Session is shutting down in 90 days if STF fails to reach its funding goals.

2026-04-09 05:05 UTC

We had hoped this day would never come, but Session has now entered its final 90 days of operation. If we are unable to reach our funding goal within this period, the Session Technology Foundation (STF) will be forced to shut down. To date, the STF has received approximately $65,000 in donations. This is enough to maintain critical Session infrastructure for the next 90 days. We are extremely grateful for the support Session has received from the community, but unfortunately this is not sufficient to retain full-time developers. As a result, all paid staff and developers will have their final working day on April 9, 2026. After this date, some team members will continue on a primarily volunteer basis to help maintain Session until July 8, 2026. Note: I can not find any separate blog or mastodon post with this same text. This is a link directly to project’s donate page. There is no new snapshot on archive.org yet.

Replies (10)

@onlinepersona@programming.dev 2026-04-09 06:40

> In most markets Senior developers often command salaries exceeding $150,000 USD per year Uh... That sounds like a US thing, honestly. Which developers in Europe or Asia earn that kind of money?

Open ##1130042
@HelloRoot@lemy.lol 2026-04-09 05:43

Sounds like bad planning. There are like 3 other e2ee messengers that are open source and have enough funding to operate for years without doing appeal-to-emotion dona-... extortion campaigns

Open ##1130043
@tal@lemmy.today 2026-04-09 05:27

For those who, like myself, have never heard of Session prior to now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_(software) > Session is an Australian, currently Switzerland-based, cross-platform end-to-end encrypted instant messaging application emphasizing user confidentiality and anonymity. Developed and maintained by the non-profit The Session Technology Foundation,[3] it employs a blockchain-based decentralized network for transmission. Users can send one-to-one and group messages, including various media types such as files, voice notes, images, and videos.[4] > >Session provides applications for various platforms, such as macOS, Windows, and Linux, along with mobile clients available on both iOS and Android.

Open ##1130044
@possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2026-04-09 13:12

https://signal.org/ https://molly.im/ https://simplex.chat/

Open ##1130048
@scott@lem.free.as 2026-04-09 06:32

Another reason why centralised communication is a bad idea.

Open ##1130049
@Mubelotix@jlai.lu 2026-04-09 06:25

60 cents per user per year is huge. Not sure why they have such costs but it's not sustainable

Open ##1130050
@foudinfo@jlai.lu 2026-04-09 06:04

65.000$ for 90 days ?! I could run my servers for decades with this kind of money...

Open ##1130053
@TacticalToothbrush@discuss.tchncs.de 2026-04-09 20:22

ping @iopq@lemmy.world and other mod. New archive snapshot is up. Should I swap the donation link to archive link?

Open ##1130056
@Lysergid@lemmy.ml 2026-04-09 06:24

This is unfortunate, even though I don’t use it for messaging (because normies won’t switch, small violin playing) I really like app UX. I’m wondering did they burn their budget on infrastructure or salaries. I suspect infrastructure because crypto but would be interesting to see some financial reports

Open ##1130059
@jay@mbin.zerojay.com 2026-04-09 12:09

Knew Session was in trouble as soon as they introduced some sort of Session token stuff into the instant messenger app, which made zero sense.

Open ##1410203