This first half of the year has been intense, maybe one of the most intense periods I’ve lived since the beginning of the project. Many new opportunities are rising for Murena that will potentially turn our “privacy niche project” into something very big…
We’re close to 100,000 Murena and /e/OS regular users. Our business activity is getting stronger and stronger, even reaching break-even in 2025. And I have a growing feeling that we’re living a turning point moment: /e/OS and the Murena mobile ecosystem is increasingly becoming a credible default option to become the third major mobile ecosystem in Europe and in the world. And not only on mobile: we see very strong opportunities to even embrace and disrupt the PC market. Will the moray eel eat the dinosaur?
All this to explain that this traditional “yearly roadmap post” is a bit late this year!
Why we’re doing this
A quick reminder of what it’s all for. We build /e/OS and Murena because the device in your pocket should serve you, not the company that made it. That means privacy and digital rights by default, not as an upsell. It means software that’s actually usable by everyone, not just technical people willing to be brave. It means sustainability: supporting 250+ devices because the greenest phone is the one you already own. And it means digital sovereignty, especially for Europe, where a few big companies shouldn’t get to decide what the mobile internet looks like for the next generation.
/e/OS & Murena Workspace V4 – launching in June 2026
We are going to launch /e/OS & Murena Workspace V4 with quite a number of interesting and long-awaited features.
Beyond improved app compatibility (in particular for /e/OS Official), one of the new things will be a backup feature that will allow /e/OS users to reinstall a new device from an existing backup. This is very useful if your device is lost or stolen, but also when you want to use a newer device (which normally shouldn’t happen too often, since we’re supporting a lot increased longevity of devices with /e/OS).
The backup feature is something that is expected in a modern OS and doesn’t seem to be difficult to create. It’s true and not true at the same time: although several pieces of software exist for this purpose, they generally lead to a poor user experience and an incomplete scope of backup. We have been working hard to address this and offer an easy-to-use and straightforward online backup solution for /e/OS, with strong security.
Another feature will be a new option to import all emails from a Gmail account and set up the appropriate redirection. This will be a very useful mechanism for all those who want to leave the Google ecosystem for something better!
A change on voice-to-text
We’re also going to change the voice-to-text feature in /e/OS. We first implemented it with full guarantees in terms of personal data protection and privacy, including voice anonymization on device and an IP anonymizer through a proxy. Technically, the privacy was real.
But we’ve come to realize that user trust matters more than the elegance of the privacy-preserving design. If a meaningful share of users won’t believe a feature is private unless nothing leaves the device. Then the answer is to make sure nothing leaves the device. We’re replacing the current implementation with on-device-only recognition. It will use more resources on the device, but will work offline, and hopefully will close the door on a recurring source of fake information about /e/OS. This may land slightly after V4, but it’s coming soon.
Murena Workspace: videoconferencing and e-signature
More exciting features are also going to be unveiled on the Murena Workspace, including an encrypted videoconferencing feature (in beta) and an e-signature functionality. We have designed both to be as convenient and pleasant to use as possible. Beyond Murena’s mission on privacy and sustainability, we are still putting significant effort into making it accessible and enjoyable to everyone, with no learning curve.
B2B is here
Our B2B expansion is now here. /e/OS has been improved regarding compatibility with existing MDM (Mobile Device Management software), and we also have our own MDM, already deployed with our first customers.
The traction is real and growing. Last year we delivered dozens of Murena devices to a business customer. Right now, Murena-/e/OS is being piloted in parallel by a university, a municipality, and a telecom operator, three very different organizations, all converging on the same conclusion: that there is a serious European alternative to the default mobile stack, and it’s ready to be tested at scale.
And we’re quite excited to launch Murena Workspace for businesses in June. It’s been a big development because we couldn’t use the same infrastructure as Murena Workspace for individuals, plus we had to add new features. This will be an extremely interesting option for organizations looking to move away from Office 365 or Google Workspace.
Hardware: more devices, more partners
A quick word on smartphone hardware… What’s interesting is that you can take almost any existing smartphone, flash /e/OS on it, and get a Murena smartphone experience with benefits you won’t find on the big tech OSes. Hardware is a commodity though it’s a complex piece of engineering and is ultimately what customers purchase. So it’s important for us to support as many smartphone models as possible (more than 250 currently with /e/OS Community) and to significantly extend our hardware partner network for Murena smartphones. This increases our reach and, in the end, grows the Murena user base substantially.
We’re currently expanding our hardware partners quite a lot, so expect again new cool devices in 2027 and beyond.
Three new projects in the pipeline
Last but not least, three new projects we’ve started working on:
- A great Maps application, launching in beta soon. We’re designing it as a credible replacement for Google Maps, open source, with all the features you’d expect and more. It will likely become the default Maps app on /e/OS.
- The Elixir web browser, /e/OS’s web browser, now being built for Linux, macOS and soon Windows. “Yet another web browser?” Yes, because we don’t see a fast, generic, neutral, strongly privacy-respecting browser that everyone can find and use today. We’re not making a new startup out of this. We just want a nice, ethical browser that works for everyone.
- A new mobile application store, with fair values, innovative technology, and a better deal for app publishers. An important project to close the loop on our remaining dependencies on big tech.
More on each of these soon.
Joining the wave
None of what’s in this post happens without people choosing to be part of it. The 100,000 users, the community contributors, the hardware partners, the institutions starting to take European digital sovereignty seriously, that’s already a coalition. Murena is the spine, not the whole of it.
So here is where you stand. If you’re tired of being the product, V4 is the version to switch on. The Gmail import and backup features exist precisely so you don’t have to be brave to leave. If you run an organization rethinking its dependency on Google Workspace or Office 365, talk to us about the B2B pilot. If you work in European institutions or policy circles thinking about digital sovereignty, we want to hear from you! This window might not stay open forever, and what gets built in it depends on who shows up.
The moray eel doesn’t eat the dinosaurs alone.
— Gaël & the Murena Team
Follow me: @gael@mastodon.social on Mastodon
Discover more about Murena: murena.com
Learn more about /e/OS: e.foundation