In this post, I'm about to highlight 10 of my favorite Encrypted Instant messaging (IM) apps. There are tons of IM out there, some lack on privacy and others suffer from cumbersome interfaces. However, the ones I've chosen offer a combination of enhanced privacy and a user-friendly interface. First, let me start with a basic explanation of the encryption method that is being used by all of these apps. End-To-End Encryption (E2EE) End-to-End Encryption is a general name for every system of communication where the entire encryption and decryption processes are taking place on the client-side only. Theoretically, that means that only the communicating users can access the delivered data- the server, or any third-party service/person, won't be able to decipher the data.
End-To-End encryption is divided into two methods/algorithms :
Wickr (Wickr Inc.) Wickr is the first app I will review. It was launched in June 2012, and occasionally mentioned as "Snapchat for Grown-Ups", this app was one of the first apps to include a "Self-Destruct" mechanism - it allows users to choose how long their messages will last (from seconds to days). When creating a new account, the user may (or may not) connect the Wickr account to his phone number or e-mail (in order to sync contacts and to enable the option to be found by their phone number). Note that there is no password\ID recovery option. If you forget your ID - you will have to ask a friend to check your ID in their contacts list. If you forget your password, unfortunately you will have to create a new account. For those of you who care about the values behing the product or the company - Wickr is the official app of the Oslo Freedom Forum. Therefore, it's being used by the most prominent human rights activists in the world. Cost : FREE Number of Downloads via Google Play - over 1,000,000 Rating and number of voters - 4.2 (9,160) Available on : Mobile devices (IOS and Android) and PC. Fun Fact : Ready for a challenge? Wickr offers a bounty of up to 100,000$ to anyone who will identify any potential issue in Wickr ecosystem. Threema (Threema GmbH) For Those Curios readers who wonder about this app's name - it started as an abbreviation - "EEEMA", for "End-to-End Encrypted Messaging Application", and because the three "E"s were a bit unwieldy, it became "Threema". When creating a new account - the user receives a randomly generated 8 digit ID, and may choose to connect his phone number to the account. This app provides a few special features, such as :
After having the main app, users can also download the "Threema Voice Message Plugin" and the "Threema QR scanner Plugin" in order to use those features from within Threema. Both of the mentioned plugins are available via Google Play, Cost : 2.99$ Number of Downloads via Google Play - over 1,000,000 Rating and number of voters - 4.5 (44,380) Available on : IOS, Android, Windows Phone, Amazon Fire, Blackberry (Mobile devices only) Signal Private Messenger (Open Whisper Systems) Highlighted by Edward Snowden, this open-source app is the successor of two apps (that were also developed by Open Whisper System) - "TextSecure" (encrypted IM app) and "Redphone" (encrypted voice calling app for Android). Therefore, Signal provides both of those features. Users may define a passphrase, used to lock the app and its content. Note that there is no recovery option to the passphrase, so if the user forgets it, he will need to uninstall the app and then reinstall it. The app provides some other common features such as screenshot protector, self-destruct messages, encrypted group chats etc. However, note that the screenshot protection can by easily bypassed with the right tools (recording video via screen recording apps, such as "AZ Screen Recorder - No Root") Android users can download a BETA version of Signal Desktop - a Chrome app which can be used to communicate with their contacts from their PC. Cost : FREE Number of Downloads via Google Play - over 1,000,000 Rating and number of voters - 4.6 (89,750) Available on : Mobile devices (IOS and Android) and PC (Currently Beta version). Fun Fact : Even if you don't use Signal, you probably use its End-To-End encryption. Open Whisper Systems has collaborated with three major companies - Facebook, Google and Whatsapp. The company incorporated their "TextSecure" encryption protocol into those popular apps:
Telegram (Telegram Messenger LLP) Probably the most popular encrypted IM app, with more than 100 million downloads via Google Play, Telegram is an open-source, cloud-based app, which offers some unique features to enhance the normal communication, such as :
In order to use telegram's End-to-End encryption, the user should use "Secret Chat" option. Messages being sent via secret chats are encrypted; therefore, they are not part of the Telegram cloud. In addition, you can set a self-destruct timer to messages and media sent within the secret chat. Cost : FREE Number of Downloads via Google Play - over 100,000,000 Rating and number of voters - 4.3 (2,125,400) Available on : Mobile devices (IOS and Android) and PC. Fun fact : The Telegram company held two contests in which the users have been challenged to crack Telegram's "Secret Chat" encryption. The first one took place between 2013-2014, offering a 200,000$ bounty, and the other one started a few months after the first contest ended, and lasted for about a year - this time with a 300,000$. Both bounties remained unclaimed, which means no one have succeeded to decipher Telegram's secret chat! Confide (Confide) Confide is a Freemium app with a couple of interesting features. The first one isn't unique - a self-destruct mechanism for every message. The uniqueness in this app is that the self-destruct is a default feature, and doesn't require activating a special mode. The second feature is Message Retraction (note that you must purchase this feature before using it). .That feature allows the user to retract (change or un-send) unread messeges. Confide also provides screenshot protection and notification - once another user tries to take a screenshot of the chat screen - the app prevents the act (the saved image is nothing but a gray box), while it notifies the original sender that a screenshot has been attempted. Note that, as mentioned for the Signal app, here too this feature can be bypassed using designated apps. Alongside the free account, there is also an option to purchase Pro accounts - intended for business and teams. The Pro account offers many administration tools (analytics, address book integration, priority support etc. - see full features here) Cost : Basic features are FREE, the Pro account costs 15$ per month. Number of Downloads via Google Play - over 100,000 Rating and number of voters - 4.0 (5,950) Available on : Mobile devices (IOS and Android), Mac and PC. Fun Fact: The Confide company developed another app called "AHOY" - which lets you tell your friends, family or whomever you decide, where you are with a single tap. VIPole Secure Messenger (VIPole International LP) VIPole Secure Messenger is a Freemium IM app, which also lets you save files on VIPole cloud server - 1 GB for the free accounts, and 30 GB for the Pro accounts. Most of the users will be pleased with the avilable features of the Free Account - the common features of an IM app. However, the Proffesional Account is what's interesting about this app - it provides some exciting options that improve the app security features. For example (see full features here) :
Note that there is also an option to purchase a Team Account - multiple accounts meant especially for businesses (see full features here). Cost : Basic features are FREE, the Pro account costs between 5.99$-8.99$ a month (based on the charge period). The Business account costs 9.99$ a month pre user. Number of Downloads via Google Play - over 100,000 Rating and number of voters - 4.5 (3,840) Available on : Mobile devices (IOS and Android) and computers (Windows, macOS, Lunix). Bleep (BitTorrent, Inc.) While most of the apps boast about their cloud servers, Bleep sells itself for being a cloud-less, no-server application. The BitTorrent company use their Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology (which is used by the BitTorrent software) to let users communicate anonymously. When opening an account - the user selects a nickname and gets a "Bleep Key" - a unique code (built from dozens of numbers and digits) that is used as an ID in order to add a user as a contact. The user may (or may not) connect the Bleep account to his phone number or e-mail (in order to sync contacts and to enable the option to be found by their phone number). Another feature is the "Whisper mode", which erases any media sent (messages, photos etc.) 25 seconds after being seen. While in whisper mode, the contact name is hidden ("bleeped"), so that the other user may not take a screenshot of the media along with the contact name. Cost : Free Number of Downloads via Google Play - over 100,000 Rating and number of voters - 3.9 (4,320) Available on : Mobile devices (IOS and Android) and PC Sayfe Secure Private Messenger (MAG Technologies LLC) Sayfe (a creative distortion of the word "safe") takes some common features to a whole new level, by combining them with other unique (and even original) features:
Note that in order to open an account - the user must connect a phone number and sync his contacts. Cost : Free Number of Downloads via Google Play - over 100,000 Rating and number of voters - 4.2 (2,180) Available on : IOS and Android (Mobile devices only) Gliph (Gliph, Inc.) I will start with a confession - I haven't used this app myself. A friend of mine, who is a big fan of Bitcoin, has drawn my attention to this app. Beside being a normal Encrypted IM app, Gliph comes with an added value - it offers a Marketplace where users can buy and sale products, The seller and potential buyers can communicate via the app, and the purchase can be made by using regular money (e.g USD) or by using Bitcoin. In order to purchase with Bitcoin, users may connect their Bitcoin wallet (Coinbase/Blockchain.info) with this app. After the connection has been made, the user can manage his wallet via the Gliph app or website. Another feature provided by Gliph is "Cloaked Email" - a way to send and receive emails using the normal inbox, while the other client (a site or another person) doesn't know your real email address. Think of it as a fake email address which is in sync with your real one - you can send emails with a fake identity and receive email sent to the fake address. The cloaked mail can be easily deleted withing the app. Please note that this app hasn't been updated for a while (last update on Google Play - April 2015), and it might not work smoothly. I've decided to go through this app because it has some really unique and interesting features, If you try this app and you are having problems - please let me know so I can update the information here (and then, of course, I will update my friend). Cost : Free Number of Downloads via Google Play - over 10,000 Rating and number of voters - 4.2 (315) Available on : Mobile devices (IOS and Android) and PC Google Allo (Google Inc.) Some of you will probably wonder, or even be surprised, to see a Google app in an article about privacy. Generally you are right - just by searching "Allo" on the web you will encounter enough reasons why you shouldn't use this app.
Nevertheless, if you are a major fan of Google's products (can't blame you - they may lack in privacy, but they are definitely convenient), there is still (a tiny) hope in this app. As can be found in other Google products (such as Google Chrome), Allo hasan Incognito mode. In this mode, according to Google, end-to-end encryption is being used, and the chat logs won't be uploaded to Google's cloud. That means that Google can't reach nor read those conversations. Note that in order to chat via this mode, you must activate it manually for every contact. Also note that using incognito mode requires both of the users to have Allo installed on their devices. Sending a message to a contact that doesn't have the app, will forward the sent message (using DATA) with an invitaion to download the app, Cost : Free Number of Downloads via Google Play - over 5,000,000 Rating and number of voters - 4.2 (153,040) Available on : Mobile devices (IOS and Android) and PC Final words I would like to wrap up with a very important point. Encryption technology and the privacy world are constantly changing, so one must always be in line with the latest updated. I won't be at all surprised if a year from now I'll post an article with the same title but with a whole different list of apps. Stay tuned to my blog to keep yourself updated with the best (or worst) ways to protect your privacy!
13 Comments
Don
12/10/2019 05:56:46 am
Nice post :)
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3/22/2022 05:06:00 am
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8/26/2022 02:24:38 am
xPal is a secure End-to-End Encrypted messenger that
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10/22/2022 01:36:23 am
The public key can be easily shared with anyone on the web, while the private key exists only on the device that has generated the keys. Thank you for making this such an awesome post!
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10/31/2022 05:36:06 am
I agree for what you quoted as the secure mobile apps. But xPal is also the one that doesn't collect any of the information.
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2/3/2023 02:10:03 am
The uniqueness in this app is that the self-destruct is a default feature, and doesn't require activating a special mode. Thank you for taking the time to write a great post!
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AuthorA software engineer by proffesion, but a security enthusiast at heart. ArchivesCategories |