EU Sovereignty Score
Non-EU vendorMessagingHeadquarters: US

imo: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

imo is an app for video calling, voice calling and messaging. Users hold one-to-one video and audio calls, including international ones, and can send messages. According to the vendor, the service offers end-to-end encryption, disappearing messages and two-step verification. imo is available as an app for Android, iOS, Windows and Mac and runs on the provider's own servers.

The provider is PageBites, Inc., based in Palo Alto, California, in the United States. The company is a subsidiary of Singularity IM, Inc. The privacy policy states that personal data is stored and processed on servers in the United States, Asia and other countries outside the EU and the EEA. PageBites describes itself as controller under the GDPR and uses standard contractual clauses for European users. There is no European hosting option. As a US company, the service is subject to US legislation such as the CLOUD Act, which a European organisation with confidential communications should weigh.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with imo pre-selected
MastodonLinkedInBlueskyXEmail
Sovereignty score
17 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-210
    Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
  • Data residency SOV-30
    No hosting in Europe (US, OTHER)
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-320
    Key management with a non-European vendor
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
    Closed source: switching requires data migration
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-615
    Closed source, runtime with the vendor

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked October 11, 2026
Headquarters
US (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision
Only for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Sovereignty model
Vendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting
US, OTHERVerified by hand
Open-source
NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
Messaging
Type
Product
Website
imo.im ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to imo

The European alternatives to imo come from our knowledge base of over 6,800 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

21 European Messaging vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

Is imo one of many dependencies?

Score your whole stack in about three minutes. Free, no account needed.

Assess your stack →View a sample report (opens in a new tab)

Why digital sovereignty matters with imo

imo is headquartered in the United States. US vendors fall under the CLOUD Act and FISA 702: US authorities can compel access to data, even when that data sits in a European data centre. That is the core of the jurisdictional exposure in our model.

imo hosts data outside the EU (US, OTHER). Personal data therefore leaves the EU, which requires a transfer mechanism under the GDPR and pulls the data residency score down.

imo is closed source and hosted by the vendor. The encryption keys and the runtime sit with the vendor and switching requires data migration. Ask about bring-your-own-key, export options and open standards.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs imo together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to imo?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to imo include Balsio, Berty and Conversations (XMPP). On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to imo?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to imo include Berty, Conversations (XMPP), Delta Chat, Dino and Gajim. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is imo GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

imo is headquartered in US and hosts data in US, OTHER. The vendor states it is GDPR-compliant, but the data falls under non-EU jurisdiction. For full EU data residency the EU alternatives on this page usually offer more certainty.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on October 11, 2026.

Sources

Public sources used in the latest check of this record.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

No public compliance evidence has been recorded for this vendor yet. Do you know its DPA or subprocessor list? Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Digital sovereignty in Messaging

Messaging: Personal messaging — chat, group conversations, media sharing. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

Also in this category

See all →
Open in the alternatives dashboardMissing a vendor? Submit itAre you this vendor? You can also become a sponsor on the Messaging page — with no effect on your score
8 European alternatives to imo — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score