Wire Encrypted Messenger

 

Wire is a cross-platform, encrypted instant messaging client created by Wire Swiss. It is available for iOS, Android, Linux, Windows, macOS and Web browser clients. It uses the Internet to make voice and video calls; send text messages, files, images, videos, audio files and user drawings depending on the clients used. It can be used on any of the available clients, requiring a phone number or email for registration. It is hosted inside the European Union and protected by European Union laws. Many employees working on Wire have previously worked with Skype, and Skype's co-founder Janus Friis is backing the project. Audio quality is one of Wire's key selling points. https://wire.com/en/

Wire offers end-to-end encryption using the Proteus protocol which is based on the fully audited and secure Signal protocol from Open Whisper Systems. Wire's video and audio calls are protected by SRTP and DTLS and all communication with the server is done over a secure TLS connection. The software uses cryptographic fingerprints that users can compare to assure that their communication is secure and not being intercepted by a "man in the middle".

Wire boasts high quality voice calls, although this is something that has come to be expected from voice messaging apps. It should also be stated that, unlike Skype, Wire is not able to call standard telephone numbers; all calls have to be to other Wire users. It should be noted that also, unlike Skype, calls between Wire users are very secure.

Wire Swiss, the company behind Wire, has progressively made less and less information about its users available to even themselves. Before 23 March, 2017, Wire only stored user generated information for 72 hours after which the logs were scrubbed. As of 23 March, however, the company announced that they no longer store any data about users calling habits, preventing anyone from having even passing access to that information. Unlike Signal, Wire does not require a telephone number in order to sign up meaning that the user can easily sign up to the service and remain near completely anonymous. Since Wire does not store information about users or their calling habits, it is therefore unable to share such information with advertisers and/or law enforcement.

Wire is free for personal use or 5 Euro per month for a business license. Download your copy of Wire here https://wire.com/en/pricing/

I have only recently started using Wire, but so far I have had no issues with it whatsoever. It works well, and the security it adds to one's communications is impressive. As another tool for securing your personal communications, I think it is definitely worth while to add Wire to your communications options.

Read Wire’s independent security review.

And the discussion of that review on TechCrunch: Messaging app Wire now has an external audit of its e2e crypto