' apps talk to their own server, not to us.
Join friends: open their invite link. Pick a name and you're in: no email, no password, no signup.
Start your own server:
Easiest: install the desktop app (Windows, macOS or Linux) and click Create a server. Pick a name and a starting point (Gaming group, Friends hangout, Board games and tabletop or Empty), and you own a server with channels, voice channels, roles and rules, running on your PC with voice included. Tick Keep my server running and it starts with your computer. Turn on Let friends anywhere join and friends anywhere can join, in the browser too; if your connection can't host, the app tells you why and what you can do. Click Invite friends and send the link.
Always on, without your PC:Rent a small server from the app. It gives you a setup text to paste at a VPS provider you pick, and you become the owner right from the app, no terminal needed. Or download the server for Windows, Linux or macOS, run iskra-server my-server, and open the owner link it prints.
Everything step by step, including port forwarding and carrier-grade NAT: the hosting guide.
What's in it
Text channels: Markdown with headings, lists and highlighted code, spoilers, @mentions for people and roles, replies, reactions, edits with an edit history, forwarding, drafts, message links and "mark unread", voice messages, uploads up to 512 MB by default (the owner sets the limits) with a gallery view, link previews, and unread markers and badges that always agree.
Saved messages, reminders and send later: save any message, get reminded about it later, schedule a message for a set time, and find your mentions and replies in the inbox. Catch up sums up what you missed, worked out on your own device.
Forums, events and docs: forum channels with tags, search and "new" markers; scheduled events with reminders, "Interested" and add to calendar; docs channels for guides, FAQs and notes, with page history and search.
Threads, pins and search: side conversations off any message, pinned messages per channel, and fast search with filters that jumps straight to the result.
Play together in voice (Activities): start Draw & guess, a quiz or Four in a row right in the call, and everyone in the channel can join with one tap. Server owners can add their own activities as small web apps (docs/activities.md); they run walled off from the internet in the desktop app, and what they send is never stored.
A public page for your server: open your server's address in a browser and people see a clean page for your group (name, picture, a short description and a Join button), served by your own server. It's off until you turn it on, and you choose what it shows.
Polls, custom emoji, stickers, GIFs and a soundboard: server emoji and stickers, a GIF picker (KLIPY), quick polls, and a soundboard with sounds of any length.
Voice channels: low-latency voice for big groups (LiveKit) with a text chat in every voice channel, push-to-talk and mute/deafen keybinds that work while a game has focus, per-person volume, user limits per channel, and camera and screen sharing with sound, at your screen's own resolution and 60 fps by default. Save a clip of the last seconds of a call; it's recorded on your own device, and everyone can see who has clips on.
Sound that just works: AI noise removal (DeepFilterNet3), voice detection that doesn't cut off your first word (Silero VAD), voices evened out so nobody is too loud or too quiet, optional clean-up of other people's noisy mics, and audio that rides out lost packets. Admins can allow hi-fi (stereo, 128 kbps, unprocessed) in a channel for music and instruments.
Camera and captions, on your device: blur your background or replace it with a picture or a colour, and turn on live captions in calls (English and Swedish). It all runs on your own device: no sound, picture or text is sent anywhere. The captions model comes from your own server, which fetches it once and gives it only to its members.
Stages and watch parties: listen-only voice channels where moderators bring people up to speak, and video links, uploads or YouTube watched in step by everyone in voice.
Friends, DMs, group chats and calls: friend requests like on Discord (right-click anyone; requests are end-to-end encrypted and signed, so servers never see your friends list). DMs (with pictures, files and voice messages), group chats of up to ten and voice and video calls, one-to-one or in a group, are all end-to-end encrypted, and DMs have forward secrecy. Compare safety numbers to be sure who you're talking to.
Encrypted private channels: admins can make a small private text or voice channel (up to 50 people) end-to-end encrypted. Only the people who can see it can read it, not the server. In an encrypted voice channel, voice, video and screen shares are encrypted on your devices too, and the key changes whenever someone loses access, without interrupting the call. Bot commands still work there: the command goes to the server and the bot unencrypted (the app says so first), and only you see the answer.
Status and activity: online, idle, do not disturb or invisible, a custom status, and "Playing X" from the desktop app if you turn it on.
Organized your way: channel categories, server folders, notification levels and mutes per channel or server (small servers notify on every message, bigger ones on @mentions, until you pick), server nicknames, hide a server from your list or leave it, unread navigation and keyboard shortcuts. Messages you write while a server is away are sent when it's back, and a server restart barely interrupts you: the app rejoins voice by itself.
Profiles your way: avatar, bio, pronouns and an accent colour, plus your own profile page in HTML, safely sandboxed. Eleven themes, or write your own in JSON.
Bots and webhooks: turn on the built-in Dice, Polls and Reminders bots with one click, nothing to install. Write your own with a small Node or Python SDK: /commands with suggestions as you type, answers only the asker sees, buttons, menus and forms. Any other language works through the bridge (npx iskra-bots bridge -- python mybot.py): your program just reads and writes JSON lines, no HTTP API and no open ports. A bot reads only its commands and messages meant for it, unless an admin lets it read everything. Discord-compatible webhooks (GitHub too) post into a channel, and outgoing webhooks send chosen events (new messages, reactions, people joining, events starting) as signed requests to an address an admin picks, such as a game server or Home Assistant.
Roles and moderation: custom roles with permissions, colours and per-channel overrides, private and read-only channels, invite links with expiry or single use, blocking, timeouts, slowmode, server mute, kick, ban and an audit log. AutoMod blocks words, spam, mention spam and invite links, server rules greet new members, and anyone can report a message or a person to the moderators' queue.
Your account is a key on your devices, stored encrypted, with an optional app lock you can open with a passkey (fingerprint, face or security key). Link a phone by scanning a QR code, see your devices, remove any of them, and replace your account key if it ever leaks. Key transparency lets your app notice if a server shows different people different keys.
Easy hosting: a setup wizard with starter templates, "Keep my server running", and one switch that opens the ports on your router, gets a free address and sets up HTTPS. Iskra tells you what it found out about your connection, walks you through port forwarding (with a ready-made prompt for an AI assistant, if you'd like help), explains carrier-grade NAT plainly with your options, and can set up a rented server for you. Your server, your choice: Iskra gets nothing from any of it.
Your server is a folder, with daily backups. Download an encrypted backup, restore it anywhere and move your members along, or import your Discord server's history. Standalone servers can update themselves (checked against the published checksums and the release's signed build attestation, with automatic rollback) and answer /health for uptime monitors. Backup buddies: daily backups can also go to a friend's Iskra server, encrypted on your server first so your friend keeps them but can't read them; if your computer is ever lost, restore the whole server from there with your recovery code, right from the desktop app.
Your data, your call:Download my data gets you everything a server keeps about you, the owner chooses how long things are kept, a security log shows the owner sign-ins and key changes (never messages), and you can delete your account on every server at once.
Everywhere: apps for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android, auto-update, a tray and iskra:// invite links, and a web app for PCs and phones that installs like an app (on iPhone too). The web app sends push notifications through your browser; the phone apps show notifications while they're open.
In English and Swedish, following your system language or your pick in Settings.
For everyone: works with the keyboard and screen readers, readable contrast in every theme, and less motion when your system asks for it.
