Tox is a
peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...
instant-messaging and video-calling protocol that offers
end-to-end encryption. The stated goal of the project is to provide secure yet easily accessible communication for everyone. A
reference implementation of the protocol is published as
free and open-source software under the terms of the
GNU GPL-3.0-or-later.
History
The initial commit to
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, co ...
was pushed on June 23, 2013, by a user named irungentoo. Pre-alpha testing binaries were made available for users from February 3, 2014, onward. On July 12, 2014, Tox entered an alpha stage in development and a redesigned download page was created for the occasion.
Features
Encryption of traffic
Users are assigned a public and private key, and they connect to each other directly in a fully
distributed, peer-to-peer network. Users have the ability to message friends, join chat rooms with friends or strangers, voice/video chat, and send each other files. All traffic over Tox is end-to-end encrypted using the
NaCl library, which provides
authenticated encryption and
perfect forward secrecy
In cryptography, forward secrecy (FS), also known as perfect forward secrecy (PFS), is a feature of specific key agreement protocols that gives assurances that session keys will not be compromised even if long-term secrets used in the session key e ...
.
Additional messaging features
Tox clients aim to provide support for various secure and anonymised communication features; while every client supports
messaging, additional features like
group messaging,
voice and video calling,
voice and video conferencing, typing indicators,
message read-receipts,
file sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include r ...
, profile encryption, and
desktop streaming are supported to various degrees by mobile and desktop clients. Additional features can be implemented by any client as long as they are supported by the core protocol. Features that are not related to the core networking system are left up to the client. Client developers are strongly encouraged to adhere to the Tox Client Standard in order to maintain cross-client compatibility and uphold best security practices.
Usability as an instant messenger

Though several apps that use the Tox protocol seem similar in function to regular instant messaging apps, the lack of central servers similar to
XMPP
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP, originally named Jabber) is an open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), ...
or
Matrix
Matrix most commonly refers to:
* ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise
** '' The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film
** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchi ...
currently has the consequence that both parties of the chat need to be online for the message to be sent and received. The Tox enabled messengers deal with this in separate ways, some prevent the user from sending the message if the other party has disconnected while others show the message as being sent when in reality it is stored in the sender's phone waiting to be delivered when the receiving party reconnects to the network.
Architecture
Core
The Tox core is a library establishing the protocol and API. User front-ends, or clients, are built on the top of the core. Anyone can create a client utilizing the core.
Technical documents describing the design of the Core, written by the core developer irungentoo, are available publicly.
Protocol
The core of Tox is an implementation of the Tox protocol, an example of the application layer of the
OSI model and arguably the presentation layer. Implementations of the Tox protocol not done by the project exist.
Tox uses the
Opus audio format for audio streaming and the
VP8 video compression format for video streaming.
Encryption
Tox uses the cryptographic primitives present in the
NaCl crypto library, via libsodium. Specifically, Tox employs
Curve25519
In cryptography, Curve25519 is an elliptic curve used in elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) offering 128 bits of security (256-bit key size) and designed for use with the elliptic curve Diffie–Hellman (ECDH) key agreement scheme. It is one ...
for its key exchanges, xsalsa20 for symmetric encryption, and
Poly1305 for MACs. Because the tox protocol can be used by many different applications, and because the tox network broadcasts the used client, it is also possible for clients to use additional encryption when sending to clients which support the same features.
Clients
A client is a program that uses the Tox core library to communicate with other users of the Tox protocol. Various clients are available for a wide range of systems; the following list is incomplete.
There are also Tox protocol plugins for
Pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...
(no longer maintained, but working as of 2018-03-30) and
Miranda NG.
Disassociation with Tox Foundation
At July 11, 2015, Tox developers officially announced their disassociation with Tox Foundation, due to "a dispute over the misuse of donated funds" by Tox Foundation head and CEO, according to
LWN.net. Due to domains being in control of the Tox Foundation, main development of the project was transferred to a new infrastructure, servers, and new domain.
Reception
Tox received some significant publicity in its early conceptual stage, catching the attention of global online tech news sites. On August 15, 2013, Tox was number five on
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, co ...
's top trending list.
Concerns about
metadata leaks were raised, and developers responded by implementing
Onion routing
Onion routing is a technique for anonymous communication over a computer network. In an onion network, messages are encapsulated in layers of encryption, analogous to layers of an onion. The encrypted data is transmitted through a series of net ...
for the friend-finding process. Tox was accepted into the
Google Summer of Code as a Mentoring Organization in 2014 and 2015.
See also
*
Comparison of instant messaging clients
*
Comparison of instant messaging protocols
*
Comparison of VoIP software
*
List of free and open-source software packages
References
External links
*
{{telecommunications
2013 software
Android (operating system) software
Communication software
Cross-platform software
Distributed computing
Free communication software
Free instant messaging clients
Free software programmed in C
Instant messaging clients
Instant messaging clients for Linux
Instant messaging clients that use GTK
IOS software
MacOS instant messaging clients
Onion routing
Peer-to-peer
Secure communication
Videotelephony
VoIP protocols
VoIP software
Windows instant messaging clients