Roger

Talking

Hold the big button to talk and let go to stop. Double tap it to keep the microphone on, and tap once more to stop. On a computer, hold the Space bar. The first tap turns the microphone on; your browser asks once.

Everyone in the channel hears you at once. When several people talk together, you hear them all. The red button means you are on air.

Channels

A channel is a name, like vincent-home. Everyone who opens the same name is on the same channel, up to fifteen devices. Tap the channel name at the top to switch, to see the channels you used before, or to make a new one.

To bring someone in, share the link from the channel list: it opens Roger straight on that channel.

Passwords. Give a channel a password when you make it (type your own, or tap Generate for a strong one), and only devices with the same password get in. The first device on a channel sets it. A shared link carries the password, so send it only to people who should have it. Joining a locked channel by name asks for its password.

Ping

Ping nudges everyone on the channel: a chime, a buzz on Android, and your screen name. Use it to call people before you talk.

With Pings while Roger is closed on (in Settings), a ping reaches your device even when Roger is closed or you are on another channel. It shows as a notification; tap it to open that channel. A ping for another channel also shows a bar in Roger with a Switch button.

Message sends a short text (up to 140 characters) the same way: everyone on the channel gets it, with the same chime, and closed phones get it as a notification. Tap Message to see the channel's history and write. The history stays on this device only; delete it per channel in Messages, or all of it in Settings.

A device can only ping someone who has been on the channel at the same time as them at least once since turning notifications on. Mute a channel in the channel list to stop its pings on this device.

Install Roger

Roger starts by installing itself as an app, and the setup (screen name, sound, notifications, first channel) happens in the app. The app keeps its own settings: on iPhone and iPad it does not even share them with Safari, and notifications only work in the installed app. When you came through an invite link, copy the invite before installing and tap Paste invite in the app. Browsers that cannot install apps can use Roger in the browser instead.

No link, no server

Connect with codes in Settings joins two devices by swapping two text codes (by message, mail, anything), without the channel server. Only for two devices.

What goes through the server

Roger cannot do without a server entirely, so it uses one as little as it can, encrypts whatever passes through it, and says here exactly what that is.

• Finding each other. Before two devices can connect, they swap a few connection messages through roger.vincentrozenberg.com. Your device seals them first with a key made from the channel name and password, so the server cannot read them. It knows the channel only by a hash of its name, holds the messages in memory (never on disk) and drops each one as soon as it is delivered. A channel is gone as soon as the last device leaves. Once devices on a channel are connected, one of them asks the server for all of them, and passes their sealed messages on directly.
• Hubs. So that Roger can carry far more people, computers with Roger open help pass on these connection messages: a hub asks the server once a second for up to a hundred channels at once and hands each its part over a direct connection. A hub sees the internet addresses and the channel hashes of the devices linked to it, and only sealed data passes through it: never a channel's name or password, a screen name, a ping or a word said. Besides that, a linked device hands the hub its statistics events (the ones listed under Statistics below, without any id), and the hub sends them on to the server with everyone's once a minute; the opening still goes straight to the server. Hubs also link to each other, so a device linked to a hub can find its channel, and pings for its other channels, through them instead of the server (see What hubs see below). Settings, Help carry Roger (on computers only) stops your computer being a hub and takes it out of all of this.
• Pings for your other channels. While Roger is open it also checks the channels you use for new pings and messages. The sender leaves each one at the server sealed with that channel's key; the server holds it in memory for two minutes and cannot read it, and knows the channels only by their hash. While Roger is open on your screen it also passes a hash of its notification address, which the server keeps for twelve seconds, so it does not ring you with a notification as well.
• Pings to closed phones. Your device seals the ping for each phone itself; the server signs it and hands it to Apple's, Google's or Mozilla's push service, which wakes the phone. Neither the server nor the push service can read it, and the server keeps nothing.
• Finding your own address. Your device asks public servers of Google and Cloudflare (STUN) for its internet address. They see that address, nothing else.
• Statistics, without knowing who. Roger tells the server what happened, never who: opened (with coarse facts about the device: its language, time zone, screen size class, light or dark mode, network speed class, whether notifications and the microphone are allowed, how many channels it knows), how far the setup got, connected or not (how long it took, and whether over the local network, the internet or a relay), how long a talk lasted, a ping or message sent (its length class, never its content), which buttons were used (by name), a problem. The server adds the system, browser and their versions from the browser's own description, and counts what it did itself (joins, wrong passwords, pushes, by kind). While a device is on a channel, the server also holds its country (two letters, looked up from the address) in memory, for a live map on the statistics page; it goes when the device leaves. It counts unique devices per day with a hash of the address, the browser and a salt that is thrown away every night, so nobody can be followed from one day to the next; it looks up the country from the address and keeps only that. It stores numbers per day, nothing else, and puts nothing on your device for it, so there is no cookie to agree to. Only Vincent can see the figures.
• The web server's log notes the address of a device that loads the page or calls the server, and the time, like any website. Not the channel, not your name.

What hubs see. Hubs (computers with Roger open) link to each other directly and pass connection messages between them, so that a device linked to a hub finds its channel without the server: the channel's gatekeeper and one other member have their hub register the channel with the hub that is in charge of it (picked by the channel's hash), a newcomer's offer goes there and on to them, and the answer comes back the same way. Pings and messages for your other channels travel the same way as notes. A hub sees the internet addresses of the devices and hubs linked to it and the channel hashes of the devices that are linked to it or whose messages it passes on. Everything it carries is sealed with the channel's key: never a channel's name or password, a screen name, a ping or a word said. Hubs keep all of it in memory, only while the page is open. When no hub answers in time, Roger goes through the server as before.

Never through the server: the sound, and pings and messages between connected devices. They go straight from device to device, encrypted by the connection itself, and are not recorded anywhere.

Updates reach Roger by themselves: it reloads at a quiet moment and reconnects, and says so. What changed is under What's new in Settings.

Only on this device: your screen name, your channels and their passwords, your settings, your message history and the others' notification addresses. Reset Roger on this device in Settings forgets all of it and starts the setup again.

When it does not work

• No sound: tap Tap to enable sound when it shows; browsers only play sound after a tap.
• The microphone is blocked: allow it for this site in the browser or phone settings.
• Stuck on Connecting, or "Is a VPN on?": Roger connects device to device, without a relay. A VPN, or a strict network (office, hotel, some mobile networks), blocks that. Turn the VPN off on both devices, or try another network (Wi-Fi or mobile data).
• No notifications: check that notifications are allowed for Roger in the phone settings, and on iPhone that Roger is installed.

Roger · Made by Vincent · © 2026