The Best Encrypted Messaging Apps (2024) chat securely

The best encrypted messaging apps can help protect your privacy because they make it hard for anyone, including (most of the time) the companies that make them, to listen in on your private talks. Many of the best encrypted messaging apps are so well-protected that even the government and cops can’t get into them. End-to-End encryption, which is used by Signal, Threema, WhatsApp, and other apps, means that only the author and receiver of a message can see what’s in it.

Apple’s iMessage protocol also uses end-to-end encryption, but the Messages app, which is used to read private messages, can also read SMS text messages that haven’t been encrypted. This makes it easy to get lost, so if you want to make sure that all of your chats are safe, you should use one of the best private messaging apps instead. End-to-end encryption can also be used with Google’s Messages app, but both people need to have RCS talks turned on. These are the best apps for Android and iOS that let you send protected messages right now.

Best Encrypted Messaging Apps Comparison Table

Signal

Signal is a great way for mobile users who care about security to send and receive messages. It is a free app that lets you send messages, make live calls, and chat with a group. It has its own end-to-end encryption protocol. You can send your phone contacts text messages, voice calls, group messages, media, and files without using PIN codes or other login information.

Updates to the app have made it easier to use by adding things like unique wallpapers and animated stickers. Group video chats on Signal can now include up to 40 people. Signal’s encryption system is so strong that Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp also use it. But unlike Facebook, Signal’s parent business is a non-profit foundation started by an anarchist cryptographer who was also one of the founders of WhatsApp.

Telegram

Like Signal and WhatsApp, Telegram lets users link their phone number to their Telegram account so they can send fast, protected messages over the internet. For standard chats, Telegram uses client-server encryption. Telegram is not just a chat service, though. It has grown into a worldwide social media site with millions of users and broadcasts that can reach all of them at once. It can be used for more than just private messages.

Telegram, on the other hand, does not have end-to-end encryption turned on by default. You’ll have to go into Secret Chat mode to get it. You can make texts disappear after a certain amount of time, share videos and documents, and join group chats with up to 200,000 other people. (Yes, Telegram does allow talks with that many people.) But chats with more than two people won’t be secured all the way through.

iMessage

Because it uses end-to-end encryption, iMessage is one of the most private chat message apps for iPhone users. Also, it gives the user full control over how long a message stays and how many times the receiver can see it. This seems so strange, but it’s one of the main reasons why user info is kept safe.

But still, there are some problems with every private chat messaging app. Even iPhone users have a problem with the cloud backup choices. Here, the data saved in the cloud are encrypted by Apple, which holds the key. This means that if the iCloud were ever hacked, the messages might be easy to read.

Wire

Wire is another safest messaging app. Its main goal is end-to-end encryption, and they have made it the preferred way to protect their users’ messages, photos, documents, and other information. Since wire is always on and works in the background without being noticed, it doesn’t need to be turned on.

Also, a new encryption key is used for each message, which makes it less likely that a single key could be stolen. Wire is an open source tool, which means that users can check out, change, and improve its source code on GitHub. Wire cares a lot about its users’ data, so it doesn’t sell analytics or traffic information to third parties.

Element

Element gives you a private way to communicate that is both safe and independent. It’s easy to get started. You can make your own chat room or join one of the many that are already there. With end-to-end encryption, your chats stay private, just like when you talk to someone in person in your home.

Also, you don’t have to deal with ads or data mining, and the privacy and security settings give you full control over your data. For example, you can use a PIN and fingerprints to keep people from getting into the app. You can also put the keyboard into “incognito mode,” so it doesn’t save what you type or add what you type in chats to your personal dictionary.

Threema

Threema is a free and open-source messaging app that offers a variety of innovative safeguards for users’ privacy. It encrypts the data using the NaCl cryptographic algorithm and provides a method for anonymously logging in using an ID key. Along with encryption for voice, pictures, videos, and text, the Threema app also features a QR “friend-addition” function.

The program is particularly well-liked in Germany, and despite the fact that it costs $3.99 to download, you might conclude that it is a reasonable investment to make in order to strengthen both your privacy and security. It is downloadable for use on mobile devices running iOS and Android.

Viber

Viber is one of the best alternatives to WhatsApp. It started out as a way to make calls over the internet, but it quickly turned into a full-fledged chat app. You can use it to send photos, videos, voice messages, and text messages to other users or groups of people. All chats are fully encrypted, even group talks. Viber works on phones and on most desktop running systems. Still, self-destructing texts are one of the best things about Viber. But that’s the end of the good news.

The company is known for collecting the names and phone numbers of its users and the people on their contact lists, even if those people do not use Viber. Viber even keeps track of what its users do on other sites like Facebook and Twitter. It uses all of the information it can get, which makes it risky to use Viber’s services.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is one of the most popular chat apps, with more than 1 billion users. It’s easy to use and has tools like sharing your location and files, gifs, and even support for your desktop. It also uses Open Whisper Systems’ powerful encryption technology for Signal, which is considered the industry standard. Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) is a part of the encryption. This means that if someone steals your conversation’s decryption key, they will only be able to see the last message you sent.

Anything else will be kept secret. On the other hand, Facebook owns WhatsApp, which is very scary from a security point of view. The main way this social media giant makes money is by collecting information about its users, and it has failed more than once to keep that information safe. Can we really trust Facebook, even though it uses safe encryption?

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