Naven is a free social platform where you message friends, make voice and video calls, join communities and share photos with people anywhere in the world. Direct messages, group chats, channels and calls live in one place, with safety built in for every age. It runs in any web browser, needs no phone number, and is built independently — how Naven is built.
Honest, side-by-side comparisons — including what each one does better than Naven and who should stay where they are: vs WhatsApp, vs Telegram, vs Signal, vs iMessage, vs Discord, vs Messenger, vs Snapchat, vs Slack, vs Microsoft Teams, vs Google Chat, vs GroupMe, vs Viber — or see all comparisons.
Family group chats across mixed devices, teen messaging parents can agree to, schools and libraries on managed devices, friends and family abroad, clubs and small communities, messaging without a phone number, messaging with nothing to install, and communities without an algorithmic feed — or see all use cases.
Naven works fully in any web browser with no companion phone required, and needs no phone number to sign up — the email address you already have is enough. It is the only one of the four with a built-in AI assistant that cites its sources, AI news channels with a five-publisher floor, and screening that runs before a message sends rather than reporting after harm has happened. There is no public searchable directory, so strangers cannot find and message you.
Stated plainly, because a comparison that hides its weak spot is not worth reading: Naven is not end-to-end encrypted. Content that never reaches a server cannot be screened, so pre-send screening and end-to-end encryption cannot both be true, and Naven chose screening because it is built to be usable by children. Naven is transport-encrypted throughout, publishes no member directory, and does not profile or sell what you send. If end-to-end encryption matters more to you than screening, use Signal or iMessage for those conversations.
Naven screens every message before it sends, for ten things: spam and scams, malware and malicious links, harassment and bullying, hate speech, credible threats of violence, sexual exploitation, illegal transactions, doxxing, content that encourages self-harm, and graphic violence — plus slurs and strong language, which are screened for every member and refused with the reason shown. Display names are screened too, and to a stricter standard, because a name is shown to people who never chose to hear from that account. Self-harm is the one category Naven does not block: somebody telling a friend they are struggling is reaching out, so the message is delivered and help is offered alongside it. Insults and arguments are not screened: "you are being an idiot" is how people argue, and an app that will not deliver a disagreement is not protecting anybody. Accounts carry separate protection levels for under-13, teen and adult members, under-13 accounts cannot send until a parent's signed consent is verified, as COPPA requires, and Naven publishes no member directory that would expose people to strangers. Read how Naven handles safety.
The names differ by one letter and search engines mix them up. Naven, at navenapp.com, is a free messaging app. Navan, at navan.com, is an unrelated company that makes corporate travel and expense software. What Naven is, in full.
Naven is designed and built independently, responsible for the design, the code, the infrastructure and the support. Questions go to hello@navenapp.com, account help to help@navenapp.com, and safety reports to safety@navenapp.com. More about the developer and the stack behind Naven.
Messaging, group chats, communities, voice calls and video calls are free, with no advertising and no engagement-ranked feed. Sign in with the email address you already have — through Google or a one-time emailed code, with no new password — at navenapp.com.