It doesn’t matter how secure and confidential the messenger is if you don’t have the right people in it. When a service has more than a billion users, as is the case with WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, it is very likely that your friends, family members, or colleagues also have an account there. If the service has less than a million users, the likelihood of having an account there is low for the right people. Therefore, it is really important to choose the messenger, which will be both secure and convenient for many people.
What Characteristics Should a Secure Messenger Have?
First of all, one should consider the purpose of using the messenger: if you just need an app for family conversations or chatting with friends – a regular messenger with basic security measures will be enough. On the contrary, if you deal with confidential data, corporate secrets, or work for a governmental institution – this is a completely different situation. In such a case, we recommend you focus on the most secure and anonymous apps.
What should you look for when choosing a secure messenger? Even if you have any unusual requests, you need to pay attention to the following:
- End-to-end encryption;
- Third-party testing and reviews;
- Open-source code;
- Self-deleted messages;
- Minimal collection of user data;
- Specific functionality you need;
- Anonymous login.
End-to-end encryption is the main characteristic of secure messengers. When it is applied, only the sender and recipient can see the messages. Even representatives of the messenger itself will not be able to read these messages. If a service does not have end-to-end encryption, it cannot be called secure. Meanwhile, E2E encryption will not be useful if it is disabled by default. The most secure messengers always use it.
Open source also increases confidence that the service will deliver on its promises. Not because you can examine the content of this code and see that there are no backdoors and vulnerabilities. Many experts in this field will do this for you. If any vulnerabilities were left on purpose, this will also become known.
If all your messages are securely encrypted, this does not mean that the service has no data about you. Most services collect a certain amount of information about their users. This could be your email address, phone number, IP address, what time you connected, etc. Collecting such information does not reveal the content of your messages, but it still degrades your privacy.
We have told you about the differences between the regular and the most secure messengers, so now you will be able to make a final choice with ease.