End-To-End Encrypted Messengers Pt.2

SMS (Text) Messages Are NOT Secure. The telephone numbers to and from which your SMS messages are sent and received, and the content of your messages themselves, are visible to anyone monitoring your phone. An example of a monitored SMS Text Message can be seen here:

Using end-to-end encryption will help to prevent this type of monitoring of your text messages.

Some end-to-end encrypted messengers are:

ChatSecure - https://chatsecure.org
CoverMe - http://www.coverme.ws/en/index.html
Cyphr - https://www.goldenfrog.com/cyphr
Dust (Cyber Dust) - https://www.usedust.com
Facebook Messenger (Secret Conversations) - https://www.messenger.com
Line (Letter Sealing) - https://line.me/en/
Signal - https://signal.org
SureSpot - https://www.surespot.me
Telegram (Secure Chats) - https://telegram.org
Threema - https://threema.ch/en
Viber - https://www.viber.com
Wire - https://wire.com/en/
WhatsApp - https://www.whatsapp.com
Wickr Me - https://www.wickr.com/personal/

Which of these end-to-end encrypted messengers should you use? They each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and depending on your specific needs and personal threat model one messenger may have advantages over the others. In many cases you will want to use more than one encrypted messenger. I have used all of the above messengers at one time or another, and will they all off good protection for the content of my messages, I do have my personal favorite apps; as you too will no doubt find an app or two that you prefer over others.

It is important to note that not all apps readily deploy end-to-end encryption by default. Some (like Facebook Messenger and Telegram) will require users to enable specific functions or set chats in certain modes before the messages are end-to-end encrypted.

If you have an iPhone and communicate with another iPhone user, then you have end-to-end encryption with Face Time and iMessage. This encryption only work between Apple/iOS devices.

I discussed end-to-end encrypted messenger apps here in the blog back in October 2017. You can read more about secure communication in that post.