Build Instructions

Classification: Developer · Last updated: April 2026

SecureChat now includes the Android application, website and documentation. The current release APK is published on GitHub Releases, and local builds use the Gradle wrapper in this repository.

Requirements

Prerequisites

Development Environment

The following tools are required to build SecureChat and Chameleon from source.

Android Studio — latest stable release (Hedgehog or newer)
JDK 17 — required by the Gradle build system
Android SDK 26+ — minimum API level (Android 8.0 Oreo)
Gradle — bundled with the project via Gradle Wrapper
Git — for cloning the repository

SecureChat

Main Application

Clone the Repository

$ git clone https://github.com/NeaBouli/securechat $ cd securechat

Build: Run ./gradlew assembleRelease from the repository root. The release APK is written to app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk. Official distribution remains through Vendetta Labs GitHub Releases and approved store channels.

Chameleon

Overlay Encryption

Build from Source

Chameleon is the overlay encryption component that provides an additional encryption layer for SecureChat messages. It can be built independently.

$ git clone https://github.com/NeaBouli/chameleon $ cd chameleon $ ./gradlew assembleDebug # Output APK location: app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk

Debug build: ./gradlew assembleDebug
Release build: ./gradlew assembleRelease (requires signing key)
Run tests: ./gradlew test
Clean build: ./gradlew clean assembleDebug

Verification

Security

Verify Release Signatures

All release builds are signed with the project's release key. You can verify the APK signature using Android's apksigner tool.

$ apksigner verify --print-certs app-release.apk

Compare the certificate fingerprint against the published fingerprint on GitHub
F-Droid builds are reproducible — you can verify that F-Droid's build matches the source
Never install APKs from untrusted sources — always verify signatures