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Skywire for Android: user guide

The Skywire app runs a full Skywire node (a visor) on your phone, together with the apps that use it: SkyVPN, SkyDNS, SkyChat, SkySOCKS, SkyDEX and a multi-coin wallet. This guide walks through each screen. For building the app yourself, see android/README.md.

The screenshots are from the Android 16 emulator.

Install

Download skywire-<version>-android.apk from the latest release and open it on the phone. Android asks once to allow installs from the browser or file manager you opened it with. The release also has a .sha256 file to check the download against.

Connect

The home screen has one button. Connect starts the Skywire core on the phone; Disconnect stops it.

On the first connect Android asks whether Skywire may send notifications. Allow it: the core runs as a foreground service, and its notification is what keeps it running while the app is closed.


Once connected the screen shows the visor: its public key, which is this phone's address on the network, its version and how long it has been up. View logs opens the core's log, the first place to look when something does not work.

The app also offers to ignore battery optimisation. Without it Android can pause the app's network some time after the screen goes off, and messages and calls then arrive late. Allow opens Android's setting; Not now asks again later. The same choice is under Settings, Battery.


Apps

The round button in the middle of the bottom bar opens the Apps hub. SkyVPN is on top, with its traffic counters, route length and killswitch state. Below it is the SkyDNS switch, then the other apps. A green dot marks an app that is running. The chips at the top filter the list.


SkyVPN

SkyVPN routes the phone's traffic through a Skywire VPN server (an exit).

Pick an exit in the list at the bottom of the screen, then press Connect. Android asks once to allow Skywire to set up a VPN.

Network address shows the phone's own public address, and where its traffic leaves the network while SkyVPN is on. The phone's own address does not change; other apps' traffic leaves through the exit.

Killswitch keeps other apps off the network while the tunnel is down, so nothing leaks around it. For blocking even before the app starts, turn on Always-on VPN and Block connections without VPN for Skywire in Android's settings; Always-on VPN settings opens them.


SkyDNS inside SkyVPN is on by default: while SkyVPN is connected, every app can open .dmsg and .skynet names. See SkyDNS below.

Apps using SkyVPN chooses which apps go through the tunnel: all of them, only the ones you pick, or all except the ones you pick.


VPN hotspot shares SkyVPN with devices connected to this phone's hotspot, through a proxy on the phone.

Transport is the kind of link tried first on the way to the exit; the others stay as fallbacks.

Route length sets how many Skywire visors the traffic passes through before the exit. One hop is fastest. Two or more need Connect to public visors turned on in Settings.


Exits lists the public VPN servers with their country and version. Search by key, country or version, and star the ones you use so they stay at the top. The refresh button reloads the list.


SkyDNS

SkyDNS lets every app on the phone open .dmsg and .skynet names, such as <key>.skynet sites in the browser. A site is addressed by its key's DNS label, because a hex public key is too long for a DNS name.

SkyDNS works two ways:

  • Inside SkyVPN. With SkyVPN connected and its SkyDNS switch on, the default, nothing else is needed.
  • On its own. The SkyDNS switch in the Apps hub runs it while SkyVPN is off. Only Skywire's own address range goes into its tunnel, and names that are not .dmsg or .skynet are answered by the phone's normal DNS. All other traffic goes out as usual, not through Skywire.

Android lets an app answer DNS for other apps only through a VPN, so the first time you turn SkyDNS on by itself Android asks to allow a VPN connection. Press OK.


The card then reads Answering .dmsg and .skynet names, and the VPN key icon shows in the status bar.

Two Android limits apply. Only one VPN app can be active at a time, so SkyDNS on its own cannot run alongside another VPN app. And if Private DNS is set to a specific provider in Android's network settings, apps may ask that provider instead of SkyDNS.


SkyChat

SkyChat is end-to-end encrypted messaging, groups, channels, voice calls and file sharing, carried peer to peer over Skywire with no central chat server. Your chat identity is the visor's key.

Set your name gives it a display name. The + button starts a chat; the QR button shows your key as a code for someone to scan, or scans theirs. Saved Messages is a notebook kept on the phone. The chips filter chats by kind.


Wallet

The wallet holds Skycoin, other Fiber coins, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether, and ERC-20 tokens you add. Choose the coin at the top, then Create a new wallet for a new recovery phrase or Restore from seed with an existing 12 or 24 word phrase. Keys are made and kept on the phone and are never sent to the network.

Write the recovery phrase down when you create a wallet. It is the only way to get the wallet back on another phone.


SkySOCKS and SkyDEX

SkySOCKS runs a SOCKS5 proxy on the phone through a public Skywire proxy server, for apps that let you set a proxy.

SkyDEX trades on the Skywire decentralized exchange.

Both open from the Apps hub.

Settings

Identity shows the visor's public key. Replace secret key brings in a key from another device; New identity makes a fresh one. Both end the current identity.

Export config saves the whole visor configuration as a file. It is the only way to move this identity to another phone or bring it back, so keep it somewhere safe: it holds the secret key.

Encrypt the config at rest seals that file while Skywire is disconnected, under a key the phone does not hand out.


Connect to public visors keeps transports open to public visors, so traffic can route through this phone and it can route through them. It costs battery and mobile data, which is why it is off. Route lengths above one hop need it.

DNS server is the resolver SkyVPN and SkyDNS use for ordinary names, over DNS-over-TLS where the server offers it. Left empty, SkyVPN uses 1.1.1.1 and SkyDNS on its own uses the phone's DNS.


Remote management lets one other visor, for example a Skywire hypervisor on your desktop, manage this phone: start and stop apps, change routing and read logs. Nothing is reachable until you grant a key, and that key gets full control, so only grant one for a machine you own.

App lock asks for your fingerprint, face or screen lock when Skywire opens. It needs a screen lock set on the phone.

Incoming calls lets a SkyChat call take over the screen and ring, and Battery shows whether Android may pause the app in the background.


When something does not work

  • Open View logs on the home screen. The core's log usually says what went wrong.
  • If messages or calls arrive late, allow Skywire to ignore battery optimisation (home screen prompt, or Settings, Battery).
  • If .skynet names do not open, check SkyDNS is on, and that Private DNS in Android's network settings is not set to a specific provider.
  • Questions are welcome in the @skywire Telegram group.