Thunderbolt in action: Use cases for individuals and businesses

Messaging today

When you stop and think about it, you realise there's been minimal evolution in the way we send texts/messages since the initial revolution in the early noughties.

Sure, attachments can be bigger, calls have become more reliable, and video is now as ubiquitous as ‘u’ and ‘y’ shorthand in early texts.

But not a lot else has evolved. Until now.

Thunderbolt for voice, video calls, and messages

Thunderbolt is the first true step forward in messaging we’ve seen in a while.

It’s totally free to download, and supports:

• Voice calls.

• Video calls.

• Instant messages.

• Secure attachments.

Because it uses a domain as your identifier instead of a phone number or email address, it offers some unique benefits not comparable to other platforms.

Many of these help with the most important feature of any messenger these days: Security.

But these security benefits are only the beginning of a whole list of fairly unique use-cases that we’ll explore further in a minute.

Security in messaging

Secure messaging matters more than ever today. It’s one of the first considerations when we select a new messenger app. Will the app we choose protect our data at all costs?

This is partly because we’re seeing reports, almost daily, of companies old and new being hacked or held to ransom for your personal data.

Take a glance through the Verizon Investigation of Data Breaches in 2025, which makes for fairly grim reading. Percentages of attacks across the board are up by an order of magnitudes, even since year alone.

But our private messages aren't simply “personal data”.

The type of personal data contained within messages brings about a whole new element of risk.

It’s one thing for people to know our address, phone number, or even passwords — but knowing intimate details of the things we share with friends is something else entirely. Our most private thoughts, most cherished secrets, or most intimate connections could be exposed and used for extortion or blackmail.

Thunderbolt as a secure messaging platform

Thunderbolt is a free app for calls, videos, and instant messages, and has gained over 1,000 active users since its launch on May 13. Addressing the security concerns present on most other messaging apps is likely the main reason more people are turning to Thunderbolt for secure messaging.

What sets Thunderbolt apart security-wise is the fact that no messages are stored on its servers. If no messages are stored, they can’t be hacked. They exist only on your device and that of the recipient.

Also, the fact that it uses a domain as your identifier (instead of a phone number or email address), it has certain security advantages: Thunderbolt places one DNS record on your domain. The app on your device checks for this unique record, and then connects to it. If DNSSEC is enabled on your domain, nobody else can validate another device after one is connected. This makes it almost impossible for bad actors to spoof it.

We’ve already covered this, and many of Thunderbolt’s other security virtues, so let’s move on to some of the unique use cases for Thunderbolt.

Private conversations with friends and family

Thunderbolt should interest anyone who values privacy — and in the modern world, that should be everyone.

And don't be deterred by the domain element: You don’t need to build a website, and you definitely don't need to have a business. You just need to pick up a domain from around $0.99, and if you do this with Spaceship, you don't even have to add the TXT Record — it's all taken care of automatically.

If you still aren't sure, take a scroll through one of your most recent conversations. You'll likely see private pictures, videos, and maybe even sensitive documents.

While this data is usually stored on our devices, it's also stored at the cloud level in most messengers (think Facebook Messenger, and iMessage).

I know what you're thinking - they're ‘end-to-end encrypted’ , so they must be secure. Yes and no. As the name suggests, end-to-end means it is encrypted during transit, and also when it's stored. But the fact remains that these companies still have a copy of your data stored on their servers — it's the reason you can see media files when you log in on new devices.

There are cases where data has been accessed fraudulently and other situations that make companies like Meta and Apple likely to hand over data or messages because of questionable laws or law enforcement.

Because Thunderbolt doesn’t store messages, everything comes down to your device's security. So your messages are protected by phone/device-level security, which can include biometrics, pins, patterns, or even face recognition.

To state the obvious, this means you have total control over when your messages are erased, and someone needs to be in physical possession of your device to read them. All this to say, Thunderbolt narrows the risk greatly.

Sending the most sensitive personal data

We’re talking IDs, financial details—even medical records. People seem to want proof more and more these days that we are who we say we are, precisely because of the increased level of impersonations and fraud. This leads to a vicious cycle of us having to more readily offer up the very information we seek to protect the most.

Thunderbolt's ability to store attachments independently makes it ideal for sending sensitive personal data.

Although it goes without saying that you should never send data to anyone you aren’t totally sure about. After all, it’s people, not machines, that pose the risk when it comes to identity theft (for now, at least).

Business use cases

The following examples are slightly more business-centric, but this is simply because security plays a far bigger role for organisations, which look after not only their data but also the data of their customers.

Increased laws over the protection of customer data mean businesses are always looking for new ways to protect themselves from potential data breaches, and Thunderbolt is a great way to do that.

1. Remote team collaboration

Using Thunderbolt for team collaborations is a great idea, as your teams can freely share sensitive business ideas securely.

It’s easy to set a whole team up on Thunderbolt using just one domain — in the same way you might otherwise set them up with email addresses. For this to work, your domain needs to be hosted with Spaceship (unlike for single users, where the domain can be hosted anywhere).

To set up your team, you’ll need to create a new subdomain for each intended user of Thunderbolt. This should look like theirname.yoursite.com, and repeat the setup process.

Additionally, you could use marketing.yoursite.com, and admin.yoursite.com to manage more general communications and enquiries.

This structure may resemble an email address, and be equally as memorable, but it has the added bonus of being much harder to spoof.

Once your team is connected by Thunderbolt, messages will only be stored on the employee’s device.

This could see Thunderbolt significantly reduce the risk of leaks of sensitive information when used alongside healthy data practices.

2. Client or customer communications

Communicating with clients and customers can come with risks. Data could become compromised, and bad actors could impersonate your business. In the latter case, customers may think they’re talking to you when they’re actually talking to someone impersonating you or your business.

By making it clear your business only replies via Thunderbolt (which you know is keeping your data completely secure), you can mitigate against both of these risks.

Data is secured, not stored. And your clients will be able to trust they are talking to you, and only you, thanks to the increased authenticity Thunderbolt is known for.

This is especially useful in the legal, financial, or healthcare sectors where confidentiality is paramount.

3. Anonymity, when required

While it seems contrary to the above, one benefit of Thunderbolt is almost total anonymity, if you ever need it.

Let's say you're a journalist, and a source is nervous about coming forward with a story. They could protect themselves by using a handshake (blockchain) domain and connecting with you via Thunderbolt without giving away their identity.

Identity protection could give someone the confidence to come forward with important information.

4. Crisis management, secure briefings, and internal comms

While Thunderbolt is ideal for any work situation, as we’ve talked about, perhaps you are happy with your existing messenger.

If this is the case, Thunderbolt can be an ideal backup for when something happens and there’s a greater need for security. The protections we’ve already discussed make it ideal for crisis management, secure briefings, and other internal communications that have to be secure.

It's one of the few places where you can be sure that no third party has access to your company data.

5. Brand differentiator, for visibility

Domains are far more memorable than phone numbers and email addresses. Be a pioneer, stand out from the crowd, and use your domain for customer service, emphasizing the benefits of authenticity and simplicity to your customers.

Zero knowledge architecture

It sounds like quite a technical term, but it essentially means Thunderbolt can validate your identity and data integrity without accessing, storing, or knowing sensitive information like passwords or encryption keys. This keeps logging into Thunderbolt super easy. Also, generally speaking, the less data there is, the less data there is for potential hackers. No password means no password to guess.

Similarly, the end-to-end encryption means Thunderbolt itself cannot decrypt/see the data as it passes through in transit.

This “zero knowledge” basis means your data is always entirely in your hands.

More than just a comms app, get complete peace of mind

We’ve talked a lot about how Thunderbolt will improve security, guarantee authenticity, and not store any files, but another common issue with messenger apps is harvesting data to sell it.

Some companies sell extracted data to make money. This could be from unnecessary permissions in your phone (things like location, or activities that the app has no need for), but there’s also a degree of ambiguity about exactly what is up for grabs. You might be surprised how much additional data messaging apps are harvesting from you. Things like purchase history and advertising data are surprise contenders, in that they are not things we directly associate with, for example, WhatsApp.

Thunderbolt will never sell or monetize any data. Your data remains your data, and it will never be sold. There isn’t really much more to add here — it’s as simple as that. Period.

This means you can rest easy when sending messages.

Try today — download for free

Join the increasing throng of new users of Thunderbolt, and tell us what you think! Download it with your friend group, or within your company and see the benefits for yourself.

It’s still evolving, so your feedback and comments could directly lead to new features within the app. Download Thunderbolt for free, now.