Send a message as a tune.
Tunecode turns up to 60 characters into a few seconds of melody — every note from one musical scale, so it sounds like a tune rather than a fax machine. Hold another phone nearby and its Tunecode reads the message out of the air. Or send the tune as a voice note: your friend shares it to Tunecode and the words appear. Add a secret code and only someone who knows it can read it.
Send
Type it. Hear it.
Each character becomes two notes from a C major pentatonic scale across three octaves, opened by a rising arpeggio and closed with a checksum. The piano roll shows your melody as you type; a short message is a three-second tune.
- Up to 60 bytes — about 60 letters, fewer with emoji
- Any language and emoji (UTF-8)
- Play it out loud, or send it as a sound file
Listen
Another phone reads it out of the air.
On the Listen screen, the sixteen note lights show what the microphone hears. When a tune arrives, its message appears — with no network, no Bluetooth pairing, and nothing exchanged beforehand. A checksum means a garbled tune is ignored rather than turned into nonsense.
- Reads messages from a metre or so away, through ordinary speakers
- Got the tune as a voice note? Share it to Tunecode, or open the file
- Several messages in a row, each read once
Secret
Scramble it with a code.
Switch on "scramble with a code" and the tune carries a scrambled message. Anyone can hear it; only someone who types the same code reads the words. It's for treasure hunts, party games and notes to a friend — a scramble, not bank-grade encryption, and the app says so.
- A number code you choose
- Listeners without it see "scrambled" instead of the words
16
Notes
one pentatonic scale, C5 to C8
60
Bytes per tune
about 60 letters
0
Internet needed
it travels as sound
Ready to try Tunecode?
Free, straight from this page. No ads, no account, nothing to buy.
A look inside Tunecode.
Your message, as notes
Heard and read
Secret code
Everything you need.
The rest of what Tunecode does.
Text to melody
Every message is a short tune.
Phone to phone
Read through the microphone, no pairing.
From voice notes
Share the recording to Tunecode to read it.
Checked
A checksum rejects garbled tunes.
Secret code
Scramble it for the people who know.
Nothing recorded
Sound is decoded as it arrives, never saved.
Common questions.
Everything you need to know about Tunecode.
How does it work?
Every half-byte of your message becomes one of sixteen notes, each 60 milliseconds long. The listening phone measures how loud each of the sixteen notes is a hundred times a second, finds the rising arpeggio that starts every message, reads the notes that follow, and checks them against a checksum at the end. Because every note comes from one pentatonic scale, any message sounds musical.
How far apart can the phones be?
Close is best: within a metre or so, with the sending phone's volume up. It copes with background noise and echo well, but a loud room or a muffled speaker shortens the distance. If nothing appears, bring the phones closer and play it again.
Can it read a tune from WhatsApp?
Yes. Tap "Send tune" to share the tune as a sound file. Your friend shares the voice note or file to Tunecode (or opens it from the Listen screen), and Tunecode reads it straight from the recording — no need to play it out loud.
Is the secret code real encryption?
No, and we don't claim it is. It scrambles the message so casual listeners can't read it, which is right for games and surprises. Don't use it for passwords or anything sensitive.
Does it record me?
No. While listening is switched on, sound is decoded as it arrives and thrown away; only the messages it finds are shown. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere. The only thing the app fetches from the internet is news of its own updates.
Where do I get it?
Free, as a direct download on this page. Android will ask you to allow installs from your browser the first time. It is not on Google Play yet.
Get Tunecode today.
Free, straight from this page. No ads, no account, nothing to buy.
Version 1.0.0
Coming to Google Play soon.
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