Session Pro Beta Development Update: Progress and Community Insights

Session Pro—a premium tier that unlocks advanced messaging features on Session—is on the horizon. This past month has seen substantial progress towards Session Pro Beta, the initial version of Session Pro designed to facilitate user testing and feedback.  This update provides details on technical progress towards the release of Session Pro Beta, along with other developments behind the scenes to support more advanced future features for Session Pro. It also provides current estimates for the potential launch timeframe for Session Pro beta. 

All Pro Beta features have completed QA on all platforms

In August, two core Pro Beta features had already completed their development and quality assurance cycles: Higher character limits for messages (up to 10,000 characters for Pro users), and unlimited pinned conversations. In September, animated display pictures, which allow Pro users to upload GIFs and animated WebP images as their avatar on Session, and Pro badges, where Pro users can opt to display a small “Pro” icon next to their display name throughout the app, were nearing completion across all platforms. As of this month, the first three features have reached completion on all platforms! The pro badges feature is also very close– it is just going through QA on iOS. 

Larger group sizes to follow in a subsequent version of Pro Beta Note that while larger group sizes (up to 300 members for groups with at least one Pro admin) are still planned as a Pro Beta feature, this feature will not be released as part of the first version of Pro Beta. As mentioned in last month’s update, this is because larger groups will require more development time to tackle the associated complexity of groups architecture on Session, as well as strategies to ensure efficient use of network resources. 

Session Pro payment infrastructure nearing completion

Unlike typical app services that authenticate users through centralized servers, Session Pro implements a privacy-preserving payment system that decouples payments from the certificates that unlock Pro features. This approach ensures users can access Pro features without maintaining a connection to centralized infrastructure while also preventing fraudulent payments and protecting user anonymity. However, this commitment to privacy and decentralization does come with technical challenges, which Session’s developers have spent the last months tackling. To successfully decouple payment from the certificate that proves to others that a user can access Pro features, Session developers have had to carefully choose what pieces of information to keep and omit—simultaneously preventing fraudulent payments while still maintaining the anonymity of a user's Session account. Apple and Google also have different design approaches when it comes to payments and fraud prevention, and these differences must be reconciled in a way that preserves privacy while also protecting Session users’ consumer rights to request a refund for Pro, as well upgrade or downgrade their Session Pro access period.

Session's decentralized approach to payments has also brought its share of challenges. In a typical app, users would simply authenticate with a server to access premium features, typically with an access token. In this case, users must always maintain a connection to a centralized server, which in turn synchronizes with payment providers and reconciles any changes in user entitlements. Instead, Session Pro issues certificates that can be used without requiring a centralized server. This enables a decentralized approach, but poses issues when handling refunds, as certificates need to be voided after they are issued—creating various design challenges around minimizing a user's need for and dependency on centralized services without deanonymizing the user. Session Pro's payments infrastructure is currently preparing to graduate from the testing environments provided by Google and Apple, and Session contributors are working through additional features that will ensure user payments are witnessed more reliably even in the event of network issues on either the payment provider's or Session's side. Updated launch target for Session Pro Beta in mid Q4

Previously, Session contributors had targeted early Q4, or October 2025, as a potential launch timeframe from Session Pro Beta. However, this timeline has been extended primarily due to additional development time and resources required for the Session Pro payments infrastructure described above, which exceeded initial estimates. As work on the Session Pro payments infrastructure approaches completion, a new launch timeframe can be estimated, with a tentative target of mid Q4, or sometime within the month of November 2025. However, please note that this is only an estimate, which may be subject to change due to any additional development requirements that may arise. 

If the launch timeframe requires extension until December, the Session community will be informed via this blog. Session contributors appreciate the patience and support of the Session and Session Token communities, as they eagerly await the launch of Pro Beta! A concrete launch date will be able to be provided closer to the completion of Session Pro Beta.

Session Router and what it means for Pro 

In addition to preparing for the launch of Session Pro Beta, Session’s developers have been hard at work on a whole new networking layer for the Session app. Over the coming months, internal and external testing will be conducted to battle-test Session Router, a new onion routing network that is optimized for secure, low latency network communication. Session Router is the result of an extensive top-to-bottom rewrite of Lokinet, Session’s current onion routing network. Starting with iOS, and followed by Android and Desktop, Session users will be able to opt in to the Session Router beta program and provide feedback on the improved performance and reliability that Session’s developers hope to provide with Session Router, from faster message sending and delivery as well as faster media uploading and downloading.

But the significance of Session Router extends beyond day-to-day performance of Session. This low latency network should enable important planned features that are currently being considered for the Session Pro roadmap, including larger attachment sizes and, in the longer term, onion-routed voice and video calls. This is because Session Router is faster and can onion route a broader range of network protocols than Session’s current onion-routing protocol, which is limited in the sizes of files it can transfer between users, and currently is unable to support high quality voice and video calls.

Looking ahead to launch

As work towards the launch of Session Pro Beta continues, Session contributors would like to thank the Session community for their support. With all core Pro Beta features now complete and Session Router approaching the launch of its own beta program, the foundation is being laid not just for the initial launch, but for the more advanced capabilities planned for the future. The Session community's patience and ongoing feedback continue to be invaluable as Session Pro takes shape. If you haven't already shared your thoughts on what you'd like to see in Session Pro, there's still time to contribute your perspective via this survey!