If you are concerned about your privacy, then you should definitely check out our list of 8 safest apps to send private and secure messages. In this modern age, you can never be too safe.
Technology has brought us many advantages, and most of us couldn’t imagine our life without it. However, that same technology makes us exposed, especially when it comes to communication. The calls we make, the messages we send, all can be intercepted by someone who doesn’t have the most honest intentions. The fact that there is a probability that someone can read messages and listen to phone calls makes the majority of people genuinely concerned about their privacy, and those concerns are justified. People are not only afraid that hackers could gain access to their private conversations, but they’ve come to fear their government.
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Just look at the NSA (The National Security Agency) and the extent of their surveillance and violation of people’s right to privacy. Although there are many examples, we will use the one that is closely related to our article’s topic. In 2014, it was revealed that NSA collected up to 200 million text messages per day from users around the world, using collected data for various purposes. This text messages collection didn’t target only the suspicious individuals, but also the common people. Because of these and similar privacy issues, more people are trying to find a way to keep their communication secure. We are not talking just about the people who have something to hide, but also about common people who just want to keep their privacy from prying eyes. If you are more concerned about your girlfriend reading your text messages, then you should check out our list of 9 iPhone and Android Secret Messaging Apps to Hide Text From a Girlfriend.
Your default messaging applications are good at doing their job: sending text messages. That’s about it. They are not able to provide the security that people want. This fact opened the market for apps that can do the same with the addition of keeping your messages secure. There are many features that these apps offer. The most important one is that they provide “end to end encryption.” This means that the messages can be only viewed by the participants in the conversation. No one else can decrypt the content of the message, including the internet and telecom providers. This type of encryption guarantees you are safe from surveillance. Also, some of these apps offer the option for canceling the sent message or destroying the messages after the receiving party has read it.
We know you are anxious to discover 8 safest apps to send private and secure messages, so let’s get straight to it. In order to compile our list, we took the most recommended apps from Business News Daily, Tom’s Guide and Heimdal Security. Then we looked for the apps’ ratings of the iPhone and Android users on Google Play and iTunes and took the ones that had the highest combined rating. We made sure that we list only the apps available for both operating systems. Shall we take a look?
8. Telegram
Rating: 4.15
This messaging app recently gained widespread publicity after some members of the Iranian government asked Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, to block the app ahead of upcoming presidential elections. Telegram is the most widely used messaging app in Iran, but it gained traction in other parts of the world mostly because of its simplicity and all around the end to end encryption.
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7. Gliph
Rating: 4.3
Gliph works both as a messaging app and Bitcoin payments app. This app gives you an option to delete the messages on both ends of the conversation and enables you to create secure messaging groups. If you want to chat on your computer, there is also a desktop app.
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6. Cyphr
Rating: 4.35
Number 6 on our list of safest apps to send private and secure messages is the Cypher that offers all around security and privacy like the most of the apps on our list of 8 safest apps to send private and secure messages. Highly rated among iPhone users, Cypher intends to broaden its market by introducing the desktop app.
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5. Wickr Me
Rating: 4.35
The people who made Wickr Me are so sure about their app that they are offering $100,000 to whoever finds a bug or security flaw in it. With Wickr Me you can set the expiration time for all your sent messages. After the time runs out, the message is deleted. Another neat function is “Shredder,” which enables you to wipe out all data from your phone irreversibly.
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4. Viber
Rating: 4.4
Although you may be surprised to see Viber here, the app recently gained widespread praises for the efforts in keeping their users secure. Everything on Viber is encrypted including texts, regular and video calls and shared files.
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3. WhatsApp
Rating: 4.45
Just like Viber, WhatsApp, next on the list of safest apps to send private and secure messages, also stepped up its privacy and security game. The app offers end to end encryption by default on all features. Recently, however, The Guardian published an article saying that WhatsApp has a backdoor that can be accessed by Facebook, although the article didn’t seem to contain credible sources. WhatsApp quickly denied the charges, accusing The Guardian of false reporting.
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2. Threema
Rating: 4.5
Although a surprising contender on our list, Threema has many features that make it a desirable app for secure communication. It offers full encryption and options to set your messages to be deleted as soon as they are sent and read. Besides security features, Threema offers a lot more like the ability to conduct pools or to quickly and silently answering the messages.
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1. Signal Private Messenger
Rating: 4.55
There are many reasons why Signal Private Messenger is a top choice on our list of 8 safest apps to send private and secure messages. Besides having high ratings from users on both Google Play and iTunes, this app covers all your needs when it comes to messaging. Signal Private Messenger can be used for sending both regular and encrypted messages. If your contact has the same app on his phone, the message becomes encrypted by default. Also, you don’t need to set up accounts like in some other apps. One confirmation message stands between you and secures messaging through Signal Private Messenger. So what are you waiting for? Download one of these apps and enjoy knowing no one can read your chats.
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