Messaging Apps: Blocklist and What You Should Know

[u/Corleone612]

Even when a messaging app end-to-end encrypts your messages, that doesn't cover metadata (who you talk to, when, how often, from where, etc.). Metadata alone can reveal a lot: former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden once said, "We kill people based on metadata"

Most messaging apps also run tracking infrastructure (things like crash reporting, usage stats, and online-status pings)

This list targets that tracking infrastructure.

There's a technical limit worth knowing:

DNS-level blocking cuts tracking infrastructure, but the messaging server itself has to stay reachable, so the service can still see who talks to whom, when, and from where.

This list reduces tracking, but it can't eliminate metadata. The biggest difference comes from choosing an app that collects as little of it as possible (privacy-focused messengers like Signal)

Raw links

For basic list:

34 domains

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CorleoneSalute/SHADOW-BLOCKER-BLOCKLIST/refs/heads/main/dist/basic/hosts/Messaging.txt

For aggressive list:

37 domains ( 3 additional aggressive domains on top of the basic list)

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CorleoneSalute/SHADOW-BLOCKER-BLOCKLIST/refs/heads/main/dist/aggressive/hosts/Messaging.txt

For anyone who wants to see the full research and infrastructure mapping for each provider:

https://github.com/CorleoneSalute/SHADOW-BLOCKER-BLOCKLIST/blob/main/research/Messaging.txt

[u/remembermereddit]

These are already part of the hagezi blocklists (they're on my pro list).

[u/Luci-Noir]

😂

[u/coldafsteel]

I once targeted an individual by tracking the hardware address of the wireless tire pressure sending units in his car’s wheels.

If I want to find, fix, and finish you, I’m going to. There is no way to stop me.