Signal Alums Release 7-Year Encrypted Spaces Preview for E2EE Collaboration Apps
Updated
Updated · WIRED · Jun 11
Signal Alums Release 7-Year Encrypted Spaces Preview for E2EE Collaboration Apps
3 articles · Updated · WIRED · Jun 11
Summary
A team including former Signal developers, Harvard researchers and Microsoft cryptographers released a preview of Encrypted Spaces—open-source libraries meant to let developers build end-to-end encrypted group apps.
Zero-knowledge proofs are the key mechanism: they let a server verify encrypted change logs, sync shared state and manage membership without reading the underlying data.
The release includes a research prototype called Spaces, which resembles an encrypted Slack or Discord with notes, calendar and file storage, though the team says it is not ready for real-world use.
The project grew out of Signal’s 2019-2020 work on private group membership and, after 7 years of intermittent development, is being pitched as a standardized foundation for encrypted collaboration software.
If widely adopted, the approach could push end-to-end encryption beyond messaging into mainstream workplace and community tools, while also complicating law-enforcement surveillance.
Can this 'next-gen Signal' deliver a private Google Docs without sacrificing features like search and easy collaboration?
If a single bug can forge a 'zero-knowledge proof,' can we ever truly trust this new wave of encrypted apps?
If new encrypted apps make user data inaccessible to companies, what happens to the 'free' services we rely on every day?
Building the Future of Secure Collaboration: Encrypted Spaces’ Mission, Cryptography, and Market Impact
Overview
Encrypted Spaces is a new open-source framework, launched as a preview and active research project, that aims to empower developers to build real-time collaboration apps with strong end-to-end encryption and Signal-grade privacy. Rather than being a finished product, it serves as foundational infrastructure, letting users explore its prototype and engage with the development team. The project addresses a major challenge in enterprise software: enabling rich, interactive collaboration without exposing user data. By focusing on privacy and open-source principles, Encrypted Spaces sets out to redefine secure, user-controlled collaboration for the next generation of applications.