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OnionShare, the open-source and cross-platform tool for securely and anonymously sharing files, hosting websites over the Tor network, has been updated to version 2.3, a major release with new features and improvements.
More than a year in the works, OnionShare 2.3 is finally here as the next major update to this awesome tool for anonymously sharing files or hosting websites as an onion service, and now also for anonymously chatting with friends or family, thanks to the end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) OnionShare chat room feature.
The anonymous chat feature is so securely implemented that it leaves almost no traces. For starters, nothing is logged when you’re anonymously chatting in an OnionShare chat room, and your messages aren’t stored anywhere. And secondly, you don’t have to create an account to use the OnionShare chat room, so your email address isn’t exposed to hackers or spammers.
“For example, a whistleblower can send an OnionShare address to a journalist using a disposable e-mail address, and then wait for the journalist to join the chat room, all without compromising their anonymity.,” explains developer Micah Lee.
Another cool new feature in OnionShare 2.3 is an all new design featuring tabs, which enables you to do multiple tasks simultaneously in the app. Previous version of OnionShare only allowed you to do one thing, whether it was sharing files or hosting a website, but now you can do them all at once, including chatting anonymously.
Tabs can be saved and you can open as many as you want. In addition, the tabs make OnionShare connect much faster to the Tor network, especially if you’re using a bridge, and better support for persistent services.
On top of all that, OnionShare 2.3 now offers a dedicated command-line version of the app that you can install on any platform, including headless Linux servers, using pip (e.g. pip3 install --user onionshare-cli), the ability to display QR codes of OnionShare addresses, and more responsive design for Web Apps on mobile.
Last but not least, you can now install OnionShare as a Flatpak or Snapc on your GNU/Linux distribution. You can download the OnionShare 2.3.1 release, which fixes a couple of bugs with the new chat mode and command-line version, right now from the project’s GitHub page, Flathub, or Snap Store.
Last updated 3 years ago
