Changelog

Version 1.0

Finding devices

• Devices on the same network appear by themselves, found several ways at once and merged into one entry per device. A network search is offered when nothing has turned up.
• An entry that has gone quiet is checked before it is dropped, so a device that is merely idle does not vanish from the list.
• Connect to a device by address for networks that block discovery, and a QR code under Settings carrying every address this PC can be reached at, plus its key fingerprint, for a phone to scan.
• kinzo://connect links are understood wherever an address can be typed.

Talking

• Pair with a six-digit code shown identically on both devices.
• Text with delivery receipts: one tick when it left this PC, two when the other device has stored it.
• Messages written while a device is away are queued and sent when it comes back.
• Photos, videos and voice notes, sent by drag and drop, paste (Ctrl+V) or the paperclip, with progress shown while they move.
• A built-in viewer for photos and video — zoom, pan, play, seek — so a file that arrived over the network does not have to be handed to another program just to look at it.
• Profile pictures, exchanged only with devices you have paired with.
• Per-conversation mute, and a local nickname for any device.
• Stickers. The smiley next to the paperclip opens the same 24-sticker Kinzo pack the phone has; click one to send it. Stickers from a phone show up as stickers too: no bubble, with the time underneath. A phone still on 1.2 gets them as ordinary pictures.
• Big emoji. A message that is only one to three emoji is shown large and without a bubble.
• Try sending again. Right-click a message that could not be sent. If the device is not connected, Kinzo tries to reach it first, and says so if it cannot.
• Delete chat, from the bin icon at the top of a conversation. It deletes the messages and files on this PC only; the other device keeps its copy. It warns you when unsent messages would be lost with it.
• The chat list and notifications say what a file was — “📷 Photo”, “🎬 Video”, “🎤 Audio”, “✨ Sticker”.

Removing a device

• Removing a device keeps the conversation. It stays open; the message box is replaced by “You removed name” or “name removed this device”, with a Pair again button, and the header says “Not paired”.
• A device you removed while it was off or out of range is told the moment it connects again.
• Messages that could not be delivered because of a removal are marked failed rather than left waiting. They go out by themselves once the two devices pair again.
• Being removed while Kinzo is in the notification area raises a notification.
• Works with phones still on Kinzo 1.2.

Devices that move between networks

• A saved address is treated as a hint, not as the device. If whoever answers there is a different device, Kinzo sends it nothing, hangs up, and stops calling that address for that device until the network changes or the device turns up somewhere else.
• Pair again checks the same thing, and says “That device isn’t at its last address. Find it under Available.” rather than sending a pair request to a stranger.

Being reachable

• Windows Firewall setup with a chooser that names the network you are on and asks which kinds of network to allow Kinzo on. Rules are limited to Kinzo, to its three ports, and to the local subnet. Kinzo never changes your network’s category.
• A banner appears when this PC cannot be reached, and says why rather than only that.
• Kinzo keeps running in the notification area when the window is closed, because a Kinzo that is not running cannot be reached at all. Quit is on its right-click menu.
• Optional start with Windows.
• The window opens in the middle of the screen, and only one copy of Kinzo runs at a time: starting it again brings the running window forward.

Privacy and safety

• Every connection is mutually authenticated TLS. A device’s key is pinned when you pair, and any later connection claiming that device must present the same key.
• Messages and files are accepted only from devices you have paired with.
• Everything stays in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Kinzo on this PC. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.
• A picture or file that arrives is checked before it is stored, and a file Windows would run rather than open is shown in Explorer instead of being launched.

Known limitations

• Photos, videos and voice notes only. Documents and archives are refused, because the Android app cannot display them — such a message would arrive on the phone as an empty bubble.
• A device on a different subnet cannot start a conversation with this PC, because the firewall rules are scoped to the local subnet. Pairing across subnets works in the direction you start it from here.
• Notifications are tray balloons rather than Windows toasts.
• Emoji are drawn in black and white, so big emoji are large outlines rather than the colour pictures the phone shows.
• Stickers need the WebP Image Extensions from Microsoft, which Windows 11 normally has. Without them a sticker shows as a grey square.
• Only the built-in sticker pack can be sent from this PC; the phone’s own stickers made from photos have no counterpart here yet.
• Screen readers are poorly served so far: rows in the device lists and messages in a conversation are not announced by what they show, and the icon buttons in the chat header have a tooltip but no spoken name.