If you missed the event or would like to see some of the presentations again, you can watch the recording on our Youtube channel. Presentations can be found for download right here on our website.



In the keynote, Dr. Jörg Wurzer, founder and CEO of Hallo Welt Systeme, highlighted Volla's latest developments. In addition to the new rugged smartphone Volla Phone X23, the entrepreneur gave a preview of Volla OS 12, which is currently in public beta. The version based on Android 12 introduces the long-planned Signal integration in the springboard, voice recognition and a refreshed design with a new system font. For the Volla Phone X23, there are special features such as a call signal or notifications via the light circle on the back of the device.

Another focus was on offerings for business customers. In addition to equipping companies with smartphones for high efficiency and security, Volla now also offers mobile device management (MDM). Here, too, Volla relies on open-source, future-proof software without compromising on data protection and cost-effectiveness. Companies can operate MDM themselves (on premise) or book it as a cloud service with servers in Germany. Some business customers also use the option of an operating system customized to their requirements.

International growth with new partners

Another positive development are new distributors. In addition to Telepart and Herweck for the German-speaking and European markets, Linux Nordic and RLM Solutions introduced themselves, which will drive Volla's international growth.

Linux Nordic is a young company that wants to offer products with and for open source software in the countries of Northern Europe and Poland and is already active in Denmark with its headquarters in Koppenhagen. "2023 was our first time, but I already know that there will be many, many more times," sums up founder and CEO Dr. Robin Haug, who came with his team ach Remscheid. There would be many fantastic solutions and business opportunities to process. "I've always known that the Volla team is a great, incredibly talented team," continues Dr. Haug, "but we've also had the pleasure of meeting many of their very interesting partners." Linux Nordic, he says, "firmly believes that Volla will be a great success in the Nordic countries and Poland, where we distribute, and soon in the BeNeLux region - thanks to the building of important relationships and networks during the joyful Volla Community Days!"

RLM Solutions is an equally ambitious young company that wants to introduce Volla products to the US market. "We are blessed to be working with many like-minded visionaries who want to help others with a simple and secure device for individuals and businesses," said founder Robert McColley, describing the collaboration. He said the partnership represents a significant milestone in the advancement of mobile operating systems. "We are very excited to be working with Dr. Wurzer on the development of the Volla operating system," continues Robert McColley, CEO of RLM Solutions, "This partnership reflects our commitment to providing users with a truly secure, customizable and user-friendly mobile experience. Together, we aim to revolutionize the smartphone industry and provide a true alternative for those seeking a more privacy-friendly and open source solution."

Solutions for enterprises by enterprises

For the first time at Volla Community Days, several companies presented their products based on Volla hardware and software as a platform for solutions.

Peter Seidenberg from umlaut zelehealthcare presented the connect4rescue solution for emergency physicians, paramedics and ambulances. Among other things, this involves ensuring optimal and reliable mobile voice and data connections in order to transmit data from medical equipment in a hospital or to call in a tele-emergency physician as an expert. Together with umlaut, Hallo Welt Systeme developed the operating system peedSMART OS, which automatically detects the best mobile network at the scene of an emergency.

Supporting the fire department, on the other hand, is the concern of Safety Brands Germany with the RESQ.PHONE. Managing director Felix Hänel was already able to demonstrate the Safety OS, a modified Volla OS, on a Volla Phone X23. Firefighters can use it to quickly access valuable emergency information about vehicles involved in an accident, saving more than 30 minutes of life-saving assistance. Safetybrands Germany is a provider of the digital emergency card. "Volla Days 2023 was a real highlight for me personally," concludes Felix Händel. "Presenting our cooperation there gave me a lot of pleasure. I'm already looking forward to Volla Days 2024 and moving our projects forward together!"

Stefan Baus from Net.print Datensysteme impressed with his presentation on the development of a mobile POS solution. Here, the company uses a Volla Phone X23 with Ubuntu Touch as a platform that allows software from SAP to be efficiently brought to a mobile device. Because the software is written in the Java programming language and is suitable for running on Linux PCs, it was an obvious step to use Ubuntu Touch for mobile use. For the alternative, open-source operating system, this is an important project that foreshadows its immense potential for business. Also private users can look forward to Ubuntu Touch becoming popular for enterprise solutions.

A beta version of the health app MyGNUHealth was announced by Luis Falcon, CEO of GNUSolidaro for Volla OS this fall. Unlike iOS' Health app, MyGNUHealth is open source, verifiable and uncompromisingly respects user privacy. A centralized cloud is not a prerequisite for the application. Among other things, users should be able to decide which emergency information they want to release when the smartphone is found in an emergency situation, such as an accident at the owner's home.

With the demonstration of the highly secure app Socializer for the exchange of messages, documents and voice or video calls, Pascal Lauria, CEO of Cogia AG, met with enthusiasm. For example, with the help of AI and facial recognition, it is possible to guarantee that messages and documents reach the desired addressee. The app immediately detects curious glances from strangers on trains or planes and hides confidential information. Together with Hallo Welt Systeme, Cogia AG is planning the Cogia Phone, which will be combined with the highly secure communication solutions and integrate even more functions for companies, such as mobile device management.

Perfect complement to the Volla Phone

The Volla partners were also able to report on the latest developments in interviews and presentations. With their products and services it is possible to create the perfect package of hardware, software and services for freedom through simplicity and security.

While Alfred Neumeier, community developer of the UBports Foundation, showed the progress and plans in the development of Ubuntu Touch, Jörg Wissing, Business Development Manager at Gigaset Communication, answered questions about the production of the Volla Phones in Germany at the Bocholt site. A milestone of Ubuntu Touch is undoubtedly the jump to a more up-to-date Ubuntu base operating system, which should lead to a booster for more apps for the mobile alternative.

Robert Šmorhaj, partner manager of eVenture, the company behind hide.me, clarified the capabilities of the VPN service and introduced a new feature. Users can now use the hide.me app to select categories of Internet addresses to be filtered in Internet traffic. The hide.me app is available for many operating systems and is even pre-installed on the Volla OS for optional use. Volla and Hide.me are using Volla Community Days to announce the development of an app for Ubuntu Touch to make the secure and log-free VPN even more easily available to users of that operating system.

Alex van Eesteren of StartMail introduced Community Days attendees to secure, encrypted email communication and anonymous Internet searching. In addition to the e-mail service, which is 50% cheaper for Volla users in the first year, the sister company operates the Starpage search engine, which anonymizes search queries to the Google index and prevents falsified results through personalization. As a result, Google can no longer profile users.

A festival of creativity and ideas

A particularly exciting glimpse of further innovation and the big picture behind Volla was the participation of several developers from the Holochain community. Holochain is a technology for distributed dApps, distributed apps as an alternative to a cloud running in a data center. "A distributed, encrypted cloud is the prerequisite for a secure and independent infrastructure of communication and a free society," emphasized Dr. Jörg Wurzer. Other than with a blockchain, there is no global journal, a chain for all transactions of data, but only locally on the devices of people with whom a user wants to network. In the hackathon, Hedayat Abedijoo from Cologne and Nick Stebb from Wales tried to turn a Volla Phone with Ubuntu Touch into a node of the distributed cloud. Although the first attempt failed, both developers were able to show how easy it is to create and use a dApp for a smartphone.

Our developer Luka Panio amazed on the second day of the event with a prototype for the convergence of smartphone and PC. He showed how the desktop operating system style display appears on an external monitor without limiting display and functions on the smartphone. Apps are freely scalable in windows.

Erik Inkinen demonstrated the Cutie Shell operating system, which is inspired by the minimalism, gesture control and transparent elements of the Sailfish OS user interface. The community developer from Finland, who already ported Droidian for the first-generation Volla Phone, now plans to bring Cutie Shell to current Volla Phone models. Inkinen was also among the winners of this year's hackathon, for which he picked up the Volla Launcher springboard.

Other Hackathon award winners included Samuel Winkler, who took the Springboard and applied it to the user interface of a Web-based operating system.

Community developer Dzmitry Minko proposed a media player integrated into the launcher with his result from the hackathon.

It was a great weekend. Thanks go to all the participants, the Volla team on site, some of whom came from Finland and Italy, the contributing developers, partners, suppliers and customers. And because Volla is more than technology, violinists Annabel Funk and Ronja Roski inspired with music that gave wings to the exchange of ideas.

Tags: Event,Community Days,Volla OS,Ubuntu Touch,Partner,Hackathon,Volla Phone X23,Holochain