Name of the application: Luxchat4Gov. Announced last November, the Luxembourg messaging service for public officials was officially launched on Tuesday 23 May. This means that 25,000 civil servants can now use a professional chat service for their real-time communications.

The advantage is that the application is “operated entirely within data centres located on Luxembourg territory. Moreover, the communications exchanged in the application are encrypted from end to end.” The ministry of digitalisation assures that “no one other than the sender of a message and the persons with whom that person has communicated can read these messages, nor access attached files.”

Features include text and voice messages, audio and video calls, sending files, creating surveys, sharing one’s location with Géoportail.lu or editing messages already sent. The application is available on Android and iOS. It is built on the Matrix protocol, which is based on open standards and free software.

A version open to the general public and businesses should follow “in a few months.” Named simply “Luxchat,” it is to be launched by private operators. But unless these operators offer it to their customers, users may have to pay for it.

This story was first published in French on Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.